Exploring childhood in a comparative context

An introductory guide for students

Mabel Ann Brown, Jon White

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781136499432
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Didattica
• Subtopic: Didattica generale

Exploring Childhood in a Comparative Context meets an increasing need for students focusing on early childhood to be familiar with alternative practices in other countries. Providing a ready-made source of information about a wide range of countries including Finland, the Netherlands, the United States, New Zealand, Japan, South Africa and many more, the book clearly describes the way each country understands and conceptualises childhood.

Each chapter includes contextual information about the country, an introduction to the theory that has shaped practice and describes the curriculum for pre-school and primary education. Including vignettes from practitioners working in each country to illustrate practice, the chapters explore key themes such as:

• Child development
• Parental involvement
• Teaching and learning
• Professionalism
• Assessment
• Pupil experience.

Accessibly written and including opportunities for reflection, this timely new book will give students a valuable insight into alternative education systems that is essential if they are to become practitioners with a current and global approach.

CHAPTER
1
	What is childhood?
	Mabel Ann Brown

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge the support and opportunities provided by colleagues at the University of Derby.

Introduction

In Fisher (2002:87), Bertram and Pascal claimed, ‘laying the foundations on which a child's edifice is to be built is a complex, skilful and very responsible task’, so is childhood a time to lay these foundations or is it a time for something more?

Personally I believe it is something more as it is a time when a child finds out who they are and how they can relate to other children. Childhood is a time when children can feel acknowledged and loved or they can feel inadequate and become self doubting. The responsibility for fostering confidence lies with the adult; they are indeed laying the foundations for the future. What these foundations are or need to be is debatable and frequently based on adult's perspectives at that time. Is it the skills, knowledge or even a sense of identity that we need to impart? It is unclear. Whichever it is, the adult plays a significant part.

The role of the adults

‘It is the quality of interaction between adult and child that defines the quality of the whole educational experience’, Trudell says in Fisher (2002:69). Children will build upon their early experiences. Piaget defines this as assimilation and accommodation as the children first absorb experiences and then change and adjust, as explained in Bruce (2005:41). Thus we need to consider if positive experiences with adults are the key to a successful adulthood.

Woodhead (1999:19) refers to the ‘social child’ and in this image the child has status within society and has their own abilities and interests. In this instance the practitioners, adults and parents become the facilitators enabling children to grow in competence. The adult has a responsibility to respect the child and their competences and structure the environment to support this.

However, in some societies childhood is not viewed as a time to assimilate or empower; it is viewed more as a preparation for adulthood. In this context childhood becomes a time to acquire the skills necessary to be an adult. This could, according to Woodhead (1999:18), be the ‘developing child’ paradigm with children in a state of ‘not yet being’ or ‘projects in the making’.

Perspectives on education and its purpose

Education is a part of modern day childhood but what is it? Aristotle in Ross (2008:15) identified three variations on the purpose and nature of education that are still valid today. The first variation was designed to produce ‘citizens that are useful to a society’; the second variation was a system that produces individuals who can relate to other human beings; and the third variation a system that supports ‘exceptional accomplishments’ (Ross 2008:16). Thus in terms of Aristotle, childhood is a time to develop personally but also a time to develop social skills and values whilst also meeting the needs of the greater picture of being useful to society. Alexander (2010:197) identified 12 aims for education: to promote well being, engagement, empowerment, autonomy, respect and reciprocity, interdependence and sustainability, awareness of citizenship, culture and community, knowing and making sense of the world, skill development, opportunities to excite the imagination and an ability to contribute to dialogue. Each of these is highly important but is it taught or is it acquired? Healthy children are considered as willing to engage in learning as they often want to know and often say ‘why?’ or ‘what is that?’ Knowledgeable adults will empower children by giving them the answers or opportunities to find out for themselves. Some of Alexander's (2010:197) aims will be achieved as part of a hidden curriculum but other aspects may need to be taught.

