Children's Everyday Experiences Research Articles

Black rain and fireflies: the otherness of childhood as a non-colonising adult ideology

ABSTRACTThis article explores aspects of media/visual representation of children's geographies and links that exploration to notions of what I have termed the ‘otherness of children’. The term is about how children's everyday experiences are, in some ways, quite distant from adult views and experiences of the world, and that adults cannot expect to easily, or completely, revisit and/or capture children's experiences. This has implications for research and the ways we think about children in society more widely. Adult society always ‘constructs’ children in some way or another, which has impacts on how they are treated as individuals. The aim of thinking of children as ‘other’ is to try and loosen the grip of those adult constructions and to make spaces for child-becoming. This is in part about how children make their own (other) worlds within the fabrics of the adult-ordered world. This might involve children contesting adult constructions, scaling and demarcations of space in material and symbolic forms, and (re)appropriating materiality, technology and space to their own ends. Also of interest is how children ‘colonise’ spaces which are abandoned, derelict, and/or dysfunctional in other ways – even the way children make their own geographies in landscapes of war. To explore these issues I focus upon how children's geographies are portrayed in cinematic film. Although films are almost inevitably adult imaginative discourses of children and their lives, some skilfully-made films do open up spaces of empathy and insight into children's experiences.

On Childhood and Risk: An Exploration of Children's Everyday Experiences in Rural Peru

Drawing on data from Peru, this article explores how poverty mediates diverse risks in rural children's lives. It offers four main arguments. First, risk is not simply a feature of ‘extraordinary’ childhoods, but integral to everyday, ‘ordinary’ lives. Second, children's responses to adversity are crucially shaped by sociomoral considerations. Third, children participate actively in household risk mitigation, their engagement structured by individual (biographical) and collective factors. Fourth, changing circumstances present new opportunities and challenges for children living with adversity. Current approaches focusing on so‐called ‘objective’ risks neglect children's own priorities and subjective experiences.

Education and identity: the marginalisation of migrant youths in Beijing

A person's identity is shaped by one's life experiences. Aside from family, school forms the major backdrop of the everyday experiences of children and plays an important role in shaping identity. This paper examines education and the development of identity among school-age migrant children enrolled in Beijing's schools. Marginality is the theme running through this analysis. The marginalisation of migrant children in Beijing is defined and sanctioned by the outdated household registration system that excludes them from enrolling in public schools. Many attend segregated migrant children's schools. Even after the government has relaxed its rules to allow migrant children into the public system, they suffer discrimination based on their low social status and rural origin, each reinforcing the other. These experiences shape their sense of identity. They want to stay in Beijing but know they are not accepted. They call themselves as members of their home regions, but would have difficulty fitting into their home communities and have no intention of living there. This study helps us understand how school interactions shape the identity of migrant children not only in Beijing but of the estimated 20 million migrant children in China's other major urban centres albeit with some differences.

Everyday experiences of 18‐ to 36‐month‐old children from migrant families: the influence of host culture and migration experience

We explored the everyday experiences of 18‐ to 36‐month‐old toddlers at two study sites and the influence of adaptation to the host culture on the everyday experiences of children from migrant families. First‐ and second‐generation Puerto Rican families in Connecticut, USA, first‐ and second‐generation Turkish families in Bochum, Germany, as well as families of the respective majority cultures were sampled (N = 161). We interviewed mothers to obtain detailed descriptions of a 24‐hour period of a weekday. Study results focused on the activities children engaged in and the social context. The results indicated significant differences between the two sites. Despite site differences, we found parallel processes of adaptation across both sites. Everyday experiences of children of first‐generation mothers differed in important aspects (e.g. self‐feeding) from those of children of the majority cultures. Children of second‐generation mothers were in an intermediate position on most variables, primarily linear pattern of acculturation. Overall, our data suggests that the opportunities and constraints of the physical and social environment of the receiving country as well as the migration experience influence the everyday experiences of children.

‘Driven to Distraction?’: Children's Experiences of Car Travel

Cars have become increasingly significant features in the lives of many children and adults in the UK and elsewhere. Whilst there is a growing body of research considering how adults experience automobility, that is the increasingly central role of cars within societies, there has been little equivalent research exploring children's perspectives. Drawing upon a variety of methods including personal diaries, photographs, in‐depth interviews and surveys amongst schools within Buckinghamshire and North London, the paper contributes to filling this gap in existing research through exploring how cars are not only journey spaces for children, but are also sites for play, relaxation, homework, companionship, technology and the consumption of commodities. Using a Foucauldian analysis of power, insights into wider familial processes relating to mobility are provided by exploring how cars are sites of conflicting power relations between parents and children. The paper also explores how children's everyday experiences of cars were framed by wider sets of power relations, including car corporations which design and manufacture these spaces, and the role of capital which commodifies everyday activities in cars. In doing so, the paper challenges existing research on automobility for only focusing upon adults' experiences of cars and begins to theorise a more inclusive account of automobility which incorporates children and young people.

