Element contents
In Search of Integrity
A Life-Journey across Diverse Contexts
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 March 2024
Summary
This Element traces the origins of an individual's philosophical orientation and the processes by which it was elaborated over the course of his life-journey. The author discusses how selected stories from his personal experience reflect the intimate culture of a particular social group of which he was a participant member at the time. The author's life-journey includes a tumultuous period of emerging adulthood in Singapore and Oxford. Moving to Zambia in 1965 aged 21, he conducted research, teaching and writing including sojourns in England and in Maryland USA. He discusses how his perspective in cultural psychology relates to his personal life as a migrant and as a parent, and to his views on how the world can best address the challenges of cooperative communication in the 2020s.
- Type
- Element
- Information
- Online ISBN: 9781009523813Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication: 18 April 2024
References
Adamson-Holley, D. (1999). Personal dimensions and their relation to education: A follow-up study of students graduating from the Child-to-Child program in Mpika, Zambia. Baltimore, MD: University of Maryland Baltimore County, Psychology Dept. PhD dissertation.Google Scholar
Akkari, A., Serpell, R., Baker, L., & Sonnenschein, S. (1998). An analysis of teacher ethnotheories. The Professional Educator, 21, 45–61.Google Scholar
Apple, M. W. (2014). Official knowledge: Democratic education in a conservative age. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baker, L. Mackler, K. , Sonnenschein, S., & Serpell, R. (2001). Parents’ interactions with their first-grade children during storybook reading and relations with subsequent home reading activity and reading achievement. Journal of School Psychology, 38, 1–24.Google Scholar
Banda, F. , Mtenje, A. , Miti, L. et al. (2008). A unified standard orthography for Southcentral African languages (Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia). (2nd, revised ed.). Cape Town, South Africa: Centre for Advanced Studies of African Society (Monograph Series No. 229).Google Scholar
Bluma, S., Shearer, M., Frohman, A., & Hilliard, J. (1972). The Portage Guide to Early Education (experimental ed.). Wisconsin: Portage.Google Scholar
Booth, T., & Ainscow, M. (2016). The index for inclusion: A guide to school development led by inclusive values. Bristol: Centre for Studies on Inclusive EducationGoogle Scholar
Boykin, A. W. (1985). The triple quandary and the schooling of Afro-American children In Neisser, U. (ed.), The school achievement of minority children (pp. 57–92) Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Bronfenbrenner, U. (2005). Interacting systems in human development. Research paradigms: present and future (1988). In Bronfenbrenner, U. (ed.), Making human beings human: Bioecological perspectives on human development (pp. 67–93). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Cole, M. (1985). The zone of proximal development: Where culture and cognition create each other. In Wertsch, J. V. (ed.), Culture, communication, and cognition: Vygotskian perspectives (pp. 146–161). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Colson, E. (1971). The social consequences of resettlement: The impact of the Kariba resettlement upon the Gwembe Tonga. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Cummins, J. (2019). The emergence of translanguaging pedagogy: A dialogue between theory and practice. Journal of Multilingual Education Research 9, Article 13.Google Scholar
Danseco, E. R. (1997). Building bridges: African-American mothers’ and teachers’ ethnotheories on child development, child problems, and home school relations for children with and without disabilities. Baltimore, MD: University of Maryland Baltimore County, Psychology Dept. PhD dissertation.Google Scholar
Dasen, P. R., Barthelemy, D., Kan, E. et al. (1985). Nglouele, l’intelligence chez les Baoule. Archives de Psychologie, 53, 295–324.Google Scholar
David, P. A. (1994). Why are institutions the “carriers of history”?: Path dependence and the evolution of conventions, organizations and institutions. Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, 5(2), 205–220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Douglass, F. (1882). The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, 1817–1882. London: Christian AgeGoogle Scholar
