Research Statement

I pouted in the back seat of my parent's car after preschool. It was so unfair! All I had done was pinched a girl in class. Before I knew it my teacher called my parents to pick me up. I listened quietly as the fight ensued. It always started off this way. First voices in English and then suddenly and abruptly the words would change their sounds. Before long both Chinese and Portuguese filled my eardrums. I was the only one in the car who could understand both languages and to my glee their ideas of what to do with me were in direct opposition.

I have been negotiating culture since the day I was born. In a household with a Chinese mother and a Portuguese father it was an unavoidable fact. As a child I spent never-ending hours explaining to my peers and relatives the complexity of my life, how things were decided and how values and opinions were negotiated. As an adult, this passion and curiosity regarding the complexities of culture and how it influences our lives has stayed with me. This passion permeates not only my research but also my teaching.

Research on Behavior Management in Preschool Across Cultures

How do teachers perceive behavioral control styles in preschool classrooms? How are the behavioral control styles indications of larger cultural goals of development? How are they similar and different across a variety of cultural contexts? These have been my central research questions throughout my undergraduate, masters and PhD study. My larger perspective is informed by cultural theorists including those who adopt a more ethnographic approach (e.g., LeVine, Rogoff, Shweder) and those who adopt a more experimental approach (e.g., Kitayama, Markus). My research on cross cultural studies of behavior management has been supported financially by the IBM Foundation, CBS, the Fulbright Foundation and the American Educational Research Association. I have had the unique opportunity to study preschool education in Beijing, Lijiang, Hong Kong, London, Taipei, Kyoto, Tokyo, Newfoundland and the United States.

Currently, my dissertation research in preschools consists of qualitative (field notes and filming) and quantitative (questionnaires and structured interviews) data that were collected in Beijing, Tokyo and Boston. The work is largely ethnographic, so I have been a participant-observer in all of the preschool classrooms for 3-6 months. In each of these cultural settings data on at least sixty teachers was collected either in the form of a one-on-one semi-structured interview or a questionnaire that included the same questions.

Formation of the dissertation protocol.

The development of the dissertation protocol was based on two types of information: (a) the existing literature on preschool misbehavior and teacher interactions cross culturally; and (b) findings from the my earlier research. The following paragraphs will outline briefly these two influences.

The major contribution to cultural research on preschools was made by Tobin and his colleagues. in his classic book Preschool in Three Cultures (1985). Tobin and his team examined many facets of the preschool experience, one of which was the management of children in the classroom. He noted not only the varying ways in which teachers intervene in misbehavior but also why the teachers intervened in the fashion they did. Although Tobin provided a rich ethnographic account of misbehavior and teacher interventions, he did not quantify the differences. The present study fills that gap.

Catherine Lewis, in her book, Educating Heart and Minds (1995), also contributed to the creation of the protocol employed in my dissertation.. Like Tobin, she carefully documented misbehavior situations in the Japanese preschool. Her detailed accounts of child misbehavior and of interactions between teacher and student were essential in the creation of the misbehavior scenarios employed in the present measure. Tobin's and Lewis's work provided a foundation for the creation of the coding categories used in the present study to identify both teacher interventions and teacher goals. In addition, from 2001 to 2002 I spent two years during my Master's study gathering data about preschools in Taipei, Taiwan; Kyoto, Japan; Beijing, China; St. John's, Newfoundland; Boston, United States; and London, United Kingdom. I lived in each of the cultures for at least four months. During this time I was not only a researcher but also a teacher in local preschools. The opportunity to live in each culture gave me the opportunity to observe, document and interview teachers regarding their understandings of misbehavior and their goals regarding behavior management. Both qualitative and quantitative data were obtained, the latter through interviews with 5-6 teachers in each community. While the quantitative differences were striking, the small sample size and a posteriori nature of the coding system made replication critical. The results of the study, in tandem with the existing literature, gave rise to the category system for interventions of misbehavior and goals of those interventions that I employ in my dissertation.

Dissertation Findings.

