Examining Constructions of Childhood

Discuss About The Holistic Early Learning And Development.

The essay statement is a key feature of the Regino Emmilo philosophy of teaching and learning. In this philosophy, there is an emphasis on teaching and learning of the children through partnership with the adult (Dahlberg, Moss & Pence, 2007). Children are perceived as agents in learning and there is a concerted effort to ensure that children learn through different mediums that would bring out their true potential. This essay encapsulates the essence of teaching and learning that have been informed by the differed constructions of childhood. There is also a discussion on the different approaches to teaching and learning like the kindergarten, Montessori and Steiner and assess to what extent there is complementarily and juxtaposition of these with the essay statement. Finally, there is a discussion and reflection on the image of the child in the essay statement and its impact on teaching and learning in the future of education for children.

I intend to examine and explore the essay statement through Sorin’s (2005) construction of early childhood practice combined with the three key approaches to teaching and learning.

The earlier approaches to the construction of childhood pertained to the idea of children as innocent beings and need protection from the malaise and social evils in the society. Due to such kind of an ideology books there has been exclusion of books containing stories of demons, witches and monsters as these were believed to have damaging effects on young minds. This has been the key feature of the innocent child theory. There is a perception of childhood as the phase where children are being trained for adulthood. This kind of ideology led to the incorporation of music, school tutoring and training in sports. In this kind of concept, there was no emphasis on play as a strategy for learning. However, such strategy poses serious challenges as the critics contest it whether this form promotes the overall social and cognitive development of children. There has also been educational practices that emphasize on the child learning to act like the adult and consequently inculcate habits that demands extreme discipline and arduousness from the child. The imagination of child as victim has led to the stigmatization of children through their labeling as victims. Children labeled as victims of poverty or violence often feel unwelcome in the classroom. In the early childhood classrooms along with other classrooms, these children are considered as victims.

Approaches to Teaching and Learning

There needs to be clarity regarding the nature of the foundation that one strives for the child. This will give direction to the content of learning that the child will imbibe and manifest through their actions. A Child needs to acquire skills and endowments to cope with challenging situations in life (Brady, Lowe, & Olin Lauritzen, 2015). Educators have an important role to play in shaping the child and therefore, needs to be aware about their actions. The early childhood education has implications for the development of the child.

Froebel’s kindergarten curriculum emphasizes on the first early childhood educational method. According to Froebel, human education needs to be approached from both spiritual and biological perspective (Chigeza & Sorin, 2016). Froebel is credited for pioneering the multiple style of learning like music, games and movement for the purpose of education. The spiritual perspective of Froebel emphasizes on the distinction between humans and other forms of life (Bunner, 2017). The goal of education is to foster the seed of creativity among children and help them to realize their full potential. Another aspect to Frobel’s philosophy is that play is not to be obfuscated as an act of idle behaviour but it is a biological necessity (Lynch, 2015). There is a need to harness the impulse of the child and encourage them to inculcate meaning from their individual experiences. There is a close resemblance of the essay statement with Froebel’s philosophy of education. Much like Froeble who believed in multiple techniques for the inculcation of education, similarly the essence of the essay statement underscore on teaching in a creative manner. However, one fundamental difference of the statement with Froebel’s philosophy is that it does not explicitly encourage children to become powerful agents determining their own future.

Maria Montessori who conceived education from a scientific perspective pioneered the Montessori philosophy. According to Montessori, the purpose of education should be to prepare an individual from all perspectives of life (Atli et al., 2016). She took the charge of designing techniques and materials to gorge a natural growth for the learning of students. This method of learning believes that the child naturally is veered towards learning and therefore, there should be a supportive environment that foster the spiritual growth of the child and lead to a holistic development like emotional, social, emotional and physical. Montessori education offers children with the opportunity to learn in different ways and create an environment where children can learn at their own pace, supported by the teacher combined with the personalized learning plan. Students are encouraged to realize their full potential within the boundaries demarcated by the teachers who are believed to have the best interest for the child (Murphy, 2017). Teachers in the Montessori teaching method are key players in providing compatible environment for the child’s growth and development. With the tide of maturity, students are enable to understand their work from a critical approach regarding their activities and learn to identify the errors in their work. The essay statement bear certain resemblance with this approach of teaching and learning in terms of encouraging children to learn in a manner such there is an acceleration of their inner growth. However, in this approach adults are rendered a more important approach s the boundaries of learning are decided by adult figures. Therefore, it is not fully in consonance with the essay statement.

