Page 48 - Šolsko polje, XXXI, 2020, 3-4: Convention on the Rights of the Child: Educational Opportunities and Social Justice, eds. Zdenko Kodelja and Urška Štremfel
P. 48
šolsko polje, letnik xxxi, številka 3–4
protectionists, children need to be ‘protected from themselves’, i.e. from
the possibility to making decisions and choices that might endanger their
development (Archard, 2004). Adults’ role is to be children’s advocates
and make decisions that are in the child’s best interests. This role is justi-
fied by the image of the child as an immature, irresponsible, incompetent
human being, a ‘future adult’ without competencies to make their own
decisions that are in their best interest.
Some authors believe this discourse of vulnerability and risk is in-
formed by developmental theories that stress children’s lack of rationality,
dependency and need for protection (Smith, 2016). Early developmental
theories in psychology were strongly influenced by the romanticised dis-
course and Rousseau’s ideas about natural development, which should not
be fastened or conditioned in any way (Burman, 2008). The nativists in
developmental psychology perceive development as a process determined
in advance, which envelops a series of successive phases in predetermined
order. Within this school of thought, the child is perceived as natural and
predictable (Hogan, 2005). The natural child is universal, isolated, devel-
oped according to the natural developmental laws, universal and resistant
to influences from the context; the child behaves according to predicta-
ble age parameters and laws (the predictable child). The process of a child’s
development to adulthood is advancing from simple to complex think-
ing, from irrational to rational behaviour. Socialisation is conceived as a
one-way process, as the assimilation of the (natural) child into an already
existing social environment/system. The path of the development is uni-
versal, while cultural differences are kind of ‘embellishments’ related to
various socio-cultural practices (education, the ways of raising children,
social norms etc.), rather than as something intertwined and immanent
in the development (Burman, 2008). On the other side, the empiricists,
with the behaviourists being the most influential among them, and lat-
er the social learning theorists, accepted the idea of John Locke about the
child as a tabula rasa on which, during the life span, the experience im-
prints the traces. The empiricists conceive development as equal with the
process of the acquiring experience and learning (the establishment of the
relations between stimulus and reaction). Although confronted in terms
of the importance they ascribe to the factors of the development (inher-
itance vs. environment), both naturalists and empiricists share the same
image of the child and the contextual determination of the development.
In both conceptions, the child is perceived as passive; the empiricist tra-
dition is more explicit, being interested in the acquisition of experience,
namely in the establishment of stimulus–response relations, neglecting
the internal structures within a person. In that way, the child is a passive
46
protectionists, children need to be ‘protected from themselves’, i.e. from
the possibility to making decisions and choices that might endanger their
development (Archard, 2004). Adults’ role is to be children’s advocates
and make decisions that are in the child’s best interests. This role is justi-
fied by the image of the child as an immature, irresponsible, incompetent
human being, a ‘future adult’ without competencies to make their own
decisions that are in their best interest.
Some authors believe this discourse of vulnerability and risk is in-
formed by developmental theories that stress children’s lack of rationality,
dependency and need for protection (Smith, 2016). Early developmental
theories in psychology were strongly influenced by the romanticised dis-
course and Rousseau’s ideas about natural development, which should not
be fastened or conditioned in any way (Burman, 2008). The nativists in
developmental psychology perceive development as a process determined
in advance, which envelops a series of successive phases in predetermined
order. Within this school of thought, the child is perceived as natural and
predictable (Hogan, 2005). The natural child is universal, isolated, devel-
oped according to the natural developmental laws, universal and resistant
to influences from the context; the child behaves according to predicta-
ble age parameters and laws (the predictable child). The process of a child’s
development to adulthood is advancing from simple to complex think-
ing, from irrational to rational behaviour. Socialisation is conceived as a
one-way process, as the assimilation of the (natural) child into an already
existing social environment/system. The path of the development is uni-
versal, while cultural differences are kind of ‘embellishments’ related to
various socio-cultural practices (education, the ways of raising children,
social norms etc.), rather than as something intertwined and immanent
in the development (Burman, 2008). On the other side, the empiricists,
with the behaviourists being the most influential among them, and lat-
er the social learning theorists, accepted the idea of John Locke about the
child as a tabula rasa on which, during the life span, the experience im-
prints the traces. The empiricists conceive development as equal with the
process of the acquiring experience and learning (the establishment of the
relations between stimulus and reaction). Although confronted in terms
of the importance they ascribe to the factors of the development (inher-
itance vs. environment), both naturalists and empiricists share the same
image of the child and the contextual determination of the development.
In both conceptions, the child is perceived as passive; the empiricist tra-
dition is more explicit, being interested in the acquisition of experience,
namely in the establishment of stimulus–response relations, neglecting
the internal structures within a person. In that way, the child is a passive
46
