Jonathan Tudge -Research
My research focuses on the interrelations between the social world and children's social and cognitive development, and draws on the theoretical perspectives of Lev Vygotsky and Urie Bronfenbrenner. My major line of research is longitudinal and cross-cultural in design, dealing with the ways in which young children become part of the cultural group in which they live. This work involves extensive observations of the everyday activities of children when they are three years of age as well as interviews and questionnaires with their parents regarding their childrearing values and beliefs. The children are followed through their first years of school, when data on parents’ and teachers’ perceptions of the children’s social and academic competence are also gathered. This research is cross-cultural (US, Russia, Estonia, Finland, Korea, Kenya, and Brazil) and examines within-societal variations as a function of ethnicity and social class. The results of this research have recently been published: Tudge, J. (2008), The everyday lives of young children: Culture, class, and child rearing in diverse societies. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Some other recent publications include the following (some of which can be found at the papers
link in this web site):
Fleer, M., Hedegaard, M., & Tudge, J. R. H. (Eds.) (in press). The world year book of education
2009: Childhood studies and the impact of globalization: Policies and practices at global and local
levels. New York: Routledge.
Tudge, J. R. H. (under review). Children’s development under conditions of poverty: A cultural–
ecological analysis. In Bastos, A. C. & Rabinovich, E. P. (Eds.). Living in poverty: Developmental
poetics of cultural realities.
Tudge, J. R. H. (under review). Methods of assessment of young children’s informal mathematical
experiences. The Encyclopedia of Language and Literacy Development
Tudge, J. R. H., Piccinini, C. A., Sperb, T. M., Odero-Wanga, D., & Lopes, R. S. (under review).
Undefended or undefined? The heterogeneity of children’s experiences in Kenya and Brazil.
Tudge, J. R. H., Lopes, R. S., Piccinini, C. A., Sperb, T. M, Chipenda-Dansokho, S., Marin, A. H.,
Vivian, A. G., Oliveira, D. S., Sonego, J., & Frizzo, G. B. (under review). Parents’ child-rearing values in
southern Brazil: Mutual influences of social class and children’s development.
Karnik, R. B., & Tudge, J. R. H., (in press). The reality of pretend play: Ethnic, socioeconomic, and
gender variations in young children’s involvement. In E. E. Nwokah (Ed.), Play as engagement and
communication. Play and culture studies, Vol. 10. Lenham, MD: University Press of America.
Tudge, J. R. H. (in press). Social contextual theories. In R. A. Shweder, T. R. Bidell, A. C. Dailey, S.
D. Dixon, P. J. Miller, & J. Modell (Eds.), The Chicago companion to the child . Chicago: University of
Chicago Press.
Tudge, J. R. H., Freitas, L. B. L., & Doucet, F. (in press). The transition to school: Reflections from a
contextualist perspective. In H. Daniels, J. Porter, & H. Lauder (Eds.), Companion in education. London:
Routledge/Falmer.
Tudge, J. R. H., & Odero-Wanga, D. (in press). A cultural–ecological perspective on early childhood
among the Luo of Kisumu, Kenya. In M. Fleer, M. Hedegaard, & J. R. H. Tudge (Eds.). The world year
book of education 2009: Childhood studies and the impact of globalization: Policies and practices at
global and local levels. New York: Routledge.
Freitas, L. B. L., Shelton, T. L., & Tudge, J. R. H. (2008). Conceptions of US and Brazilian early
childhood care and education: A historical and comparative analysis. International Journal of Behavioral
Development, 32(2), 161-70.
Tudge, J. R. H. (2008). A teoria de Urie Bronfenbrenner: Uma teoria contextualista? [Urie
Bronfenbrenner’s theory: Is it contextualist?]. In L. V. C. Moreira & A. M. A. Carvalho (Eds.), Família e
educação: Olhares da psicologia [Family and education: Perspectives from psychology] (pp. 209-231).
São Paulo: Paulinas.
Tudge, J. R. H., Li, L., & Stanley, T. K. (2008). The impact of method on assessing young children’s
everyday mathematical experiences. In O. N. Saracho & B. Spodek (Series Eds.) & O. N. Saracho & B.