“Doing the Math”: Maternal Beliefs About Early Mathematics Versus Language Learning

Research Findings: Little is known about how parents approach preschoolers' mathematics learning and how this aligns with early mathematics education research and policy. This study examined these questions by contrasting parents' approaches to early mathematics and language and by exploring key themes in parents' talk about mathematics learning and education. Consistent with current research and policy, parents reported helping preschoolers learn mathematics and attempting to connect this learning to children's interests and everyday experiences. However, parents admitted to lacking goals for and knowledge about early mathematics. In addition, compared to language, parents reported that mathematics was taught less often at home, should be emphasized less in preschools, was less interesting to preschoolers, required more direct instruction, and was less of a personal interest and strength. Practice or Policy: Parent interventions could capitalize on parents' beliefs and practices by providing parents with concrete examples of what mathematics preschoolers learn through daily activities, how to maximize children's mathematics interests, and what the similarities are between early mathematics and language. These efforts will also need to help parents overcome their mathematics anxieties and show parents why early mathematics education is important. Similar strategies could be used to help early childhood teachers improve their mathematics practice.

LANGUAGE, AUTISM, AND CHILDHOOD: AN ETHNOGRAPHIC PERSPECTIVE

This article reviews recent ethnographic studies on how children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) use language in their everyday lives: how they are socialized into sociocultural competence, how they participate in the social world as members of families and communities, how they draw on structural properties of social interaction to participate in everyday talk, and to what extent the European Americanhabitusof child-directed communication supports or hinders their communicative development. Other studies reviewed in this article examine language use in autism in relation to narrative, question–answer sequences, bilingualism, accountability and morality, and politeness. The studies frame autism more ethno-methodologically than clinically and capture how children with ASD actively participate in the co-construction of their life worlds through communication with others. This perspective makes visible aspects of language use and everyday experiences of children with ASD and their families that are usually obscured in other theoretical approaches to autism. Through participant observation and extensive naturalistic data collection involving video and audio recording of everyday interaction, ethnographic studies reviewed in this article shed light on patterns of language use and link these patterns to particular cultural practices, making language of children with autism more intelligible and interpretable.

Social Capital, Ethnicity and Children's Well‐Being: Aspects of Social Capital in the Everyday Lives of British Punjabi Children

This paper discusses the relationship between minority ethnicity, well‐being and children's social capital in the light of data from a qualitative study on social capital among 32 British Punjabi primary school children. Through a broad overview of social capital literature on ethnic minorities and children's welfare, the case is made for placing children's well‐being in a contextual framework that acknowledges the variety and wealth of children's everyday experiences. Looking at the children's social networks and future aspirations, the discussion will draw out ways in which social capital processes interact with other aspects of children's identity, including ethnicity and gender, from a child‐centred perspective. Finally, some exploratory ideas are offered as to how bonding processes may affect children's psychological well‐being, and how they may be viewed through the concept of ‘emotional capital’.

Breaking bread: spirituality, food and early childhood education

The spiritual aspect of early childhood education is supported by the early childhood curriculum in Aotearoa New Zealand, Te Whāriki. Research in three different early childhood settings presents new perspectives on the everyday experiences of children in terms of spirituality. Each setting formed a case study that included the voices of children, parents and teachers. Focusing on the practices that surround food and eating, this narrative account takes the sharing of food as a starting point for analysing the spiritual experiences of young children and the metaphor of ‘breaking bread’ is used. It is proposed that the concept of everyday spirituality informs the practice of teachers in each context and working with young children involves considering issues of equity, culture and well‐being.

Aesthetic Distance and the Spiritual Journey: Educating for spiritually and morally significant experiences across the art and literature curriculum

A central thesis of this paper is that the aesthetic travelled by learners, when they respond aesthetically to literary and visual works of art, can be the territory across which spiritual journeys are made. Examples are, therefore, given of literary and visual works of art that can provide such spiritually significant distance. The potential for children's everyday experiences, in literature and art lessons, to be of spiritual and moral worth is examined with reference to the role of the teacher, teaching methods, language and subject ideology. The complexity of the relation between the spiritual and the aesthetic is itself explored.

Winding down to save the rabbit

Giving design and technology work real purpose and context can be challenging in key stage 1, but using children's knowledge and experience of stories can open up a whole range of starting points that may be unfamiliar to the children's everyday experiences.

Childhood: Toward a Theory of Continuity and Change

The socially constructed character of childhood is, by now, recognized as an important factor in shaping children's everyday experiences. It is no longer possible to see childhood simply as a common and universal biological phase in the life course. However, at the same time, it is being increasingly recognized that although acknowledgment of the social and cultural diversity of children's lives is important, there remain many things that children do share as occupants of the conceptual space of childhood. Although contemporary sociological theorizing about childhood has highlighted this tension, it has, as yet, offered few solutions. In this article, it is proposed that by examining the role of law and social policy over time from an interdisciplinary perspective, it is possible to account for both change and continuity in childhood as a structural space and, in turn, to see this as being the source of the diversities and commonalties that pattern children's everyday lives.

