Introduction: Understanding How and Why People Learn Across Settings as an Educational Equity Strategy

Abstract

People circulate across a broad range of learning environments as a routine matter of daily living. In the LIFE center, we have referred to this “learning across settings” phenomena as the “life-wide” dimension of learning—as people circulate from moments of elective family life, compulsory schooling, participation in online communities, or other patterned routines of daily practice (see Banks et al., 2007 for a detailed description). Many of the variations that exist in educational pathways and the associated educational inequalities relate to differences in these life-wide patterns of learning and associated consequences. For example, access to academic language in and out of school is a strong predictor of academic achievement (e.g., Suárez-Orozco, Suárez-Orozco, and Todorova 2008). Situational interests of children are often cultivated, recognized, and supported within the context of family life (e.g., Crowley & Jacobs, 2002). Moments of formal instruction can pique children’s interest and lead to subsequent learning outside of school (e.g., Reeve & Bell, 2009). In order to develop a theoretical understanding of the life-course outcomes of particular individuals, we need to better understand how they move and learn across a varied set of cultural niches with variable practices, materials, and evaluation systems that are used to gauge human behavior (Lee, 2008).