HDE 103 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Class Discrimination, Peekaboo, Lev Vygotsky
11 Jun 2018
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I. Lecture 2: Introduction to Childhood in American Society / Webs of Development (April 4-9, 2018)
A. Last class recap: Anthropology
1. Children aren’t as special as we tend to think, culturally speaking
2. Childhood in meaning and in practice is variable (i.e., macro-system)
3. Context matters for valuing what childhood practices and strategies are important (i.e., exosystem)
4. Check your universal bias at the door: Why? How?
5. But…we still need to understand the experiences of children in OUR culture, what OUR culture means,
and how children respond to context HERE
B. Rediscovering Childhood
1. Why have children been mostly ignored—historically—in social sciences?
a. Perhaps not ignored, but marginalized
i. Children are marginalized in social science because of their subordinate position in societies
Adults, scientists, view children in a forward looking way, that is, in what they will become
– not what they are now
Seen as future adults with a role and place in the productive social order and contributions to
make
b. Rarely, are they seen as children with ongoing lives, needs and desires of their own unique to their
developmental period of life
2. Why now?
a. With other marginalized groups (e.g., ethnic, or racial minorities, women) perspectives have
challenged, refined, and transformed
i. Transformed lay and theoretical approaches to understanding human society
Children are now taking their turn (now as in the last 40 years)
b. However, unlike other marginalized groups, children do not have any representatives amongst social
scientists
i. So many of us are looking back BIASED to interpret, or explain childhood for others drawn from
our own experiences
C. Constructivists
1. For years, children were seen as consumers of the culture established by adults
2. By, through modern theoretical and conceptual redefinitions children are now seen as active participants in
the social construction of CHILDHOOD.
3. And, in the interpretive reproduction of their shared culture with adults
a. These constructivist and interpretive approaches see all demographic or social categories as being in
a constant dynamic process or dialogue of socially constructed concepts
i. Thus, to modern social scientists, Social Actions rather than biological determinisms explain
CHILDHOOD; and children play an active role in that dialogue
D. Traditional theories: Socialization
1. Socialization – the process by which children adapt to and internalize society
a. The child is seen as something apart from society to be shaped and guided by external forces, to
become a fully functioning member of society
2. Deterministic Model – the child plays a basically passive role
a. Both a novice with potential to contribute
b. A potential threat who must be controlled through careful training
3. Constructivist Model – the child is seen as an active agent and eager learner
a. The child actively constructs her social world and her place in it
E. The deterministic model: Society appropriates the child
1. Individual relate to society,
a. yet society is also a powerful determinant of individual behavior
2. The solution: theories that describe the appropriation of the child by society
3. Appropriation: the child is taken over by society
a. S/He is trained to become, eventually through effort, a competent and contributing member
4. Deterministic because the child is passive, they are acted-upon
a. Functionalist model saw order and balance in society and stressed the importance of training and
preparing children to fit into and contribute to that order
b. Reproductive models focused on conflicts and inequalities in society and argued that some children
have differential access to certain types of training and other societal resources
F. Functionalist Models
1. Functionalist models focused on describing what the child needed to internalize
a. Which parental childrearing or training strategies were used to ensure such internalization
b. What should be learned to be a member of society?
2. Forward looking: specifying what the child must become to meet requisites for the continued functioning of
society
3. Some saw children as a threat to society, that must be shaped and appropriated to fit into it
G. Reproductive Models
1. Some saw the functionalist views as a mechanism for social control as well as reproduction and
maintenance of class inequalities and adapted functionalist views to be more enduring
2. Reproductive models focus on how advantages are enjoyed by those with greater access to cultural
resources
a. Those with this viewpoint to differential treatment of individuals in social institutions (think classism)
3. Children serve the function to reproduce their cultural class by learning and reproducing their systems
H. Issues with both kinds of Deterministic models
1. Although reproductive models show the effect of social conflict and inequality on the socialization of
children, both can be criticized for their…
a. overconcentration on the outcomes of socialization
b. underestimation of the active and innovative capacities of all members of society, especially children
c. neglect of the historical and contingent nature of social action and reproduction
2. In short, they overlook children as agents in their own development
I. Where do children fit into abstract concepts of social structure - *Children are people too!
1. Aligning conceptual models to developmental theories
2. Freud, for instance, was a recruited often to justify children being passive, potentially disruptive members
of social order
a. As children learn to act in accordance with social norms rather than according to innate sexual and
aggressive drives, they become adults
3. Skinner, on the other hand, was recruited to justify notions of rewards and punishments as a mechanism for
social learning
a. Buy, all still ignore and overlook the main point:
i. Children do not just internalize the society they are born into
ii. Children often act on and bring about changes to society
J. Habitus as consequent to socialization
1. The habitus is how members of society (or social actors), through their continual and routine involvement
in their social worlds, acquire a set of predispositions, or a habitus
2. The habitus is inculcated in early socialization
a. Plays itself out reproductively through the tendency of the child and all social actors to maintain their
sense of self and place in the world
3. Although this is a workable deterministic view because it does acknowledge children’s participation and
reproduction of culture
a. Still ignores children’s contributions to cultural refinement and change in their everyday lives and peer
cultures
i. Peer cultures = how kids interact with each other
4. internal working model; relationships are dynamic
K. Constructivist Models: Child Appropriates Society
1. Rather than adhere to the strict unilateral approaches of Freud and Skinner with the child being shaped and
molded by the adult through reinforcements and punishments, new developmental theorists focused on and
formulated a response to the one consistent critique
a. They found place for children’s agency
b. These views (many of which still have impact now) see the child as
i. Active not Passive
ii. Involved in appropriating information from their environment
iii. Use the information they have learned to create their niche
iv. Construct their own interpretation(s) of their social world
Document Summary
Perhaps not ignored, but marginalized: children are marginalized in social science because of their subordinate position in societies. Adults, scientists, view children in a forward looking way, that is, in what they will become. Transformed lay and theoretical approaches to understanding human society. Children are now taking their turn (now as in the last 40 years: however, unlike other marginalized groups, children do not have any representatives amongst social scientists. So many of us are looking back biased to interpret, or explain childhood for others drawn from our own experiences: constructivists. Thus, to modern social scientists, social actions rather than biological determinisms explain. Childhood; and children play an active role in that dialogue: traditional theories: socialization. Individual relate to society, yet society is also a powerful determinant of individual behavior: the solution: theories that describe the appropriation of the child by society, appropriation: the child is taken over by society.
