DOCUMENT RESUME ED 036 665 24 AA 000 503 AUTHOR Farber, Bernard; And Others TITLE Community, Kinship, and Competence:Research and Development Program on PreschoolDisadvantaged Children. Final Report. (Volume III of IIIVolumes). INSTITUTION Illinois Univ., drbana. Inst. ofResearch for Exceptional Children.; Nevada Univ., Reno. SPONS AGENCY Office of Education (DHEW) ,Washington, D. C. Bureau of Research. BUREAU NO BR-5-0181 PUB DATE May 69 CONTRACT OEC-6-10-235 NOTE 273p. EDRS PRICE EDRS Price MF-$1025 HC-$13.75 DESCRIPTORS Case Studies (Education) ,*Community Characteristics, *Culturally Disadvantaged,Culture Conflict, Family (Sociological Unit) ,Family Characteristics, *Family Structure, GroupStructure, Lower Class, School CommunityRelationship, Social Environment, *Sociocultural Patterns,Socioeconomic Status, *Sociology, StudentSchool Relationship, Subculture IDENTIFIERS Competence Development, Kinship ABSTRACT The three sociological studiesincluded in this report provide a description andanalysis of family and kinship, and neighborhood and community variablesthat affect lower class children's readiness and competence toenter into formal education. Study topics are: (1) Kinship and Socioeconomic Status,which examines home to school transition andthe clash of public and private cultures; (2) An Ethnography of a WhiteWorkingclass Community, a description of life in awhite, lower class, semi-rural community; and (3) Problems of CompetenceDevelopment Among Ghetto Residents of a Middle-sized Citywhich defines "competence" as a social dimension and thereforeconsiders that input from family, neighborhood, and community severelylimits the part that formal schooling can play in the developmentof competence. Appendixes contain data collection forms andtables used in the kinship study. (MS) U,S, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION & WELFARE OFFICE OF EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRODUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGINATING IT. POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS STATED DO NOT NECES- SARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE OF EDU- CATION POSITION OR POLICY. FINAL REPORT VoluMe III of III Volumes Project No. 5-1181 Contract No. OE 6-10-235 RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM ON PRESCHOOL DISADVANTAGED CHILDREN Community, Kinship, and Competence Bernard Farber Institute for Research on Exceptional Children and Department of Sociology University of Illinois Urbana, Illinois David L. Harvey Department of Sociology University of Nevada Reno, Nevada Michael Lewis Bureau of Educational Researbh -- and Department of Sociology University of Illinois Urbana, Illinois May, 1969 The research reported herein was performed pursuant to a contract with the Office of Education, U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Contractors undertaking such projects under Government sponsorship are encouraged to express freely their professional judgment in the conduct of the project. Points of view or opinions stated do not, therefore, necessarily represent official Office of Education osition orpolicy. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE Office of Education Bureau of Research Merle B. Karnes, Project Director Institute for Research on Exceptional Children University of Illinois Urbana, Illinois PREFACE The studies and data presented in this report aim at two objectives. First, is curriculum development and evaluation; second is research on social and psychological factors in the intellectual functioning of culturally disadvantaged children. Under the overall direction of Dr. Merle Karnes a numberof highly qualified investigators have pursued these objectiveswith diligence and ingenuity. Furthermore, they have, in important instances, pursued objectives to conclusions which are at the very least provocative. To many they will be startling and disturbing. Thus the sociologists, Farber, Lewis and Harvey conclude in Volume III: Technical emphasis in educational reform (partic- ulary that which is intended for the dispossessed) may preclude any possibility of educators making a positive contribution to the obliteration of the social and economic injustices which victimize millions of Americans...Technical emphasis in education, as it is in welfare services, is a symptom of a conditionwhich may be termed progressim status-quoism. Volumes I and II deal largely with the first objective, curriculum development and evaluation, and as such are excellent examples of the highest quality of the "technicalemphasis" to which the sociologists on the team refer. In Volume I, Karnes, Hudgins and Teska attack such concerns as the relativeeffective- ness of five differing methods ofpreschool educational interven- tion with the disadvantaged child. Other concerns are to