Coffee Hour with Andrew Coppens

Dear Coffee Hour Fans,
The next in our series of coffee hour discussions will host Andrew Coppens, a faculty
member at the University of New Hampshire and contributing member of the Mind, Culture,
and Activity editorial board. October 27^th , 9am Pacific Time.

Andrew has sent us a draft paper he co-authored with Emilie Coppinger that is to be
part of a volume on Strengths-Based education. Ecologically Strong: Toward a
Strengths-Based and Ecologically Valid Developmental Science

The ambitions of the paper as nicely captured by the following fragment from the
beginning of the text

The resources available to psychological and developmental science for
advancing strengths-based evidence in our scientific practices, including the social
interventions they inform, are now well-developed and characterize the leading edge of
scholarship in fields such as critical learning sciences and cultural psychology (e.g.,
Nasir et al., 2020). In addition, the important contributions of, for example, Indigenous,
decolonial, anti-racist, and feminist approaches challenge core traditions of
developmental science in terms of relevance to a world increasingly committed to
issues of equity, shared social power, and diverse representation.
Specifically, we revive the long-standing issue of ecological validity as
fundamental to advancing strengths-based developmental science. We discuss several
examples from developmental literatures and give research recommendations toward
advancing an ecologically valid, strengths-based, and ultimately equity-oriented
developmental science.

NB. To sign up for the zoom session with Andrew and Emilie, write to me
lchcmike@gmail.com. I will send a copy of the “Ecologically Strong.”
In order to participate in the text-based follow-up discussion, please register at
culturalpraxis.net. Those participating will be asked to send me a comment/question for
the authors that the text inspires.