Gender & Play - Childhood Influences
Childhood is simply the time between infancy and adulthood, the time when we are developing, learning and are dependent on someone to guide us and help us through life. Richard Mills’ (2000, p.8) research shows many views, such as is “childhood a state of powerlessness and adaptation to a lack of power (as Waksler maintains, 1991:69)?” “...Or dependency (Shipman, 1972: 13)? Can it not simply be regarded as a period of biological, intellectual, and social development; as a time for the ‘accumulation of experience’ (Wadsworth, 1991:13)? Leading to self-definition (19991: 12)?” Or does it have a whole different meaning all together?
What does childhood mean to you? Does it have the same meaning to everyone? Does the meaning change as we get older? Is everyone’s childhood the same? Or does it differ according to, gender, culture, class, the country you live in, religion and time? In this assignment I will address some of these issues and issues surrounding them.
There are many interesting themes surrounding childhood; I will be focusing on gender as I believe that your experience of childhood is greatly influenced by this, and gender stereotypes are in result influenced by many external factors, some of these include, media, culture and social conformity. A report done by the American Psychological Association in the Mail (2007) and Telegraph (2007) newspaper reports the strong influences of media on young children and how “The consequence of the sexualisation of girls in media today are very real and are likely to be a negative influence on girls ' healthy development”. Media plays a big role in today’s society and the development of not only the mind of children but adults too are influenced, the changes and views are deeply imbedded in the subconscious.
Another big influence on children, are other children, it is reported in the Independent Education (1996, pp.10-11) that girls have a better attitude to learning, when children were questioned about this
What does childhood mean to you? Does it have the same meaning to everyone? Does the meaning change as we get older? Is everyone’s childhood the same? Or does it differ according to, gender, culture, class, the country you live in, religion and time? In this assignment I will address some of these issues and issues surrounding them.
There are many interesting themes surrounding childhood; I will be focusing on gender as I believe that your experience of childhood is greatly influenced by this, and gender stereotypes are in result influenced by many external factors, some of these include, media, culture and social conformity. A report done by the American Psychological Association in the Mail (2007) and Telegraph (2007) newspaper reports the strong influences of media on young children and how “The consequence of the sexualisation of girls in media today are very real and are likely to be a negative influence on girls ' healthy development”. Media plays a big role in today’s society and the development of not only the mind of children but adults too are influenced, the changes and views are deeply imbedded in the subconscious.
Another big influence on children, are other children, it is reported in the Independent Education (1996, pp.10-11) that girls have a better attitude to learning, when children were questioned about this
References: Greig, A., Taylor, J & MacKay, T. (2007) chapter 9 & 10 Doing Research with Children, 2nd ed. Sage Farrell, A (eds) (2005) Ethical Research with Children, Open University Press Hill, M & Tisdall, K. (1997) Children and Society, Longman Mills, J Smith, K, S, Cowie, H, and Bladers, M. (2003) Understanding Children’s Developmet, 4th ed. Blackwell Thorne, B Turner, J, P. (1995) Sex, Gender and Identity, The British Psychological Society Yelland, N (eds) (1998) Gender in Early Childhood, Routledge Journals Cherney, D, I et all (2003) The effects of stereotyped toys and gender on play assessment in children aged 18-47 months, Educational Psychology, Vol Martin, L, C. And Ruble, D. (2004) Children’s Search for Gender Cues, Current Directions in Psychological Science, Vol. 13, Issue 2, April, p. 67-70 Schmalz, L, D Alexander, M, G and Hines, M. (1994) Gender Labels and Play Styles: Their Relative Contribution to Children’s Selection of Playmates, Child Development, Vol. 65, Issue 3, June, p. 869-879 Lecture Handouts Jones, R, P. (2007) Understanding Children Booklet B, Images as constructions, Image one Newspaper Articles