Froebel’s Kindergarten Curriculum

The statement closely resembles the philosophical tenet of Australian philosopher Rudolf Steiner. According to Steiner, childhood is an important period or phase in the life of an individual. Childhood is defined with warmth and a nourishing environment brimming with outdoor spaces characterized by sprawling gardens and animals. Through the activity of play, the child becomes familiar and learns different kinds of activities like sewing, gardening, problem sharing and solving, and painting. This allows children to navigate their environment, developing cooperation skills and important aspects of life skills that would catalyze foster growth of positive self-esteem and development of fine motor skills. He advocated for the holistic development of an individual. He propounded the notion of anthrosophy that is premised on the notion of paying attention to the moral, creative and moral aspect of the children. Steiner also emphasizes on the physical development of the child and therefore, there was the conceptualization of the dance form called eurythmy. The staunch supporters of the Steiner’s education advocates that this is the most ideal form of education. The integration of art in the teaching promotes a more holistic development and there is a perception that it is the best approach to learning. The essay statement has close resemblance to the Steiner teaching philosophy because much like the Steiner philosophy, the essay statement emphasizes on the child as an agent in his/her own development through various means of teaching-learning methods like painting, sewing, music and storytelling. This method of learning indicates that whatever maybe the career path of the child, s/he needs to nurture the artistic skills and creativity that would intensify the learning process.

The image of the child in this essay statement is that of a child who knows how to exercise his/her agency and has benefitted from the adult-children collaborative approach towards the development of children. This image of the child was galvanized during the Reggio Emilia movement (Fraley & Jones, 2016). According to Emilia, since the birth of the child towards their progress, there is an imperative that the child communicates their feelings their thoughts to the adults and also interact with the fellow children. Children are not isolated individuals but they are members of the broader community (Carnie, 2017). The development of the child occurs through interaction with the peers and the adults. Children are imagined as reciprocal and they are considered quite open to exchange and receive better with tender care. Children are also believed to be great communicators and communicate through different forms of symbolic mediums like collage, shadow play, music sculpture, building and a painting (Hartung, 2011). The environment of the child is also believed to have impact on the learning outcome of the child. Therefore, space is organized in a manner that would facilitate an intensive learning for the child to feel interested in the curriculum. In this method of teaching, educators play an instrumental role in the holistic development of the child. The educators need to move beyond the archetypical role of imparting knowledge through blackboard and class lectures. They have the broader goal of combining innovative methods to teach the students (Tharayil et al., 2018). The educators also understand that they need to encourage students to participate in the curriculum design. There is the incorporation of long-term and short-term projects that catalyzes the skills of problem solving and open-ended discovery. The educators ensure that they are closely paying attention to the children and is involved in the ideas of the children (Ogunyemi, 2015). In this way, there is a thrust on working together, like a team. The children and the educators participate together in reflective sessions with the objective of analyzing the observations and then devising plans to support the learning of children. The educators play the larger role of the researchers that entails the sharing of their interpretations and observations regarding the interaction and range of exploration of the children. An adoption of the Reggio Emilia approach looks like the future of pre-school education. Documentation is an important method or strategy in this type of approach (Robson, 2017). There is an emphasis on paying attention to the thinking process of the children and given it its due recognition. The technique of documentation facilitates the educators, children and parents to proceed in the learning environment through a collaborative overview (Prakash & Ratnam, 2015). The transcriptions comprising of the dialogue of the children along with the contents of drawings and photographs is used as learning tool for the children and the adults during group sessions. An adoption of this method also amounts to considering the families of the children as important agents in facilitating the learning outcome of the children (Rogers et al., 2015). The families are encouraged to share their experiences and an idea of the children’s learning. They also can monitor the events in the school and update themselves regarding the discussion and documentation in school.

Montessori Philosophy

Conclusion

The examination of the essay statement and contextualizing it with the broader context of the Reggio Emilia teaching and learning approach provided an insight into the modern methods of teaching. The essay delved into the different techniques and ideas of classroom education that is informed by multiple constructions of childhood as envisaged by Sorin. Secondly, in the context of three key approaches to teaching and learning, the essay explored the essay statement to identify its convergence and divergence with the available approaches. Thirdly, it was found that a more democratic, participatory and collaborative approach is the future of teaching and learning as it is believed to catalyze learning in a more intensified and effective manner, enabling the child to become an agent in their own education from an early phase.  Through this discussion, I attempted to look at the traditional and convenient of teaching and learning, development of school curriculum and philosophy behind early school education and a prognosis of the future of education.

References

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