Abstract
In recent times the sociology of childhood has played an important role in challenging
the dominance of Piagetian models of child development in shaping the way we think
about children and childhood. What such work has successfully achieved is to increase
our understanding of the socially constructed nature of childhood; the social competence
and agency of children; and the diverse nature of children’s lives, reflecting the very
different social contexts within which they are located. One of the problems that has
tended to be associated with this work, however, is that in its critique of
developmentalism it has tended simply to replace one orthodoxy (psychology) with
another (sociology) rather than providing the opportunity to transcend this divide. The
purpose of this paper is to demonstrate some of the potential ways in which the
sociological/psychological divide might be transcended and the benefits of this for
understanding, more fully, the ‘production’ of children’s schooling identities. In
particular it shows how some of the key sociological insights to be found in the work of
Bourdieu may be usefully extended by the work inspired by the developmental
psychologist, Vygotsky. The key arguments are illustrated by reference to ethnographic
data relating to the schooling experiences and identities of a group of 5-6 year old
working class boys.
Original language | English |
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Publication status | Published - Sep 2005 |
Event | British Educational Research Association Annual Conference - University of Glamorgan, Glamorgan, United Kingdom Duration: 14 Sep 2005 → 17 Sep 2005 |
Conference
Conference | British Educational Research Association Annual Conference |
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Country/Territory | United Kingdom |
City | Glamorgan |
Period | 14/09/2005 → 17/09/2005 |