This essay aims to discuss the social construction of childhood through two representations of young children: Bachelor of Arts with Children’s Studies Essay, NUI, Ireland

Assignment example:  Debating Children and Childhood

This essay aims to discuss the social construction of childhood through two representations of young children.  Qvortrup (2002) argues that a child is often viewed as a being to improve to reach the point of perfection which is adulthood and this according to Valentine (2004) enables adults to justify their attempted control over children. The social construction of childhood is, according to James and James (2008) grounded in varying conceptions of the child amongst cultures, societies and at different times in history.   A historical analysis of childhood is crucial for understanding children as actively contributing to society, Aries (1962) highlighted children’s changing place in society, from the Middle Ages when children were seen as miniature adults to a moralistic period in the 18th and 19^th centuries where children were seen to be in training and discipline for adulthood. Aries (1962) attributes these shifts to changing institutional arrangements in European societies, such as the move towards more nuclear families and the emergence of age-graded schools. The clear evolution in societal attitudes regarding children is evidence according to Corsaro (1997) that childhood is a social construct.

The United Nations Treaty on the Rights of the child (1989) which has been signed by all countries worldwide except for the US considers a child to be any person under the age of 18. However, in many cultures worldwide this is not recognised. For example, in India, according to Roy (2015) the situation of children and child rights is grim and far beyond any satisfactory level with child labour and child abuse (for example child marriage) being largely ignored in the name of cultural appropriation. Hayes et al (2017), in agreement, argue that children grow and develop during a social and culture influence, and this impacts the type of childhood they will have, which according to Bronfenbrenner (1975) is constructed by micro contexts which include the family, friends and immediate community.

For this assignment 2 images of young children will be discussed in relation to how childhood is constructed.  Holland (2004), states that images do not often portray reality but are an idealistic view of what the viewer perceives for example, a picture can pull a moment out from the passage of time and hold it static and can offer the viewer a look into the lives of people we have never met or places we have never been.  Quinn and Manning (2013) argue that it is therefore an assumption that photographs rarely represent the ‘reality’ of a situation as the power rests with the photographer, as it is they that decides what is worthy of seeing.

Representation 1.

The first representation of children that will be discussed in this assignment is an image of a group of Irish Traveller children (see appendix 1).  The image shows 4 Traveller children heading to school.  There is one girl in the background with three to the front.  The too older girls are holding the youngest girl by the hand. The three older girls look to be approximately 10 years old with the younger child in the middle being about 5 years old.  They are all neatly and cleanly dressed in maroon-coloured uniforms.  They look happy with smiling faces.  Behind the children we can see that they are coming from a halting site.  There are 2 mobiles homes in the background with a blue van and grey car in the picture also.  The ground is uneven but otherwise the site is tidy looking.

Looking at this image the viewer is shown an ideal image of school going children. Whereas, according to Pavee Point (2013) poor accommodation, poor health and the experience of widespread prejudice and discrimination combine to create a particular set of circumstances that militate against many Traveller children participating fully in education.  Murray (2014) in agreement acknowledges that in both Ireland and the UK it is not disputed that Traveller children reportedly suffer from the lowest rates of educational attainment of any group.  Therefore, what one sees in the image is what Holland (2004) describes as an unrealistic view of traveller children partaking in education, the viewer is seeing what the photographer wants them to see (Quinn and Manning, 2013).  The gap in education attainment between Travellers and the general population has long been highlighted by Traveller organisations, such as The Irish Traveller Movement and Pavee Point. The last census in 2016 showed that 13% of Travellers were educated to an upper secondary school level or above, but this was over 70% in the general population.  Therefore, looking at this image, one could view the child as an adult in Training (Sorin and Galloway, 2006). The two older girls are in training to be mothers, as they hold the hand of the younger child, as according to developmental psychologists like Piaget.Erikson and Freud this is a view of children as human becomings rather than human beings (Hutchison and Charlesworth, 2000). This is evident in statistics from CSO 2017 that show only 1% of Traveller children attending 3^rd level education with up to 80% of Traveller girls married and already mothers by the time they reach 18 years of age.