Collaboration patterns among Mexican children in an Indigenous town and Mexican City

• Forms of collaboration vary culturally even in one country.
• Children with Indigenous Mexican family history collaborate more than Mexican children with middle class history.
• While collaborating middle class children rely mostly on talk, but Indigenous children use multiple forms of communication.
• In Indigenous Mexican communities these patterns may be changing as schooling becomes more prominent.

This study examined cultural patterns of collaboration related to familiarity with middle class and Indigenous ways of learning in a P'urhépecha community in México (Cherán) and in a cosmopolitan Mexican city (Guadalajara). Two hundred and sixty children (ages 8–10) were videotaped as they played Chinese checkers in pairs against each other. In Cherán, 36 pairs had mothers with 9 years or fewer of schooling, and 45 pairs had mothers with 10 or more years of schooling. All pairs from Guadalajara had mothers with 10 years or more of schooling. While playing P'urhépecha children whose mothers had 9 or fewer years of schooling collaborated in 60.45% of time segments compared to 45.52% for the children whose mothers had 10 or more years of schooling, and 22.43% in Guadalajara. Children in Guadalajara were more likely to rely on talk while collaborating whereas children from Cherán used multiple ways of communicating.