Cultural Interpretation And Education Reflection On Parenting Practice In Early Childhood

It is biologically possible for everyone to become a parent.However,human beings have shown great differences in marriage,pregnancy,child-bearing and child-raising,which are manifested between parents in different historical periods,regions,countries and ethnic groups,and even between parents in the same time period and space.It is generally believed in cultural psychology that all human feelings,attitudes,thoughts,expectations and behaviors are culturally specific in nature,and cultural rather than biological or social nature is the essential attribute of human being.This provides a way of thinking for the answer of doubts,that is,to understand the essence of parenting,it is essential look into the cultural attribute of people.To this end,this study first sorts out the relevant research on parenting in China,and summarizes the characteristics,historical development and limitations of the current research on parenting and parenting education in China.Secondly,the research on parenting in foreign cultural anthropology and sociology is analyzed in order to provide reference for the methods and paths in this study.Then,the core concepts and their connotations in this study are defined and illustrated.On this basis,it further defines the research problem of this study,that is,to reveal the cultural attribute of parenting.For better elaboration on the questions,the research questions are further segmented into three sub questions:(1)The first one is a descriptive question: what is the actual situation of parenting in different families?(2)The second is an exploratory question: how do parents understand and explain their own and others' parenting practices? The third is the interpretive question: what is the cultural attribute behind parenting behavior?With Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutic theory serving as the theoretical foundational and micro ethnography adopted as the research method,this study selects three families with culturally-involved parents,culturally-adaptive parents and culturally-leading parents as the research field.By adopting the strategy of "semi open identity",the researcher sets the personal role as the “distant relative” or “friend” of the children's parents,and goes deep into the daily life of the three families for systematic observation and in-depth interview were conducted on parents' parenting practice.At the same time,three pairs of parents from the same type of family were selected as the interviewees from the other perspective.The theoretical framework of this study is based on Urie Bronfenbrenner's theory of human development ecology.It is concluded that human behavior is not a completely individual and individually dynamic matter,but the manifestation of the fact that various elements and subjects in the ecosystem where human live have mutual influence and interaction.Cultural destiny is the support and regulation system for the occurrence of human behavior,and the individual initiative plays a role in choosing and maintaining the cultural destiny.According to Valsiner's theory of cultural development psychology,it is concluded that the internal mechanism of all human practical activities lies in the isomorphism of collective culture and individual culture.Based on this analysis,the theoretical proposition of this study is put forward:“parenting is a process of cultural organization”,and a cultural interpretation map of parenting is constructed.In the part of “Realistic Perspective”,the researcher first summarizes the overall situation the families of the three kinds of cultural embeddedness from the aspects of the economic development level of the living area,national policies,folk customs,village environment,public resources,family structure and member relations,room layout,parents' occupation and education,as well as neighbors and friends.Then the daily life process of parenting is described in detail with emphasis on the parents' care of their children in life,kindergarten pick-up,parent-child interactive communication,dinner and after-dinner time in the three families,etc.This part is a response to the first question:It is found that there are obvious differences in parents' daily life schedule,work content,matters outside work,life pace,dinner conversation,after-dinner time and bedtime arrangement.In the part of “Understanding and Interpretation”,the researcher firstly conducts interviews with the parents concerned based on the text of the observation content,and mainly learned about the overall feelings of different parents on the daily life style of the family,their cognition of the core content of family life,the expectations and requirements in the process of parenting,the parenting concept they believed in,the parenting confusion and coping strategies they faced,etc.In addition,through in-depth interviews,the basic information of parents' native family is obtained,including their childhood life experience and school experience,current work and life conditions,important people and relations etc.,which is conducive to the understanding and analysis of the internal relationship between the above factors and parenting practices.Then,the text of the daily life style of the three pairs of parents' work is presented to the other three pairs of parents of the same type of family to better understand their identification,questioning and value concerns about the parenting practices in the three pairs of families.This part answers the second question: Every parent seems to be branded by culture,and parents living in the same cultural embedding pattern are more likely to identify with similar parental concepts,attitudes and behavior patterns.However,parents in different cultural embedding patterns show more doubts,criticisms and disobedience.This is reflected in parents' attitude towards traditional child-rearing concepts,their responses to their children's words and deeds,their attention to their children's education,and their expectations for their children's future.In the part of “Cultural Interpretation”,according to Valsiner's stage division of human psychological development,the researcher divides the parenting practice into four aspects:marriage conclusion,life during pregnancy,newborn care and infant upbringing,and typical representative cultural events are selected for illustration.This study holds that in terms of the marriage conclusion between husband and wife,different families reflect the same compliance,conflict or individual breakaway from their collective culture in terms of the concept and standard of mate selection,the right of marriage choice,the arrangement of marriage ceremony and the emotional maintenance in the marriage relationship;parents' life during pregnancy,such as the arrangement of daily life and the gender expectation of the fetus,is actually the result of collective cultural structure and individual cultural choice;the care of newborns,such as “confinement” and the process of naming babies,also shows the compliance and resistance,observance as well as deviation of the collective culture;in the upbringing of infants and young children,it not only shows the compliance with and the collective culture,but also fully reflects the individual's criticism and reconstruction of the collective culture.In a word,parenting is the result of the isomorphism of collective culture and individual culture.This part responds to the third question: " what is the cultural attribute behind parenting behavior?" In a word,parenting is cultural in nature,the result of the isomorphism of collective culture and individual culture.Parents' views on marriage,childbearing,upbringing and parenting beliefs,attitudes and behaviors are compatible with the cultural embedding patterns they follow and construct.This means that each parenting practice mode has adaptability in a certain collective culture and validity in a certain range.Similarly,because every parent is a limited historical existence,it means that every parenting practice mode will carry personal value orientation and cultural bias.Although parents choose,process and transform collective culture in parental practice,it does not mean that every parent is "conscious" of their own cultural life pattern and parental practice,or has subjective consciousness and rational participation.The part of “Educational Reflection” aims to find out what family educators can do to provide help and support for parents in the context of current cultural changes.It is believed that: first of all,the basic proposition of “shifting the focus from the knowledge and methods to cultural understanding” should be upheld.Cultural “understanding” should be the premise of providing parents with parenting advice,including understanding China's cultural changes and understanding China's family and parenting practice under cultural changes.Secondly,for family educators,some actions can be taken to awaken parents' cultural consciousness,specifically,respecting the cultural subject status of parents as the principle;creating the atmosphere of the situation as the main method;positioning the role as a supporter for the improvement of parents' self-awareness;and taking the self-realization of parents' cultural awareness as the goal.Finally,“self-consciousness” and “self-action” should be the ideal state of parents' intrinsic awakening.It can be achieved through three aspects: the narration of common sense of parenting,the reflection on their own growth and life experience,the active involvement in the mainstream social culture and so on.In short,the “self-consciousness” of“parenting” and “self-action” of "how to be a parent" can only be realized with the “awakening”based on the position of cultural understanding,thus truly improving the efficiency of parenting.