Session Information
13 SES 10 A, Parallel Paper Session
Parallel Paper Session
Contribution
In recent times, and in the wake of post-structural streams of thought, a strong critique of traditional developmental psychology has appeared (Morss, 1996; Burman, 2008). This field of research seems to have lost much of its previous influence on educational thinking and has itself turned into a rather fragmented empirical discipline with little adherence to any ”grand theories” (old or new) (Zimiles, 2000). One of the aims of this paper is to find out whether this critique of traditional developmental psychology is really justified, by examining some of the arguments against its old ”grand theory”-form. Another aim is to explore the philosophical possibilities of poetizing the unknown, transcendent dimensions of childhood – aspects that are easily lost in the measuring and testing practices of educational institutions (Smeyers & Masschelein, 2001). My thesis is that some kind of ”grand theory” of human development from child to adult is needed in order to protect childhood from influences of the adult political, social and cultural worlds and their agendas. To substantialize this view I present some (more or less) philosophical views of childhood, drawing upon Schiller, Nietzsche, Jung and Steiner. Such views tend to be marginalised in present childhood research, whether developmental or sociological (James, Jenks, & Prout, 1998). The latter, in spite of its good intentions, may therefore promote yet another reductionist view of childhood. Finally I discuss the educational significance of the recent appearance of a new kind of research around children and spirituality. This discussion includes the so called Child Theology movement (Mountain, 2011), which presents a view of childhood with an affinity to that of Steiner Waldorf education (Steiner, 1932).
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Burman, E. (2008). Deconstructing developmental psychology. London: Routledge. James, A., Jenks, C., & Prout, A. (1998). Theorizing childhood. Cambridge: Polity Press. Morss, J. R. (1996). Growing critical. Alternatives to developmental psychology. London and New York: Routledge. Mountain, V. (2011). Four links between Child Theology and children’s spirituality. International Journal of Children's Spirituality, 16(3), 261-269. Semetsky, I. (2011). Tarot images and spiritual education: the three I's model. International Journal of Children's Spirituality, 16(3), 249-260. Smeyers, P., & Masschelein, J. (2001). L'enfance, education, and the politics of meaning. I P. A. Dhillon & P. Standish (Red.), Lyotard: Just Education (pp. 140-156). London and New York: Routledge. Steiner, R. (1932). Allgemeine Menschenkunde als Grundlage der Pädagogik. Dornach: Philosophisch-Anthroposophischer Verlag. [General knowledge of the human being as foundation for education.] Zimiles, H. (2000). On reassessing the relevance of the child development knowledge base to education. Human Development, 43, 235-245.
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