Philosophy and pedagogy of childhood, adolescence and youth

Bibliographic Data

ID13005477
AuthorsM Tesar (0000-0001-7771-2880, University of Auckland, corresponding author), Sylvia Rodríguez (0000-0002-3261-1944, College of Charleston), David W Kupferman (0000-0001-5369-9431, University of Hawaii–West Oahu)
Year2016
Volume6
Issue2
Pages169-176
Publication date2016-05-09
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGlobal Studies of Childhood (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2043-6106 • E-ISSN: 2043-6106
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/2043610616647623
OpenAlexW2346514261
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited11

Childhood, youth and adolescence are contested notions and constructs. These constructs are tainted with ontological and epistemological histories and ideas about ‘real children’ and childhoods. In this Special Issue, we argue that the categories of childhood, youth and adolescence need to be rethought as concepts, and that philosophy, sociology and anthropology are some of the disciplines that can allow us to do so. There are a number of concerns that need to be considered: what these constructs do and how they perform, what they represent and how these categories and brackets are perceived by all actors, both those that are inside and those who are outside of them. These disciplines allow scholars and thinkers to theorize these troubled categories in unexpected, innovative and cutting edge ways, in relation to the complicated globalized contexts of local experiences and lives. We cannot really consider these terms outside of the realm of the current world of politics and policy. The questions of ‘what do we mean by these terms and how do we employ them’ and ‘how do/did we come to know these categories’ are pertinent in the contemporary conditions where there is a growing pressure to both managerialize and marginalize childhood, youth and adolescence in order to demarcate, govern and police these categories. What we argue is that perhaps philosophy as a discipline can rupture established settings, binaries, categories, terms and brackets, by challenging the boundaries of these established constructs. Philosophy presents a disciplinary possibility for theorizing and disrupting categories of the child/childhood, youth and adolescence at ontological, epistemological and ethical levels. The terms child, childhood, youth and adolescence are not only contested and challenged through philosophy but also undone and unworked, undeveloped and de-demarcated and importantly reified through a philosophical lens. As Matthews (1994) argues, to understand philosophy of childhood is perhaps to understand philosophy itself

Developmental psychology · Early childhood education · Pedagogy · Sociology · Children's Rights and Participation · Ethics and Legal Issues in Pediatric Healthcare · Gender Studies · Philosophy, Ethics, and Existentialism · Psychology

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