Eisemon, T. O. (1989). Educational reconstruction in Africa. Comparative Education Review, 33 (1), 110–116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fantz, R. L. (1961). The origin of form perception. Scientific American, 204(5), 66–73.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Flavell, J. H. (1963). The developmental psychology of Jean Piaget. Princeton: Van Nostrand.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gallimore, R., Weisner, T. S., Kaufman, S. Z., & Bernheimer, L. P. (1989). The social construction of ecocultural niches: Family accommodation of developmentally delayed children. American Journal on Mental Retardation, 94, 216–230.Google ScholarPubMed
Ganapathy-Coleman, H. (2004). Cultural conceptions of the child: a study of Indian American, African American and European American parental ethnotheories. Baltimore, MD: University of Maryland Baltimore County, Psychology Dept. PhD dissertation.Google Scholar
Ganapathy-Coleman, H. & Serpell, R. (2008). Challenging western hegemony through systematic study of cultural diversity: An undergraduate course on child development and culture. Intercultural Education, 19(2), 97–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gandhi, M. K. (1927). An autobiography, or the story of my experiments with truth (M. Desai, Trans.). Ahmedabad: Navajivan Publishing House.Google Scholar
García, O., & Wei, L. (2014). Translanguaging: Language, bilingualism and education. London: Palgrave Pivot.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gombrich, E. H. (1960). Art and illusion: A study in the psychology of pictorial representation. London: Phaidon.Google Scholar
Gorham, L. F. (2004). Relationships between children’s participation in the Black Church and their academic development: An investigation of the eco-cultural, opportunity to learn, and program quality dimensions of church-based academic support programs. Baltimore, MD: University of Maryland Baltimore County, Psychology Dept. PhD dissertation.Google Scholar
Gramsci, A. (1992). Prison notebooks volume 2. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Grigorenko, E. L., Geissler, W. P., Prince, R., Okatcha, F., Nokes, C., Kenny, D. & Bundy, D. (2001). The organisation of Luo conceptions of intelligence: A study of implicit theories in a Kenyan village. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 25, 367–378.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gumperz, J. J. (1977). The sociolinguistic significance of conversational code-switching. RELC Journal, 8(2), 1–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Habermas, J. (1975). Legitimation crisis (T. A. Mc-Carthy, transl.). Boston, MA: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Habermas, J. (1984). Theory of communicative action: Reason and the rationalization of society (Vol. 1). (McCarthy, T. A., transl.). Boston, MA: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Hawes, H., & Scotchmer, C. (eds.). (1993). Children for health. London: The Child-to-Child Trust, UNICEF.Google Scholar
Helander, E., Mendis, P., & Nelson, G. (1980) Training the Disabled in the Community: an experimental manual on rehabilitation and disability prevention for developing countries. Geneva: World Health Organisation (WHO).Google Scholar
Hrabowski, F. A. III, Maton, K. I., & Greif, G. L. (1998). Beating the odds: Raising academically successful African American males. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jahoda, G. (1986). Nature, culture and social psychology. European Journal of Social Psychology, 16, 17–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miles, M. (1985). Where there is no Rehab plan: A critique of the WHO scheme for community based rehabilitation, with suggestions for future directions. Peshawar: Mental Health Centre.Google Scholar
Minoura, Y. (1992). A sensitive period for the incorporation of a cultural meaning system: A study of Japanese children growing up in the United States. Ethos, 20(3), 304–339.Google Scholar
Mlama, P. (1991). Culture and development, the popular theatre approach in Africa. Uppsala: Scandinavian Institute of African Studies.Google Scholar
Morley, D., & Woodland, M. (1988). See how they grow: Monitoring child growth for appropriate health care in developing countries. London: MacMillan.Google Scholar
Mtonga, M. (1980). The drama of Gule Wamkulu. Unpublished master’s thesis. Legon: University of Ghana, Institute of African Studies.Google Scholar
Mumba, P. (2000). Democratisation of Primary Classrooms in Zambia (A Case Study of its Implementation in a Rural School in Mpika). Paper presented at International Special Education Congress 2000, University of Manchester. www.isec2000.org.uk/abstracts/papers_m/mumba_2.htm.Google Scholar