Social engineering

Education can be transformative and encourage mobility from one social group to another but it is often underpinned by the politics at that time and could be just a response to a capitalist system (Ross 2008:19). ‘Schools re create the social and economic hierarchies of the society in which they are embedded’ (Ross 2008:20), thus some children can be discriminated against particularly if they begin life in a deprived locality or situation. These early limitations can reduce the opportunities to receive higher education. This in turn will affect the child's future earning potential. The OECD (2009a:71) recognises a clear link ‘between education and the average earnings of individuals’. Graduates generally earn more than those who leave school with basic qualifications. Politicians and school organisers can try to address this by enabling some children to receive an education outside their normal locality. This is frequently described as social engineering.

Another view is socialization and an attempt to foster certain social groups for political or economic reasons. John Dewey (1907) cited in Ross (2008:17) ‘proposed an alternative and transformative model of education’ that ‘enabled an opportunity to escape from the limitations of the social group in which he was born’. Thus childhood could also be considered a time for social engineering by the prevailing powers of authority. Alexander (2010:174) defines the aims of education as ‘ethical and political’. Ethical in that we may be trying to improve the lot of some groups of people but political because we are trying to maintain certain agreed social groups. Education is to some extent agreed by consensus or by the way people vote particularly in the United Kingdom.

An obedient prepared workforce

Rousseau (1991:7) considers that man is naturally inclined to be independent, self sufficient and upon whom ‘inclinations are imposed’. Thus preparing children for a workforce is completely contrary to man's natural instinct. ‘Capitalist society needs a docile obedient motivated workforce, school prepares us for this in three ways by expecting, subservient conformity, hierarchical acceptance and motivation by external rewards’, (Ross 2008:115). However, as Trevarthen (2011:173) points out ‘educational reformers since ancient times … have reacted to the imposition of the formal practice of schooling to urge that children should be respected for their intuitive abilities and not just trained in skills’. Alexander (2010:191) refers to the need for ‘balance’ between the intention of preparation for work and the needs of the child's individual development; it confirms the notion that ‘one size does not fit all’ and that children have individual needs too.

Responsible citizens

The life skills to survive are innate within each child or as Rousseau (1991:7) points out ‘his sole concern is his preservation and comfort’, but this does not necessarily agree with countering individual desires and inclinations for the common good.

Children need to become responsible citizens one day but how do we achieve this and when should it be achieved by? The time when children move from childhood into adulthood has long been debated; in fact the school leaving age in Britain has been raised several times. In 1972 the school leaving age was raised to 16. Yet in Britain ‘people cannot vote until they are 18’ (Goldson et al. 2002:10). Does this mean that a 16 year old is still a child or does it mean that adulthood only begins when we are 18? Inherent in this is the notion of personal responsibility and the movement from adults as a controlling influence to personal choice and freedom to act in a way that they wish. If the supervising adults have empowered the children, this transition will be less fraught with problems. Positive role models, as Bandura's Social Learning Theory (Macleod Brudenell and Kay 2008:118) observed, can make a significant difference particularly as children ‘observe and imitate’ the behaviour of important adults in their lives.

Meeting children's needs

In the ‘pre modern era’, children were thought to have distinct needs and requirements; it was assumed they went through ‘identifiable periods of development’, (Goldson et al. 2002:18). Vygotsky moved this argument or debate forward in the 1930s with his Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). This is supported and reflected upon by Alexander (2010:94) when he says, ‘Plowden building on Jean Piaget's development theory, made pla...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• List of contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations/terminology
• Introduction
• 1 What is childhood?
• 2 Education in Flanders
• 3 Education in the Czech Republic
• 4 Education in England
• 5 Education in Finland
• 6 Education in Greece
• 7 Education in Japan
• 8 Education in Latvia
• 9 Education in the Netherlands
• 10 Education in Australia and New Zealand
• 11 Education in Poland
• 12 Education in rural South Africa
• 13 Education in the United States of America
• Conclusion
• Index