Young Children's Spatial Representations Developed through Exploration of a Desktop Virtual Reality Scene

Virtual Reality (VR) technology seems to offer the opportunity of designing 3D worlds and navigation activities which provide settings that are close to children's everyday experiences, capitalising on their enthusiasm for videogame-like technologies. This paper describes how different types of exploration of a VR scene by 6[emsp4 ]y-old children affected their performance in a series of spatial tasks. Individual children explored a desktop virtual world where we varied both the visual perspective on the VR scene (route vs. survey view) and the level of exploration control (active vs. passive movement). We measured children's knowledge of the spatial layout of the environment through their memory of objects' location in the virtual scene and through the analysis of their wayfinding abilities within the scene. The results indicate that children were able to develop and display different levels of allocentric knowledge about the virtual world depending on the way they had familiarized with it and on the characteristics of the task demands. This finding contributes to inform the design of VR technologies aimed at supporting or evaluating spatial abilities in children of this age.

Siblings as Providers of Support and Care during Middle Childhood: Children's Perceptions

This article describes some of the findings of a study undertaken to seek the views of 69 Scottish primary school children of their sisters and brothers. The study found that siblings were perceived to be a significant source of support and help to the children. Sibling support was particularly important to children with few other supportive relationships. Sibling caretaking which was viewed primarily positively both by the caretaking and looked after children, was found to be a common experience among the nine to 12–year‐old children. Negative consequences of sibling caretaking included annoying, domination and abuse by siblings. Although over a quarter of the children's siblings were not living in the Same household, the majority of children perceived siblings to hold a special importance in their lives. Issues raised for parents and professionals concern the maintenance of relationships between siblings who do not live together; how to enhance the supportive aspects of sibling relationships, while offering protection against the negative aspects of sibling dichotomy; and facing the reality of sibling caretaking. Much more needs to be known about children's everyday experiences of growing up with their sisters and brothers, if we are to understand more fully the complexities of sibling relationships.

Children's perceptions of the sibling relationship in middle childhood: Connections within and between family relationships

AbstractAlthough sibling warmth and hostility have been shown to be statistically independent, they are intertwined in children's everyday experiences. We developed a multidimensional characterization of children's perceptions of their sibling relationships and examined differences in other family relationship measures as a function of different combinations of sibling hostility and warmth. Participants included 91 firstborn children between 10 and 11 years of age with younger siblings between 6 and 10 years of age. Children reported their levels of satisfaction, intimacy, and rivalry in their sibling relationships and their satisfaction with parent‐child relationships. Parents rated their marriages. As compared with children in families with “affect‐intense” sibling relationships (high hostility/high warmth), children in “hostile” sibling relationships (high hostility/low warmth) rated their sibling and parent‐child relationships more negatively, and their parents rated their marriages more negatively. Results are discussed in terms of the role of hostility in sibling experiences and the importance of understanding multidimensional patterns in the sibling relationship.

Gender as an Organizing Feature in Parent‐Child Relationships

This article reviews findings from a longitudinal study of single‐earner and dual‐earner families with school‐age children. We first summarize similarities and differences in the experiences of boys and girls and their mothers and fathers in terms of three ongoing daily family processes: (1) parental monitoring of children's everyday experiences, whereabouts, and companions; (2) parent‐child involvement in joint activities; and (3) children's involvement in household chores. We then review findings linking these family processes and family context (single vs. dual earner) to boys' and girls' psychosocial functioning. These findings generally reveal different patterns of psychological adjustment, school achievement, conduct problems, and evaluations of parents as a function of the intersection of gender, family process, and family context. These themes are discussed in terms of the ecological perspective on human development.

Mother, child, and situational correlates of toddlers' social competence

Mother, child, and situational correlates of toddlers' social competence in the second year were investigated in a sample of 24 children (11 girls, 13 boys). At 12 months, children's temperament (perceived difficulty) was assessed by questionnaire. Between 14 and 17 months, the children's everyday interaction experiences (maternal responsiveness and involvement) were observed at home. At 24 months, the children's social competence (responsiveness, use of social resources) and the quality of maternal behavior (responsiveness, availability) were assessed in a laboratory play room. The children's social competence was positively related to the contemporary (24 months) as well as the preceding (during the second year) maternal behavior. High-quality maternal behavior during the second year was associated with the child's low perceived difficulty at 12 months. Relationships between child and mother behavior particularly occurred in situations providing some challenge to the child.

Toddlers' Everyday Experiences as Related to Preceding Mental and Emotional Disposition and Their Relationship to Subsequent Mental and Motivational Development: A Short-Term Longitudinal Study

The aims of the study were (1) to assess the relationship between children's everyday experiences and preceding mental and emotional disposition; (2) to describe the relationships between children's experiences and the children's mental and motivational development; (3) to derive hypotheses about the transactional connections between individual disposition, quality of experience, and mental and motivational development. Mental development and emotional disposition of 24 children were assessed at 12 months. During the second year type and quality of children's everyday experiences were repeatedly observed at home. At 24 months mental development was assessed again. In addition, children's motivation was observed during free play. The results reveal a transactional process for the mental and motivational development during the second year. Type and quality of children's everyday experiences were related to their individual mental and emotional disposition. In addition, level and quality of experiences were associated with subsequent mental and motivational development.