Mwanalushi, M., & Ng’andu, B. E. (1981). Psychology’s contribution to national development in Zambia: past, present and future. African Social Research, 32, 55–82.Google Scholar
Mwape, G., & Serpell, R. (1996). Participatory appropriation of health science and technology. Poster presented at the International Conference of the International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development (ISSBD). Quebec, Canada: August, 1996.(ERIC document ED417191.htm)Google Scholar
Nabuzoka, D. (ed.) (1986). Reaching disabled children in Zambia: Reports and other documents on the Zambia National Campaign to Reach Disabled Children. Lusaka: Institute for African Studies, University of Zambia.Google Scholar
Nsamenang, A. B., & Lamb, M. (1993). The acquisition of socio-cognitive competence by Nso children in the Bamenda Grassfields of Northwest Cameroon. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 16(3), 429–441.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peltzer, K., & Bless, C. (1989). History and present status of professional psychology in Zambia. Psychology and Developing Societies, 1(1), 53–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phinney, J. S., & Devich-Navarro, M. (1997). Variations in bicultural identification among African American and Mexican American adolescents. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 7(1), 3–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prah, K. K., & Brock-Utne, B. (2009). Bilingualism: An African advantage. A paradigm shift in African languages of instruction policies. Cape Town, South Africa: Center for Advanced Studies of African society (CASAS Book Series, No. 67).Google Scholar
Pridmore, P. (1996). Children as health educators: The Child-to-Child approach. Doctoral dissertation, Institute of Education, University of London.Google Scholar
Pryke, S. (1998). The popularity of nationalism in the early British Boy Scout movement. Social History, 23(3), 309–324.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rogoff, B. (1993). Children’s guided participation and participatory appropriation in sociocultural activity. In Wozniak, R. H., & Fischer, K. W. (eds.), Development in context: Acting and thinking in specific environments (pp. 121–153). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Russell Lord, E. F. L. (1955). The scourge of the swastika: A short history of Nazi war crimes (7th ed.). London, UK: Cassell.Google Scholar
Sam, D. L. (1997). Acculturation and adaptation. Handbook of cross-cultural psychology, 3(2), 291–326.Google Scholar
Sam, D. L., Jasinskaja-Lahti, I., Horenczyk, G., & Vedder, P. (2013). Migration and integration: Some psychological perspectives on mutual acculturation [Editorial]. Zeitschrift für Psychologie, 221(4), 203–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sameroff, A. J., & Fiese, B. H. (1992). Family representations of development. In Siegel, I.E., Mcgillicuddy Delisi, A. V., & Goodnow, J. J. (eds.), Parental belief systems: The psychological consequences for children. Hillsdale: ErlbaumGoogle Scholar
Sandow, S. (1984). The portage project: Ten years on. In Dessent, T. (ed.), What is important about Portage? Windsor: NFER/Nelson.Google Scholar
Sanson, A. V., Van Hoorn, J., & Burke, S. (2019). Responding to the impacts of the climate crisis on children and youth. Child Development Perspectives, 13(4) 201–207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Serpell, R. (1968). Selective attention and interference between first and second languages. Institute for Social Research Communication No.4. Lusaka: University of Zambia.Google Scholar
Serpell, R. (1970). Chi-Nyanja comprehension by Lusaka schoolchildren: A field experiment in second language learning. Human Development Research Unit, University of Zambia.Google Scholar
Serpell, R. (1977). Strategies for investigating intelligence in its cultural context. Quarterly Newsletter of the Institute for Comparative Human Development, 1(3), 11–15.Google Scholar
Serpell, R. (1978). Learning to say it better: A challenge for Zambian education. In Omondi, L. N. & Simukoko, Y. T. (eds.), Language and education in Zambia. Institute for African Studies Communication No. 14 (pp. 29–57). Lusaka: University of Zambia. Reprinted (1983) in abridged form in J. B. Pride (ed.), The New Englishes. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.Google Scholar
Serpell, R. (1979). How specific are perceptual skills? A cross-cultural study of pattern reproduction. British Journal of Psychology, 70, 365–380.Google ScholarPubMed
Serpell, R. (1980). Linguistic flexibility in urban Zambian children. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 345 (Studies in Child Language and Multilingualism, edited by V. Teller & S. J. White), 97–119.Google Scholar