determine how long such special intervention must be continued, theoptimum age for intervention, and, how much canbe done by paraprofessionals in the classroom and by mothers in the home. In Volume II, Bereiter, Engelmann, Washington andcolleagues describe efforts to burrow deeper into the processes and products of educational intervention on behalf of the disadvantaged.Taking the view that the Stanford-Binet may be considered as anachievement test for the "hidden curriculum" of themiddle-class home, they boldly set about to construct a compensatory curriculum geared to the Binet, and to test the curriculum. In so doing they throw new light on the criticism that substantial I.Q. gains in programs for the disadvantagedare merely a result of "teaching for the test." In another section Bereitergrapples with the theoreticalcom- plexities of interpretingchanges in I.Q. Volume III deals almostexclusively with the descriptionand analysis of family and kinship,neighborhood and community variables that bear on children'sreadiness and competenceto enter into formal education. Farber examines this transitionfrom home to school in the perspectiveof the necessity of articulationand cccommodation of private and publiccultures. He posits that where private and publicculture clash those familiesand individ- uals whose way of life isincompatible with the publicculture are superfluous population. Harvey describes life ina white, lower class, semi-rural community. Because his frame of reference is the same as that of Farberand Lewis, his findings extendthe implications of the totalreport beyond the question of racial differences. Lewis presentsa sociologically derived model and definition of "competence."For him, competence isa social dimension and in that perspectiveinput from the family, neigh- borhood, and communitysets severe limits on the part thatformal schooling can play in thedevelopment of competence. This is a multi-disciplinarymulti-volume work whichon the one hand undertook, withsuccess, to add to our knowledge of educational curricula andtechniques which enhance theacademic performance of culturally disadvantagedchildren. On the other hand, an equally importantobjective was to inquire intofactors which underlay the intellectualfunctioning of children. In these volumes we are confronted with thecruel paradox thatacceptance of conclusions arrivedat in pursuit of the second objective, raises grave doubtsas to the value of present day endeavorsaimed at the first objective. Resolution of this paradox willnot be for the timid. William P. Hurder Director, Institute for Research on Exceptional Children iv Acknowledgments Part I It is impossible to acknowledge individually the assistance of everyone who ought to be mentioned--the parents who participated in the study, the interviewers, the research assistants who edited the interviews and coded the data, my colleagues who were responsible for the preschool programs. However, my gratitude to several people is so great that I must publicly thank them: Mrs. Audrey McNattin, who was field director for the study; Jerry Gagerman, who super- vised the coding of data; Charles Mindel, who was responsible for the computor work; and Mrs. Sharon Cook, who as secretary saw the project through from grant application to final report. I am also thankful to my co-researchers Dr. Michael Lewis and David L. Harvey and especially to my wife Annette for intellectual stimulation, patience, and criticism at all stages of the study. Finally, I wish to express my appreciation to the following organizations for their cooperation: Community Day Care Center, Cooperative Nursery School, Jack and Jill Play School, Peter Pan Day Care Center, and the University of Illinois preschools. In the report, the section "Public Culture and Private Cultures" is taken, with minor revisions, from my Mental Retardation: Its Social Context and Social Consequences. This research was supported in part by Public Health Service Research Grant MH-07346 from the National Institute of Mental Health. Bernard Farber Part II I am in debt to many people. I would first like to acknowledge my gratitude to the people of Potter Addition. The cooperation, toleration, and friendship which they extended to me made this work possible and my job enjoyable. I would also like to thank Dr. Bernard Farber and Dr. Michael Lewis. Their ideas are represented in this work as much as mine. My wife Bev provided assistance, sympathy, and support without which this study could not have been completed. She was deeply involved in all phases of the research and collected data to which I could never have had access otherwise. Finally, I would like to thank Mrs. Sharon Cook and Mrs. Judy Gagerman for their tireless secretarial effort in transcribing the taped interviews. David L. Harvey Part III I would like to thank the