U212 Book 1 - Understanding Childhood

Front 1

What is a child?

Back 1

Lots of ways to define a child
- UNCRC - anyone under 18
- childhood means different things to different people
- societies make laws defining childhood e.g. voting rights, leaving school

Front 2

Social constructionist approach to studying childhood

Back 2

Looks at IDEAS not facts, examines beliefs, images, studies representations and discourses

Front 3

Scientific approach to studying childhood

Back 3

Seeks practical knowledge about children, by devising theories and testing them through observation and experimentation

Front 4

Applied approach to studying childhood

Back 4

Looks at ways children are defined in terms of the law & children's rights, policies & professional practices

Front 5

PASS THROUGH STAGES
Each stage lays the foundation for the next
Everyone goes through the same stages in same order
The child is an active learner. Basically they have to do it on their own, they can’t be told

(see hint for names of Stages)

Back 5

PIAGET's theory of cognitive development

Hint 5

Sensory motor - 0-2 years
Pre-operational - 2-6 years
Concrete operational - 6-12 years
Formal operational - 12+

Front 6

Moral development passes through stages. To reach stage 6 a child has to pass through 1-5

Back 6

KOHLBERG's theory of MORAL development

Hint 6

Stage 6 - being good is defined by your own conscience

Front 7

Children who commit crimes
SCIENTIFIC APPROACH

Back 7

Moral judgements universal. Moral development progresses through 6 stages. Progression influenced by upbringing & their culture.

Hint 7

p. 17

Front 8

Children who commit crimes
SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONIST APPROACH

Back 8

Challenges the idea that moral values can be objectively defined and measured

Hint 8

p. 29

Front 9

SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF CHILDHOOD
Historical changes

Back 9

Ideas about children change depending on social, cultural & historical context. e.g 50's - children seen not heard, now people very interested in what children have to say.

Hint 9

p. 46

Front 10

SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF CHILDHOOD. Examples of cultural differences

Back 10

When life begins - Christians at conception; Waiwai 3 yrs old soul becomes complete.
Japanese culture - children seen as extension of parents.

Hint 10

p.52

Front 11

Pioneered idea that childhood is a social construction in his book 'Centuries of Childhood' 1962

Back 11

PHILIPE ARIES
Who is he?

Hint 11

p.58

Front 12

PHILIPE ARIES THEORIES

Back 12

Claimed childhood invention of 16-17th century - did not exist before then.

Hint 12

p. 58

Front 13

PHILIPE ARIES - CRITICISM OF THEORY

Back 13

Relied too heavily on paintings, which did not take into account lives of children - instead used symbolism.

Ignored other sources e.g. medical books on children's illnesses. Legal system set ages for criminal responsibility. Teachings of the Church on role of children.

Hint 13

p. 59

Front 14

2 non-Western constructions of childhood

Back 14

Japan - children seen as extension of parents - not able to exist without parents.

Waiwai - child in own right from 3 years old

Hint 14

p. 66

Front 15

Examples of different ways people talk about childhood

Back 15

CONTRADICTORY - pure, innocent, full of potential OR corrupt& bestial

Front 16

Children inherently good. Naturally innocent. If behave badly it is because they have been corrupted.

Back 16

ROMANTIC DISCOURSE - time of INNOCENCE
(Jean-Jacques Rousseau - 1762 - Emile)

Hint 16

p. 66

Front 17

Children innately evil. Could be enlightened through discipline & education.

Back 17

PURITAN DISCOURSE - time of EVIL
(Thomas Hobbes - 1600's)

Hint 17

p. 63

Front 18

Children 'blank slate' - experience shapes the child. Need to be shaped by environment and education.

Back 18

TABULA RASA - time of BECOMING
(John Locke- 1690)

Hint 18

p. 64

Front 19

Ways Western construction of child have been globalised

Back 19

Every country except US & Somalia has signed & ratified the UNCRC agreeing that 'a child means every human under 18 years' PROBLEMATIC - not all societies treat children as children up to that age

Expectations of child development based on Western notions.

Ideas that children should not work. PROBLEMATIC - many in South work through necessity & tradition.

Aid agencies use images of starving children in Africa, reinforces stereotype of helpless people.

Hint 19

p. 71

Front 20

Ways Western construction of child have been globalised

Back 20

Every country except US & Somalia has signed & ratified the UNCRC agreeing that 'a child means every human under 18 years' PROBLEMATIC - not all societies treat children as children up to that age

Expectations of child development based on Western notions.