Serpell, R. (1986). Specialized centres and the local home community: Children with disabilities need them both. International Journal of Special Education, 1(2), 107–127.Google Scholar
Serpell, R. (1988). Childhood disability in sociocultural context: Assessment and information needs for effective services. In Dasen, P. R., Berry, J. W. & Sartorius, N. (eds.), Health and cross-cultural psychology: Towards applications (pp. 256–280). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Serpell, R. (1990). Audience, culture and psychological explanation: A reformulation of the emic-etic problem in cross-cultural psychology. Quarterly Newsletter of the Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition, 12(3), 99–132. http://lchc.ucsd.edu/Histarch/newsletters.html.Google Scholar
Serpell, R. (1993a). The significance of schooling: Life-journeys in an African society. Cambridge: Cambridge University PressGoogle Scholar
Serpell, R. (1993b). Interface between socio-cultural and psychological aspects of cognition: A commentary. In Forman, E., Minick, N. & Stone, A. (eds.), Contexts for learning: Sociocultural dynamics (pp. 357–368). Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Serpell, R. (1994). Negotiating a fusion of horizons: A process view of cultural validation in developmental psychology, Mind, Culture and Activity, 1, 43–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Serpell, R. (2001). Cultural dimensions of literacy promotion and schooling. In Verhoeven, L. & Snow, C. (eds.), Literacy and Motivation (pp. 243–273). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Serpell, R. (2004). Nurturing the spirit of inquiry. Vice-Chancellor’s address to the University of Zambia’s Graduation Ceremony. Lusaka: University of Zambia, 11 June 2004.Google Scholar
Serpell, R. (2006). Negotiating the middle ground between the ostensible and shared horizons: A dynamic approach to cross-cultural communication about human development. In Straub, J., Weidemann, D., Kölbl, C., & Zielke, B. (eds.), Pursuit of meaning: Advances in cultural and cross-cultural psychology (pp. 393–433). Berlin: Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Serpell, R. (2007). Bridging between orthodox western higher educational practices and an African sociocultural context. Comparative Education, 43(1), 23–51.Google Scholar
Serpell, R. (2008). Participatory appropriation and the cultivation of nurturance: A case study of African primary health science curriculum development. In Dasen, P.R. & Akkari, A. (eds.), Educational Theories and Practices from the “Majority World (pp 71–97). New Delhi: SAGE.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Serpell, R. (2017). How the study of cognitive growth can benefit from a cultural lens. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 12(5), 889–899.Google Scholar
Serpell, R. (2020). Culture-sensitive communication in applied developmental research. Human Development, 64(4–6), 1–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Serpell, R. & Adamson-Holley, D.E. (2016). African socialisation values and non-formal educational practices: child development, parental beliefs and educational innovation in rural Zambia. Chapter 22 (pp 1–25). In Abebe, T., Waters, J. (eds.), Labouring and Learning, Geographies of Children and Young People 10. New York, NY: Springer Link.Google Scholar
Serpell, R., Baker, L., & Sonnenschein, S. (2005). Becoming Literate in the City: the Baltimore Early Childhood Project. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Serpell, R., Baker, L., Sonnenschein, S., & Hill, S. (1991) Caregiver ethnotheories of children’s emergent literacy and numeracy. Paper presented at a symposium on the socio-cultural context of development, 11th Biennial Meetings of the International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development (ISSBD). Minneapolis, MN: July, 1991.Google Scholar
Serpell, R., Chansa-Kabali, T., & Mwaba, S. O. C. (2013). Proposal for a new course on African psychology and/or on Cultural psychology. Lusaka: University of Zambia, Psychology Department, unpublished document.Google Scholar
Serpell, R., & Deregowski, J. B. (1980). The skill of pictorial perception: an interpretation of cross-cultural evidence. International Journal of Psychology, 15, 145–180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Serpell, R., & Hatano, G. (1997). Education, literacy and schooling in cross-cultural perspective. In Berry, J. W., Dasen, P. R. & Saraswathi, T. M. (eds.), Handbook of Cross-Cultural Psychology (2nd ed.), Volume 2 (pp. 345–382). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.Google Scholar
