TY - JOUR
TI - Representation of the Child in the Environmental Discourse of Early Childhood Education Students
AU - Michalak, Renata
TI - Representation of the Child in the Environmental Discourse of Early Childhood Education Students
AB - The purpose of the article is to show the place and role of the child in the modern ecological discourse, the foundation of which becomes the acknowledgment, recognition and deep understanding of children’s rights and their new position in the world and in their relations with adults as well as nature. These narratives are juxtaposed with the reality, in which children’s rights to participation and social activism are very often taken away or significantly restricted, viewing them in terms of a vulnerable, immature being, susceptible to experiencing harm and in need of care and concern, and therefore incapable of subjective interaction and involvement in problems appropriated by adults. In the analysis of the ecological discourse relating to the role of the child in the construction of harmony in human-nature relations, a dichotomous division was applied: the child-victim (victima) and the child-savior (salvatore). Given the multifaceted nature of this discourse, only selected themes with a pedagogical connotations have been featured in it. Statements and attempts to construct representations of the child in the ecological space were also based on the results of our own research, which was carried out with students of early childhood pedagogy, after a three-semester cycle of courses in natural-ecological education. The empirical material was obtained from the linguistic analysis of oral and written statements of 183 students.
VL - X (2024)
IS - Issue 10
PY - 2024
SN - 2450-4572
C1 - 2450-4564
SP - 257
EP - 278
DO - 10.4467/24504564PMP.24.014.19968
UR - https://ejournals.eu/en/journal/polska-mysl-pedagogiczna/article/reprezentacje-dziecka-w-dyskursie-ekologicznym-studentow-pedagogiki-wczesnoszkolnej
KW - ecological discourse
KW - child
KW - childhood
KW - representation of the child
KW - activism