Ideas that children should not work. PROBLEMATIC - many in South work through necessity & tradition.

Aid agencies use images of starving children in Africa, reinforces stereotype of helpless people.

Hint 20

p. 71

Front 21

DR ITARD's experiments on 'WILD BOY of AVEYRON' - tried to reverse affects of social deprivation

Back 21

Historical roots of developmental approach to childhood

Hint 21

p. 86

Front 22

Global influence of developmental approach

Back 22

Western beliefs based on ages and stages spread globally through school systems, experts influence, UNICEF & UNCRC (1989)

Hint 22

p. 92

Front 23

Key concepts in study of development

Back 23

Charting growth & change

Charting intellectual & social understanding

Hint 23

p. 94

Front 24

Examples of observational & experimental studies

Back 24

Charles DARWIN - observed & experimented on baby son - 1840's
Arnold GESSEL - observation dome, USA 1911
John BOWLBY - observed children deprived of mother (orphans/hospitalized) 1930's

Hint 24

p. 104

Front 25

PIAGET universal staged process

Back 25

Theory that ALL children progress through STAGES of development (originated from Friedrich FROEBEL 1887).
Piaget endorsed progressive, child-centered education.

Hint 25

p. 108

Front 26

1. Conservation of liquids
2 beakers filled to same level, 1 is poured into another different shaped beaker - is amount more, less or same?
2. 3 mountains task
Two intersecting 'walls'. Figures of boy & policemen placed at different points, child asked to hide boy from both policemen.

Back 26

1970's experiments that challenge PIAGET's theory

Hint 26

Different results to Piaget's because PRESENTED IN A WAY THAT WAS MORE RELEVANT TO CHILDREN p. 111

Front 27

ARGUMENT AGAINST Universal Stage Theory (generalised progression through stages)

Back 27

Children's reasoning varies according to way task is presented & way it is understood.

Hint 27

p. 112

Front 28

Challenged PIAGET's STAGE THEORY. Believed development is embedded in social and cultural contexts of child's life

Back 28

LEV VYGOTSKY

Hint 28

p. 113

Front 29

JUDY DUNN's observations & experiments (1998)

Back 29

Studied 2nd born children in their 2nd & 3rd years in their own homes. By studying children in familiar settings she gained stronger evidence of their social competence (empathy / moral understanding)

Hint 29

Reading B p. 127

Front 30

WHY developmental research & theories are a SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION of childhood

Back 30

Charting children's development relating to age is distinctive to modern societies. Children are constructed as 'in a process of becoming' rather than persons in their own right.

Hint 30

p. 120

Front 31

1948 UN Declaration of Human Rights asserted everyone has same rights simply because they are human

Back 31

Concept of human rights

Hint 31

p. 137

Front 32

Ways rights can be complex & contradictory

Back 32

Women not given full rights in some countries. E.g. Saudi Arabia - religious reasons

Local cultural practices conflict with notions of universal rights e.g Female/male circumcision, child marriage, cannot be condemned if part of a culture.

Based on Western idea that each human is autonomous individual. This idea does not exist in countries such as Japan, so hard to implement.

Hint 32

p. 139-140

Front 33

PROVISION - for growth & development (food, housing, education)
PREVENTION - from harm (abuse)
PROTECTION - against exploitation, in times of conflict
PARTICIPATION - in decisions made on their behalf. Right to hold an opinion.

Back 33

Main provisions of UNCRC 1989
FOUR P's

Hint 33

p. 144

Front 34

Problem with PARTICIPATION RITES?

Back 34

Issues about children's competence. Hard to know when children are physically, mentally & emotionally competent to participate fully.

Hint 34

p. 151

Front 35

Stresses Rights and RESPONSIBILITIES of the child.
Sets out duties parents have to children, and child's duties to parents.

Children expected to care for families, communities & Africa.

This focus is non-existent in UNCRC.

Back 35

Main provision of AFRICAN CHARTER 1990

Hint 35

p. 161

Front 36

Effects legislation is having on children's lives

Back 36

Can involve them having too much responsibity that they do not want (e.g decision to decide which parent to live with after divorce)

Policies had adverse affects on children, even when benefited adults (e.g. reduction in wells meant younger children sent to collect water)

Hint 36

p. 167

Front 37

Main BIOLOGICAL differences between male & female

View that gender differences are 'natural' and fixed.

Back 37

Determined by one pair of 23 chromosomes.
XX pair - usually female
XY pair - usually male. Some people born with gender wrongly assigned.

