I am a developmental psychologist in the tradition of cultural-historical and activity theory, and also have a background in cultural anthropology. Broadly, the sociocultural perspective that I take means that things like knowledge, skill, and identity need to be understood as cultural as well as individual psychological entities. It also means that education is studied as the often contentious meeting ground of a changing society and learning developing individuals.I am interested in how people learn and develop with changing forms of social organization. The social organizations or practices that I care about are educational, but are a part of homes, communities, and workplaces as well as schools. 

My program of research is aimed at understanding and supporting participants not only to adapt to existing social practices, but also to transform and improve those practices for others. I am also concerned with relations between these different practices: school and work, home and school, school and community. Studying and supporting consequential transitions is my way of thinking about and doing this. Consequential transitions are changing relations between individuals and social practices that engage identity-a sense of becoming someone or something new--along with changes in knowledge and skill. Consequential transitions are not "just plain learning" and are highly significant for the participants. High school students coming to work in fast food restaurants, machinists learning new computer technology, shifting identities among school-bound and working children in rural South Asia, and special education students negotiating between regular and resource classrooms are potential examples of consequential transition.

For myself, sociocultural theory holds the promise of a less reductionistic, fragmented approach to issues of theory, research, and practice. It is a perspective that challenges and expands our thinking regarding how people share meaning (issues of learning and thought) and how they influence one another (issues of identity) both within and across historical and cultural contexts. My current research interests engage the dialectic I perceive between issues of personal identity, on the one hand, and learning on the other.

Two cultures...two completely different, often contradictory worlds. My experiences as a second generation Indian immigrant growing up in the United States have profoundly impacted my interest in studying the home and school experiences of Asian bicultural adolescents. I would like to better understand how these students, who often find themselves living at the juncture of two different cultures, negotiate different expectations, values, and beliefs in forming a sense of bicultural identity. My dissertation research focuses on the relationship between literacy and bicultural identity through the formation of a literature club for high school students of Asian descent. I believe that literacy may be a powerful force in the construction, exploration, and expression (s) of cultural identity, and may be a means by which we help students bridge the possible gaps between their different cultural worlds, such as home and school. It is my hope that through this research, I will be able to help students progress towards or achieve a stable sense of bicultural identity, as well as further the development of a theoretical model of bicultural identity that accurately describes these students’ unique identity experiences between home and school.

NATALIE BROHL PERELLI

Through my graduate training in Counseling Psychology, I have had the opportunity to work with some unforgettable people. My placements at a shelter for domestic violence, a university counseling center, and a psychiatric hospital for prisoners has exposed to me to a variety of settings and a wonderfully diverse group of individuals. From these interactions, I have grown in awareness and in admiration of the strengths found in each individual.

My dissertation research developed due to my numerous clinical experiences with female clients from a variety of settings. Despite their individual differences, they all shared the unfortunate experience of being in an abusive relationship. Therefore, my current focus looks at a developmental process that women experience when leaving an abusive relationship. My interest has brought me to TRG to better focus on the transition that abused women make when leaving the relationship. This community of scholars has been a tremendous support in helping me through this final transition of my graduate training.

Glad sight wherever new with old
Is joined through some dear homeborn tie;
The life of all that we behold
Depends upon that mystery.
Vain is the glory of the sky,
The beauty vain of field and grove,
Unless, while with admiring eye
We gaze, we also learn to love.

William Wordsworth 1845.

God bless Africa

Guard her people

Guide her leaders

And give her peace. 

Trevor Huddleston
missionary
1966