Child of Our Time. Variations in adult views of childhood with age

Abstract

Recent events concerning children that have received much prominence in the media, such as the murder of James Bulger, the shooting of 5‐year‐olds in Dunblane, the presumed abuse of children in the Orkneys, have focused attention on what it is to be a child and on whether or not childhood has changed in the recent past. Questions easily spring to mind: When is childhood thought to start? When does it end? How is it best described? What, in fact, is it? Such questions have a direct professional relevance to all those involved in education, whether informal or formal, whether as recipients or providers, for on our views of who and what children are, will depend how we treat them and, indeed, how we regard ourselves. This paper seeks to investigate how attitudes towards childhood may be thought to change with age. The investigation is part of a larger doctoral study at Birmingham University School of Education seeking to analyse adult perceptions of childhood, by use of a range of research instruments, including questionnaire, interview and prose testimony. The questionnaire findings reported here are endorsed by the findings from interview and prose scrutiny which are reported in the larger study.