Socially Constructing Conceprts of Self and Other through Play [1

Abstract

Although substantial scholarship of a theoretical and empirical nature has accumulated on the young child's developing self-concept, scholars have not to any great extent examined the child's self-knowledge as a spontaneously occurring process-in-action. This paper highlights findings of empirical research as well as classroom vignettes, personal reflections, and interpretive analyses of classroom practice to argue that children's developing conceptions of social and economic inequality spontaneously revealed through play merit systematic inquiry. In addition to enlightening our understanding of children's emerging self-knowledge, the data of such inquiry might suggest the need for specific types of teaching intervention to help children become more accepting of self and others, or to encourage them in developmentally appropriate ways to challenge existing societal stereotypes and inequities (Chafel, 1995).