Cultural origins and schooling influence on scientific and everyday concepts: The case of border and citizen on the border concepts

Abstract

This work assumes the existence of a functional and dialectical relationship between activity settings, modes of discourse and ways of thinking. A research is developed to study the influence of schooling and the cultural origins in concepts formation. The participants were border residents from Brownsville (Texas, United States) and from Matamoros (Tamaulipas, Mexico). They belong to two different educational levels (primary and university education). Participants solved a task on concepts formation related to border and citizen on the border notions. Results showed that the subjects from a basic educational level and the Mexican citizens on the border used the most concrete values of the categories studied. We stand that different learning contexts generate different ways of argumentation and concepts, which are valid both for school activities and for everyday life in one side or other of the border.