"Give Us This Day Our Daily Breadth"
Distinguished Professor
Distinguished Professor of Education Greg Duncan, President of the prestigious Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD), will deliver the Plenary Presidential Address at the association's biennial meeting in Montreal on April 1. His address is entitled "Give Us This Day Our Daily Breadth."
SRCD is a professional association dedicated to promoting multidisciplinary
research in the field of human development, fostering the exchange of
information among scientists and other professionals of various disciplines,
and encouraging applications of research findings. Over
5,500 researchers, practitioners, and human development professionals from more than
50 countries are members of SRCD.
Abstract:
As with any discipline, the field of child development progresses by both deepening and broadening its conceptual and empirical perspective. The rewards to refinement are impressive, but there is little need for encouragement in this area, since our disciplines, universities, and funding agencies reward depth and rarely breadth. I make the case for breadth: For combining insights from different disciplines and methods in new and synergistic ways. Examples include ways of looking at the influences of family poverty on children and methods for assessing impacts of policies. Drawing together disparate ideas about development and methods from different research traditions can be time-consuming and frustrating, but also deeply rewarding, both scientifically and personally. I close with some thoughts about how departments, universities, funding agencies and SRCD itself might promote interdisciplinary inquiry.
