CHILDHOOD
Implications for teaching, learning, teachers and schools
Definition
“Child defines not just physiological immaturity but
also connotes dependency, powerlessness and
inferiority. Childhood, however, focuses more on
the general state of being a child, does not refer to
an individual child and suggests the existence of a
distinct, separate and fundamentally different
social group or category”(Gittins, p. 37).
Childhood Diversity
Visual Imagery and Childhood Representations
Philippe Aries
Linda Pollock
What drives the changing character of childhood?
Alan Prout
Social, cultural and economic conditions
Socio-technical developments in communication
Two Different Areas Of Study
Children vs. Childhood
Many childhoods
STUDY OF CHILDHOOD
HISTORICAL (1900s – 1980s)Focus & study not on children
Cultural & Historical Changes in Understanding Childhood
POLITICAL IDEAS
LegislationNew Labour Laws
Post WWII‘Rights’
Childhood Happiness = Adult HappinessChildhood In Peril
Sociology
INNOCENCE
Childhood - angelic purity and innocence
Polarisation
Adults’ only
Appropriate knowledge
Asocial
Contexts
Body image
Sexualisation and commodification
CAPITAL
Capital is a resource unique to an individual that they
can utilize in life
Types of capital
Social
Human
Financial
Emotional
Colemam(1988), Putnam(1995), Morrow(1999), Reay(2002)
GLOBALISATION
Technology
Speed & ease of communication
Worldwide economies
Same toys available worldwide
UN Convention of Rights of the Child (UNCRC)
Activity
CHILDHOOD
Innocence
Diversity
History
Capital
Globalisation
Stereotyping
Legislation
Implications for teaching, learning, teachers and schools?
Reference List
Gittins, D. (2008). The historical construction of childhood. In M.J. Kehily An introduction to childhood studies (pp. 35-49).Maidenhead, UK: Open University Press.
Leonard, M. (2005). Children, childhood and social capital: Exploring the links. Sociology of Tourism, 39(4), 605-22.
Prout, A. (2005). Changing childhood in a globalizing world. In The future of childhood: Towards the interdisciplinary study of children (pp. 7-34). London: RoutledgeFalmer.
Robinson, K. H., & Davies, C. (2008). 'She's kickin' ass, that's what she's doing!': Deconstructing childhood 'innocence' inmedia representations. Australian Feminist Studies, 23(57), 343-58.
Shanahan, S. (2007). Lost and found: The sociological ambivalence toward childhood. Annual Review of Sociology, 33,407-28.