ABSTRACT

There is a consensusthat the crises children encounter during the transition period might impact negatively on children’s learning and development. However, from cultural-historical perspective, qualitative leap in development can hardly be achieved without crises. This paper, drawing upon cultural-historical theory as the framework and by using ‘role adjustment’ as the unit of analysis, discusses what the crisis means for children’s learning and development. Through a case study of two second generation Chinese Australian children’s role adjustmentin school transition, this paper finds that the crises provide both potentials and dangers depending on how the crises are managed within the child’s social situation of development. It argues against the advocates for making children’s transition seamless, as it is important to utilize the developmental potentials of crises instead of eliminating them. It also enriches the cultural-historical studies by exploring not only the developmental aspect but also the dark side of the crises.

摘要

人们普遍认为，在过渡时期儿童遇到的危机可能会对儿童的学习和发展产生负面影响。但是，从文化历史的角度来看，没有危机就很难实现发展的质的飞跃。本文以文化历史理论为框架，以“角色调整”为分析单位，探讨了危机对儿童学习和发展的意义。通过对两个第二代澳大利亚华裔儿童在学校过渡中的角色调整的案例研究，发现危机取决于在儿童的社会发展状况下如何处理危机，既提供了潜力，也带来了危险。它反对提倡儿童无缝过渡的倡导者，因为重要的是利用危机的发展潜力，而不是消除危机。通过不仅探索危机的发展方面，而且探索危机的阴暗面，它也丰富了文化历史研究。