Symbolic Family Estate (SFE)
A Learners’ View Is Of Choices On The Shortest And Fastest Path To Learning, The Oxygen Of Social Life.
Definition: 1. a Theoretical model of relationships among kin. b Property of kinship when used as a reference group, role models; the reputation, distinctive life style, a tradition, worth of kinship as viewed in the community. c Justification lies in symbolic, not domestic household, etc., or blood relationships. d Reflects the relative roles of affinity and descent for maintaining family positions for social strata. e Accounts for social differentiation from other kinship groups, social continuity (transmission of family values and norms across generations), and marriage preferences to families or descent groups with similar norms and values. f Defines obligation by kin for use of their real and symbolic family estate. g Historical experience of the group provides the content of norms, values of each kinship line.
2. a Concept indicates social position, community worth, value, socio-economic success, upward mobility. b Implicitly indicates choices available to kin to use for upward mobility, including in schools.
3. a Recognizes the salience of status in interpersonal relationships among kin, such as the use of kin terms of address (i.e., Aunt, Nana), accrues status of spouse in spouse’s family,
4. a Establishes personal identity of kin. b Symbolizes the position of a family in the community, i.e., middle or upper social class. c Indicates a position in the social structure and in a stable organization. d Conception of the legitimation of social class position as distinct from non-upwardly mobile kin and others.
5. Complements and independent from real (i.e., land, patent) and personal property estates of Western American kinship.
6. Children from America Biblical Families with a symbolic family estate were more likely to increase their IQ scores independent from type of preschool program they attended than were children with Western American kinship.
7. Unclear the extent to which this model represents views people have of the usefulness for their daily lives of factors that constitute this model.
8. a Theoretical model used by Field Teachers as child advocates to increase the availability of choices and life chances for public school students whom school personnel considered “disadvantaged” or in other ways “unable” to benefit from school. b Basis for using a virtual symbolic family estate on behalf of someone without such recognition by an organization; use by a person with a symbolic family estate on behalf of someone without such recognition by an organization.
9. (Tech.) Vocabulary that acknowledges respect for status of kin (e.g., Aunt, Uncle, Mother or Mom, Nana/Grandma); collection and communication of biographical information;
Contrast: 1. Western American kin from an individual kin may seek assistance and sentimental attachment. b A source of assistance and affection likely to maintain social status.
Narrative: LEARNING is more likely to occur by children with a symbolic family estate (SFE) than by children without one. SFE represents exposure of family members to choices families consider appropriate for their members. Farber, Harvey, and Lewis (1967), with a team of researchers, reported evidence of links between SFE and learning when they analyzed families and their communities as well as other data from an experimental preschool program. They reported that children from a family with a SFE gained increases in IQ scores irrespective of the preschool they attended in the experiment. Children from families without a SFE did not gain or lost IQ scores. IQ scores, at their core, are derived from results of using vocabulary increasingly unlikely used by an age group to solve problems. Rises in IQ scores means children learned and used vocabulary in preschool beyond their age peers to solve problems age peers did not solve. Field Teaching, a prelude to formalizing a learners’ view (ALV), applied a virtual symbolic family estate to increase choices for and during learning in and out of schools yielding informal gains in learning similar to those reported by Farber and his research team. More experimental research is needed to identify the range of effects SFEs have on learning.
References
- Farber, B. (1971). Kinship and Class: A Midwestern Study. NY: Basic Books.
- Mindel, C. (1974). Kinship, Reference Groups, and The Symbolic Family Estate. International Journal of Sociology of the Family, pp. 91-?.
Related Reading
Related Resources
- Herrnstein, R. & Murray, C. (1994). The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life. NY: The Free Press.
Last Edited: May 5, 2015