The widsom of children-in-context

Abstract

Children-in-families-in-communities are embedded in social realities that provide the matrix in which they grow, learn and develop and against which they test their identity. To view children-in-context it is necessary to shift from a dualist perspective that sees children and context as two separate entities to a view that sees the two as one at the interface of an ongoing transformational relationship. Childhood viewed in specific contexts, cultural, historical and social, expose the extent to which this is true. A contextual view acknowledges the structures, the forces and the processes in societies that impact on the interactions and regularities in children's daily lives. In a number of societies a deficit model of children is inherent in these interactions and regularities. This deficit model includes discrimination on the basis of age that places them lowest in the pecking order and denies them rights. Children, more than any other group, endure the added burdens of poverty and violence that further marginalize and alienate them from society. Childhood is not something to grow out of, childhood is life itself. Social interactions that acknowledge and respect children's experiences as valid can potentially reconstruct societal views towards children. To begin this process and to counter the present discriminatory discourse, research that gave children a voice to speak about their own experiences of violence is reported. This research recognizes that in the land of the small, it is the small who are wise.