What are the core components of human development?
What does being human entail? What does it mean to nurture our humanity, and which aspects of our human-ness do we cultivate and develop?
Aren't you a Developmental Psychologist, Dr. Nayfeld? Shouldn't you know?
I could say that my degree endowed with those answers ...but that would be a lie.
If anything, it taught me to search elsewhere for what is by showing me what it's not.
According to mainstream Western research, scholarship and thought, there are fairly agreed upon core skills that are fundamental for little humans (aka children) to master. The language varies somewhat across researchers and programs but generally, these core skills tend to be:
Socioemotional learning,
self-regulation,
cognitive development, and
language/ communication.
These skills are identified based on research that shows that they predict educational and life success; therefore, the thinking goes, these are the skills that must be fortified so that children succeed.
Education curricula, programs, professional development, parental workshops and other training are then focused on these aspects of development and taught to engage in interactions that foster them.
It all seems very logical.
What’s the problem?
In and of itself, there is nothing wrong with these aspects. They are of course important and do connect to outcomes across areas of achievement.
The problem is not these skills themselves. The problem is the focus on these skills over and above so many others. A few, in not particular order, are:
Creativity
Collaboration
Empathy
Self-connection
Self-expression
Compassion
Self-reflection
Sensitivity
Intuition
Courage
Curiosity
Humility
Presence
Sense of justice
Sense of community
Sense of purpose
Agency
Stewardship of the natural world
There are surely others. What would you add to the list?
These are components of human development that span cultures, and that underpin how a human being moves through the world, how they experience their life, how they relate to others, and what they contribute to the larger communities of which they are a part.
And just like the 4 core skills, these can also be developed, scaffolded, and nurtured.
Western researchers focus on those limited “core skills” because research says that this is what matters. But, if we really are committed to equity - we have to dig deeper than that. Who is doing that research? What do they value? What lens are they looking through when creating the research designs and assessment tools that bear out these findings?
As of 2015, 81% of psychologists in academia and 94% of research subjects come from Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) populations.
The focus on rational thought, language, and emotional regulation is nothing new. In fact, it's centuries old. And while many of these scholars truly care about equity and cultural responsiveness, their own lens is still shaped by their roots and the values within which they were socialized.
I know. I was one of them.
I spent many years researching children’s inquiry skills, measuring children’s academic outcomes, and designing professional development rooted in perpetuating these values.
I did not know about the true value of developing self-connection, earth-connection, creative expression, innovation, or intuition because these were not the aspects of me that were valued by the culture and society in which I was raised.
They were not the aspects of my humanity that were intentionally developed by my parents or educators, even though they are some of the skills I now find most integral to my success and now struggle to develop myself.
We do what we know.
But as Maya Angelou directs us, “When you know better, do better.”
Imagine. Imagine just for a moment a world where children, from a young age, are taught to listen to that inner voice inside us that knows when something is for us, that compass that is always guiding us.
Imagine a world where each child, adolescent, and teen is told that they are creative, that it is important, that their unique creative expression is integral to their community.
Imagine that a school without music, movement, and art is as unimaginable as a school without math, or literacy.
Imagine if everyone sees themselves as an innovator, and an education system that intentionally supported students in trying out ideas and following their passions.
Imagine a world where children’s innate connection with the natural world is sustained, intentionally deepened; where teachers learned how to further scaffold children’s desire to connect with and take care of plants, animals, and the environment.
If we want true equity, if we want to ensure that every child thrives, and if we want to set children up not just to “pass school” but to truly live well and with purpose, we must reexamine and be willing to expand.
We must listen to elders and peoples from cultures that have long known the worth of land stewardship, deep listening, collaboration, connection to purpose, and self-expression - and have nurtured these for centuries in spite of ongoing oppression and erasure.
We must listen to ourselves, to each other, and to the earth calling for a different way.
We must ask ourselves what we really value, what our children and our society need now, and what it might look like to raise human beings that are connected to the aspects of humanity that our ancestors, and too many of us, left behind.
I know that we cannot change the system all at once. But, we do have agency.
Whether as a researcher, educator, parent, or human being dedicated to a more humanity-affirming more just, and more joyous world, what is a small way that you can decide that you are more than the definitions of success, productivity, and achievement that you were taught?
With human-ness and love,
Irena
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