Hint 37

p. 188

Front 38

SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONIST APPROACH to GENDER

View that gender is moulded by society's attitudes.

Back 38

A child's sex influences how they are treated by society. They acquire gender through the way they are treated.
Children adapt into gender roles.

Hint 38

p. 185

Front 39

3 lines of RESEARCH into ACQUIRING GENDER

Back 39

REWARDS & PUNISHMENTS - Approval for some kinds of play, disapproval of others (e.g. boys discouraged from playing with dolls / girls from jumping & climbing)

OBSERVATION, IMITATION & MODELLING - boys model on men, girls on women

SOCIAL UNDERSTANDING - children make sense of gender as an aspect of their social and cultural world

Hint 39

p. 193-7

Front 40

THEORY OF DISCURSIVE POSITIONING

Back 40

Gendered identities not fixed but fluid. Changes in attitudes can result in different treatment e.g girls not expected to do as well as boys in Maths, so treated as less capable. When this attitude changed girls did better.

Hint 40

p. 200

Front 41

Consequences of gender on childhood

Back 41

Selected infanticide - 68m missing girls in India & China

South - girls receive less education than boys, so limits their opportunities

North - girls outperform boys at school, but this does not result in higher earnings or more powerful positions.

Hint 41

p. 210

Front 42

CONCEPT OF CHILDHOOD INNOCCENCE

Back 42

Lack of knowledge, particularly sex & violence
Lack of experience of the adult world, esp sex, money, work, grief or hatred
Lack of evil or sin
Synonymous with purity
Lack of knowledge of economics & consumerism
Inherent to children

Hint 42

p. 230

Front 43

Ways innocence is evident in text and visual representations (Contemporary & Historically)

Back 43

Contemporary: Images of innocence used in ad campaigns e.g Barnardo's, Evian, Peugeot. Children presumed to become less innocent as they grow older.

Historically: Blake's poem 'Songs of innocence & experience', Henry Mayhew's 'Watercress Girl' expressed shock at 'lost childhood'; paintings of children with lambs & at one with nature.

Hint 43

p. 228-235

Front 44

Practical consequences for children when they are presumed innocent

Back 44

Expected to be sexually innocent so assumed to be something 'wrong' if they are not. Sexual activity prohibited until 16.

Reaction to children who commit crimes - disrupts notion of childhood innocence - treated as evil delinquents by media

Hint 44

p. 246 & p. 254

Front 45

Negotiation between adults and children over sexuality

Back 45

Parents mindful of children's sexual awareness. Try to regulate sexual activity based on view of appropriate sexual behaviour. Seek to protect them from abuse.

Hint 45

p. 239

Front 46

All children are inherently sexual but it is repressed by society

Back 46

What did Sigmund FRAUD argue?

Hint 46

p. 238

Front 47

What did Michel FOUCAULT argue?

Back 47

Wrote : History of Sexuality 1976.
Argued that repressing sexuality had had opposite affect. Children have an increased awareness of sex. Refers to this as 'discursive explosion'

Hint 47

p. 241

Front 48

EVIDENCE of sexualisation of girls

Back 48

LOLITA - explores unstable boundary between innocence & experience

PAINTED BABIES - young girls dressed and acting in what could be viewed as provocative

SEXUALISED girls clothing

Hint 48

EYE OF BEHOLDER is responsible for making interpretations

p. 246

Front 49

How were child killers treated in Norway?

Back 49

Seen as innocent because they were children (5 years old)

Hint 49

p. 255

Front 50

How are child killers treated in the UK?

Back 50

Killers of James Bulger demonized, not innocent and therefore not treated as children.

Hint 50

p. 255

Front 51

What can science tell us about children's ability to reason & make moral choices at different ages?

Back 51

PIAGET - 3 mountains experiment - Children younger than 7-8 unable to imagine scene from another persons point of view - evidence of egocentric view

Front 52

PIAGET - 3 mountains task - children gain ability to see another persons perspective - age 7-8
KOHLBERG - Stage theory - moral development passes through 6 stages - children must pass through 1-5 to reach 6
KOHLBERG other studies - childrens moral development influenced by upbringing & culture

Back 52

What can science tell us about children's ability to reason & make moral choices at different ages?

Front 53

What do social constructionist mean when they talk about 'discourses of childhood'?

Back 53

How childhood is understood - views vary in different societies & according to economic circumstances, family values, laws, education, work, moral codes etc.