In Canada, as in several parts of the world, many children grow up in multiple linguistic contexts. They often live, learn, and interact in different languages at home, at school, and in other contexts. A number of research studies have demonstrated that it is beneficial for children to grow up bilingual from their earliest years (see … Continue reading
I was invited to contribute an ethics case study for the “Ethical Research Involving Children: International Charter and Guidelines”. [UPDATE Oct. 30, 2013: The charter has now been published and can be found with additional resources at this website: Ethical Research Involving Children.] In my previous post I described the background context and ethical challenge. Here is … Continue reading
Many of us who engage in research with children, especially in diverse contexts of the world, often struggle with ethical concerns. In response to this, a group of international researchers has been developing an international set of guidelines and considerations for ethical research with children. The document “Ethical Research Involving Children: International Charter and Guidelines” … Continue reading
My grandmother, Dr. Shireen Lakhani (Valliani) has been one of the most significant influences in my life, and much of who I am today is because of her. Two weeks ago, she passed away. In the fields of child development, psychology, education, and social work, we know the importance of extended family, loving adults, and … Continue reading
When I was growing up, it was very rare for a school grade to be ‘good enough’ for my parents. I still laughingly reminisce about how when I would come home with a 98%, my dad would ask, “What happened to the remaining 2%?” Of course this anecdote might be a bit extreme, and to … Continue reading
Recent news articles have been discussing the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project being implemented in various parts of the Majority World. Here’s an article at Mashable, and another at Dvice. Basically, the OLPC programme recently gave tablets to Grade-1-aged children in two remote Ethiopian villages. OLPC has given tablets to children before. What was different … Continue reading
Research has shown that children begin to recognize different races very early on, in the first few months of life, and that they are better able to differentiate faces from the race with which they are most familiar (e.g., Kelly et al., 2007). There’s also research showing that, in adulthood, racist perspectives can be seen … Continue reading
Earlier I posted about the ‘Investing in Mothers and Children’ international symposium held about ten days ago to mark the official launch of the inter-disciplinary Fraser Mustard Institute for Human Development at the University of Toronto. I was fortunate to be able to present some of my research work from Pakistan at the poster session held at … Continue reading
Children’s earliest experiences – in “the first 2,000 days of life” – play a critical role in establishing their developmental trajectories in health, learning, and society. This was the key message of the international symposium, ‘Investing in Mothers and Children’ (a Connaught Global Challenge International Symposium), held September 27-29, 2012, to mark the official launch of the … Continue reading
Despite increasing awareness that culture and context shape our understandings and practices, there are still concepts in the early childhood discourse that we take for granted and don’t question as core tenets or principles. For example, we don’t generally interrogate or critique the idea that children learn through play, or the larger notion of ‘child-centered’ … Continue reading
Sadaf Shallwani 