Spodek (Vol. Eds.) Contemporary perspectives in early childhood education: Mathematics in early
childhood education (pp. 187-214). Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing.
Doucet, F., & Tudge, J. R. H. (2007). Co-constructing the transition to school: Reframing the
“novice” versus “expert” roles of children, parents, and teachers from a cultural perspective. In R. Pianta,
M. Cox, & K. Snow (Eds.), School readiness and the transition to kindergarten in the era of
accountability (pp. 307-328). Baltimore, MD: Brookes Publishing.
Elliott, J. G, & Tudge, J. R. H. (2007). Change and resistance to change from the West in post-Soviet
Russian education. Comparative Education, 43(1), 93-112.
Tudge, J., Doucet, F., Odero, D., Sperb, T., Piccinini, C., & Lopes, R. (2006). A window into
different cultural worlds: Young children’s everyday activities in the United States, Kenya, and Brazil.
Child Development, 77(5), 1446-1469.
Tudge, J. (2005). Commentary: Moving from sociocultural perspectives to a culturally relevant theory
of human development. International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development Newsletter,
47(1), 15-17.
Tudge, J. & Hogan, D. (2005). Naturalistic observations of children’s activities: An ecological
approach. In S. M. Greene & D. M. Hogan (Eds.), Researching children’s experiences: Approaches and
methods (102-122). London: Sage.
Tudge, J. (2004). Practice and discourse as the intersection of individual and social in human
development. In A.-N. Perret-Clermont, L. Resnick, C. Pontecorvo, & B. Burge (Eds.), Joining socie ty:
Social interactions and learning in adolescence and youth (pp. 193-202). New York: Cambridge
University Press.
Tudge, J., & Doucet, F. (2004). Early mathematical experiences: Observing young Black and White
children’s everyday activities. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 19, 21-39.
Scrimsher, S. & Tudge, J. (2003). The teaching/learning relationship in the first years of school:
Some revolutionary implications of Vygotsky’s theory. Early Education and Development, 14, 293-312.
Tudge, J., Odero, D., Hogan, D., & Etz, K. (2003). Relations between the everyday activities of
preschoolers and their teachers’ perceptions of their competence in the first years of school. Early
Childhood Research Quarterly, 18, 42-64.
Tudge, J, & Scrimsher, S. (2003). Lev S. Vygotsky on education: A cultural-historical, interpersonal,
and individual approach to development. In B. J. Zimmerman & D. H. Schunk (Eds.), Educational
psychology: A century of contributions (pp. 207-228). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Tudge, J. (2001). Estudando a criança e a família em seu contexto: Para uma abordagem cultural da
tolerância. [Studying the child and the family in context: Towards a cultural approach to tolerance]. In Z.
Biasoli-Alvez & R. Fischmann (Eds.), Crianças e adolescents: Construindo uma cultura da tolerância
[Children and adolescents: Constructing a culture of tolerance (pp. 65-77). Sao Paulo: EDUSP.
Tudge, J., Doucet, F., & Hayes, S. (2001). Teoria, método e análise: As interconexões no estudo das
crianças e das famílias. [Theory, method, and analysis: Necessary interconnections in the study of
children and families.] Contrapontos: Revista de Educação [Counterpoints: The Journal of Education],
1(3), 11-22.
Tudge, J. (2000). Theory, method, and analysis in research on the relations between peer
collaboration and cognitive development. The Journal of Experimental Education, 69, 98-112.
Tudge, J., Hayes, S., Doucet, F., Odero, D., Kulakova, N., Tammeveski, P., Meltsas, M., & Lee, S.
(2000). Parents’ participation in cultural practices with their preschoolers: A cross-cultural study of
everyday activities. Psicologia: Teoria e Pesquisa [Psychology: Theory and Research], 16 (1), 1-11.
Tudge, J., Hogan, D., Snezhkova, I., Kulakova, N., & Etz, K. (2000). Parents’ childrearing values and
beliefs in the United States and Russia: The impact of culture and social class. Infant and Child
Development, 9, 105-121.
For more details, please refer to my curriculum vitae.