At this point my main finding is that there are cultural responses to misbehavior that reflect larger philosophical differences. In American preschools I have found that teachers exhibit democratic and authoritative responses. For example, American teachers explained that the best interventions would consider the "perspective of the child" and a "fair negotiation." One teacher shared her experience: "Two of my students were fighting over a swing. I approached them and asked them both to explain what had happened. I tried to get them to take the perspective of each other. This negotiation took a long time but I think it was worth it." Japanese teachers are more likely to select indirect (teacher authority is muted) and contextually oriented responses. Many Japanese teachers noted that they would manipulate the classroom setting to alter child behavior. One powerful example was demonstrated when a teacher described a classroom situation: "The children would always fight over sandbox toys. It became such a problem that I decided one day to leave only one bucket in the sandbox. When the children got to the sandbox and discovered that there was only one bucket they were forced to work together. I didn't have to say a word." Lastly, Chinese teachers are more likely to select evaluative and autocratic responses. One Chinese teacher explained, "My job as a teacher is to tell and teach a child how to behave appropriately. For example, one child in my classroom refused to put their jacket on to go outside. I made the whole class aware that we had one child that was keeping everyone waiting. I instructed the class to say to the child (in unison), "Put on your jacket! We are all waiting!" It was very effective. The child was embarrassed that he was keeping everyone waiting." The data collected for my Master's thesis have led to the publication of chapters in two books, Children's Play and Pathways to Behavior Management, one article published in The Journal of Research in Childhood Education and multiple journal articles are currently in preparation. This research has enabled me to give multiple lectures, present at several conferences (i.e. SRCD, AERA, ISSBD), and teach my own undergraduate course, Preschool Across Cultures, at Tufts University.

Research on Families with Adopted Children from China

My second area of research concerns the ethnic identity of children adopted from China as well as potential supports for ethnic socialization. I have found through an extensive literature review that there are three major challenges for this population: (1) children's ability to develop a healthy understanding of their birth culture (e.g., Yost, 1985; Wickes & Slate, 1997; Tan & Nakkula, 2004); (2) children's ability to relate/connect to their adoptive parents despite differences in phenotypic characteristics (e.g., Lee, 2003); and (3) children's ability to develop coping mechanisms when confronted with teasing or negative comments from others (e.g., Cao, 2004). To address these challenges, I developed a Chinese socialization program for ten transracially adopted Chinese children and their families. I have collected data on the experiences of these families in this socialization program for the past six years. I carefully documented the curriculum created as well as initial outcome evaluations from both the children and the parents. I have disseminated this work through presentations in both academic and applied settings and a few lay articles for Our Chinese Daughters Foundation and Families with Chinese Children. In addition, I am preparing an article for publication in a scholarly journal.

My work with these families resulted in the inception of the Adoption and Development Project at Tufts University. Discussions with Professor Ellen Pinderhughes, a faculty mentor and the Principal Investigator on the project, that were based on my experiences with the Chinese socialization program and her knowledge of the adoption literature led to the conceptualization of the Adoption and Development Project. I have been involved with this project since its inception and now serve as the Head Research Assistant. My role is to coordinate this project that presently has ten undergraduates and graduate students working together to collect, code and analyze data from parents and from their adopted Chinese children. To date we have successfully collected data on forty families, and we are in the process of drafting a journal article of our findings.

Future Research

I plan to continue my research on behavior management across cultures as well as my work with families with adopted children from China. I look forward to recruiting students to work with me on both of these projects. In addition to these two major areas of inquiry, I am also interested in a range of research concerning creativity in China, attachment, the immigrant experience in Head Start, family drawings across cultures, as well as children and technology.

Evaluations and Outreach in Educational Contexts

In addition to my research projects I also have experience consulting in educational contexts. One evaluation project involved Professor Diane Souvaine's National Science Foundation (NSF) funded project "Discrete Math Workshop Training for K-12 Teachers" conducted at Tufts. With a colleague, I designed and implemented program evaluations including pre and post test data, daily feedback reports, in-session observations and group interviews. This methodology allowed for a broad range of recommendations for future improvement in the workshop. My evaluation plans and reports were modeled after the five-tiered model (Jacobs, 1988) which combines needs and demand, monitoring and accountability, quality review and program clarification, achieving outcomes and establishing impact. The evaluation reports influenced the workshop on a daily basis and provided the teaching staff valuable feedback for program improvement. This year the data will be presented to NSF and the Massachusetts Department of Education to secure further funding for the project.

I have also been hired by several preschools to provide in-service training to teachers, and to observe and document classroom settings, as well as to provide presentations to local parenting groups.