Encouraging Attentive Helpfulness: Learning from Indigenous Perspectives

10/05/2022

Encouraging Attentive Helpfulness: Learning from Indigenous Perspectives

A child who is healthy and literate, lives in security and is able to express his or her views, is a child who not only develops in harmony with his or her community, but also strengthens that community.
Marta Santos Pais, Director of UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre

"Indigenous knowledge is informed by a balance between body, mind, heart and spirit. Thus, literacy and learning for Aboriginal people is much more than reading, writing and arithmetic; it involves ‘embodied learning’ and ‘performed knowledge.’ This knowledge seeks to nurture relationships between the individual, the family, the community, the nation, and all of Creation," writes Martha Llanos, Peru’s National Representative for the World Forum for Early Care and Education.

Llanos continues, "Early Childhood programmes have been based primarily on what are thought to be scientifically appropriate for young children, with limited consideration for the traditional childrearing contexts. This often creates a gap between what the program providers think should happen for young children and what parents are used to doing. It is a challenge to develop programmes and policies that can interweave that 'scientific' evidence with effective traditional childrearing practices and beliefs."

In her book, Hunt, Gather, Parent, Michaeleen Doucleff shares one such approach from a Mayan community: "This skill—of paying attention and then acting—is such an important value and goal for children that many families in Mexico have a term for it: it’s being acomedido… It’s not just doing a chore or task because someone told you to; it’s knowing which kind of help is appropriate at a particular moment because you’re paying attention." Instead of offering incentives, praise or rewards, Mayan parents help children internalize attentive helpfulness by asking children to help with real work, working side-by-side rather than directing, accepting what the child is able to do and encouraging their efforts.

Martha Llanos is one of over 250 people who submitted proposals for the 2023 World Forum in Panama City. Learn more about this and other World Forum events at worldforumfoundation.org.

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