Serpell, R., & Jere-Folotiya, J. (2011). Basic education for children with special needs in Zambia: Progress and challenges in the translation of policy into practice. Psychology and Developing Societies, 23(2), 211–245.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Serpell, R., Mumba, P., & Chansa-Kabali, T. (2011). Early educational foundations for the development of civic responsibility: An African experience. In Flanagan, C. A. and Christens, B. D. (eds.), Youth civic development: Work at the cutting edge. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, pp. 77–93.Google Scholar
Serpell, R., & Nabuzoka, D. (1991) Early intervention in Third World countries. In Mitchell, D. M. & Brown, R. I. (eds.), Early intervention studies for young children with special needs (pp. 93–126). London: Chapman & Hall.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Serpell, R., & Nsamenang, A. B. (2015). The challenge of local relevance: Using the wealth of African cultures in ECCE programme development. In Marope, P. T. M. & Kaga, Y. (eds.), Investing against evidence: The global state of early childhood care and education (pp. 231–247). Paris: UNESCO.Google Scholar
Serpell, R. & Simatende, B. (2016). Contextual responsiveness: an enduring challenge for educational assessment in Africa. Journal of Intelligence, 4 (1) 3–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Serpell, R. & Sneddon, C. (1965). Colour prejudice and Oxford landladies. Race, 6(4), 322–333.Google Scholar
Serpell, R., Sonnenschein, S., Baker, L., & Ganapathy, H. (2002). Intimate culture of families in the early socialization of literacy. Journal of Family Psychology, 16, 391–405.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Serpell, R., Sonnenschein, S., Baker, L. et al. (1997). Parental ideas about development and socialization of children on the threshold of schooling. Reading Research Report No. 78. Athens, GA: NRRC, Universities of Georgia & Maryland College Park). (ERIC document ED 405568.htm).Google Scholar
Shapiro, M. B. (1960). The rotation of drawings by illiterate Africans. Journal of Social Psychology, 52, 17–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siann, G. (1972). Measuring field dependence in Zambia: A cross‐cultural study. International Journal of Psychology, 7(2), 87–96.Google Scholar
Sonnenschein, S., Baker, L., & Serpell, R. (1995). Documenting the child’s everyday home experiences: The ecological inventory as a resource for teachers. NRRC Instructional resource No.11. National Reading Research Center, Universities of Georgia and Maryland.Google Scholar
Sonnenschein, S., Baker, L., Serpell, R., Goddard-Truitt, V., & Munsterman, K. (1997). Parental beliefs about ways to help children learn to read: The impact of an entertainment or a skills perspective. Early Child Development and Care, 127–8, 111–118.Google Scholar
Super, C. M., & Harkness, S. (1986). The developmental niche: A conceptualization at the interface of child and culture. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 9, 545–569.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Susser, M. (1990). Disease, illness, sickness; impairment, disability and handicap. Psychological Medicine, 20(3), 471–473.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tuck, S. (2013). Malcolm X’s visit to Oxford University: U.S. civil rights, Black Britain, and the special relationship on race. The American Historical Review, 118(1), 76–103CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Udell, C. L. (2001). Educational Innovation: A Case Study of Child-to-Child in Zambia. MA thesis, Psychology Dept. Baltimore, MD: University of Maryland, Baltimore County.Google Scholar
UNESCO (1994). Salamanca statement and framework for action on special needs education. Retrieved from http://www.unesco.org/education/pdf/ SALAMA_E.PDF (accessed November 2008)Google Scholar
Wechsler, D. (1975). Intelligence defined and undefined: A relativistic appraisal. American Psychologist, 30(2), 135.Google Scholar
Wober, M. (1969). Distinguishing centri-cultural from cross-cultural tests and research. Perceptual and Motor Skills.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
World Bank. (1988). Education in Sub-Saharan Africa: Policies for Adjustment. Revitalization and Expansion. Washington, DC: World BankGoogle Scholar
Wolfenden Committee. (1957). Report of the Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution. www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/private-lives/relationships/collections1/sexual-offences-act-1967/wolfenden-report-/.Google Scholar