Chapter 9: Children’s Perspectives on Their Childhood Experiences

Educators, researchers, and the general public in modern societies view schools as a major cultural influence on children. In most countries, a primary function of school, at all levels, is to socialize and educate students so they will be able to function well in a given society. From this widely accepted perspective, children become objects that can be formed by society and culture, as represented largely by their teachers. Over the last 100 years, however, progressive educators, such as John Dewey (1960), Cèlestin Freinet (Beattie, 2002), A. S. Neill (1962), and, in Denmark for example, C.C. Kragh-Müller (1963), have challenged this view of children as objects to be molded by teachers who represent the larger social and cultural context. Instead, progressive educators have argued that children are active participants in and constructors of their own development and learning. Therefore, they argue, children’s own perspectives must be integrated into all aspects of educational planning and implementation.