Indigenous and non-Indigenous primary school students' attitudes on play, humour, learning and self-concept: a comparative perspective

Based on theory and research, social aspects like friendship and sense of relatedness are fundamental in the development of children's cultural identity and achievement of outcomes. It is argued that this is a motivational aspect often neglected in research studies focusing on students' motivation and learning. Theory and research on motivation and learning show that interesting relations exist between students' self-concept, motivation and preference of learning. Humour is also a factor of importance in relation to peer acceptance and perceived social competence. In any culture, motivation and preference of learning are grounded in values and sets of knowledge. For Indigenous people in particular, cultural values, sense of relatedness and self-determination are important components of school motivation. In this paper we discuss results from two comparative cross-cultural studies within the research project The Socio-Cultural Perspective on Play and Learning. The aim was to compare attitudes and beliefs among Indigenous students of Aboriginal Australian, Navajo Indian, and Norwegian Sami descent as opposed to students of Anglo Australian, Anglo American and Ethnic Norwegian background. Methodological issues of importance in cross-cultural research studies like this are discussed. Our research indicates friendship and sense of competence are of importance to students' motivation to participate and achieve in school, partly confirming results from other research studies. Results regarding interests in play, preference of learning, self-concept aspects and school motivation orientation are also presented and discussed. We find a sense of relatedness to be a quintessence in this concern, for which reason social learning through social motivation has to be taken more seriously than often is done, in pre-school and school alike. In these matters we think different cultures may be inspired by each other, along the lines of reciprocal respect.