Worldview Of Children Research Articles

Using photo elicitation interviewing to access the subjective well-being of children from poor families within an affluent Asian society: Insights for service delivery

SummaryIncorporating the voice of the child is essential for a holistic assessment that is used to guide social work interventions targeted at enhancing the well-being of children. In order to include children as key participants in understanding their worldview, social workers need to provide a space for children to voice out their subjective assessment of their current life experiences and conditions. This paper aims to bring attention to utilizing photo eliciting interviewing (PEI) as a means to access children's subjective well-being from low-income families. FindingsBy utilizing photoraphy and in-depth interviews sequentially to engage and gain access into children's worldviews, this study found that children from low-income families possessed agentic capabilities and are capable of contributing towards their well-being. Despite the financial constraints experienced by their families, children did not perceive their families to be poor. Instead, they took into account the family context and parental efforts in assessing the family's circumstances. Furthermore, children initiated strategies to create opportunities of happiness or to intervene in situations of sadness that stemmed from financial constraints. ApplicationThis study propose social workers to employ PEI as a complement to the objective measurement tools commonly utilized in social work assessments and interventions when working with children from low-income families. Other than constructing a holistic assessment of children's well-being, PEI also allows for the inclusion of children as integral partners in social work interventions and programme designs. Children possess the knowledge and ability to initiate and contribute solutions to problems, which when identified and tapped upon, promotes children's participation as change agents of their own lives.

EDUCATIONAL PROCESS OF THE WALDORF SCHOOL AS A MEANS OF FORMING A HOLISTIC WORLDVIEW OF A PERSON (AN EXAMPLE OF THE FOURTH CLASS)

We examined the basic principles of the educational process and the content of the fourth-grade program at the Waldorf School, which is built on the "epoch" method. The possibilities of planning the educational material taking into account the rhythms of the year were shown. Attention was accentuated on the significance of a submission of educational material in various school subjects and their integration as a cross-cutting theme for the formation of a holistic child's worldview. The essence of the first three seven-year child development and with taking into account the construction of the educational process of the Waldorf school was uncovered. The role of the teacher in the educational process of the Waldorf school was characterized.

Parents' Perceptions of Young Children's Social Interest Experiences

The following study explored 14 parents' perceptions of their young children's school-organized social interest experiences. Data were analyzed using interpretive description, a qualitative approach that enables researchers to inform practice by exploring a phenomenon from the subjective view of participants. Data analysis resulted in three themes suggesting that parents perceived their children's involvement in school-organized social interest experiences as influencing (a) their children's self-concept, (b) their children's empathy, and (c) the parents' and children's worldview and sense of citizenship. Results suggest that parents value efforts to foster their young children's social interest development and they perceive benefits for themselves and their children.

I Could Have Been a Bushman: A Brief Reflection on Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Theory on Child Development

Adopting a contextual worldview of children as dynamic processors of environmental input, Bronfenbrenner adopted elements from mechanistic models viewing change as continual and as resulting primarily from outside influences. Integrating this model with the organismic model’s perspective of the developmental process as active under the influence of internal forces, Bronfenbrenner’s scheme is a contextual view of child development.

Cooperation Models, Motivation and Objectives behind Farm-School Collaboration: Case Insights from Denmark

Children lack an understanding of and connectedness to food and ag- riculture, while policies are calling for more emphasis on food and nutrition at school. As a result, foodscapes at school are increasingly the focus of public pol- icy. More initiatives are targeting food literacy of young people and their ability to understand the food system. Thus, efforts are made to promote food literacy through strengthening of farm-school links. The case-study research from Den- mark investigates existing cooperation arrangements in farm-school collabora- tion and the underlying motivation of the farmers and teachers. Findings show distinct differences in motivation. Farmers want to create transparency in their production, ensure support for the agricultural profession or promote food and agricultural literacy. The idealistic motivation of teaching children about food and agriculture weighs higher than economic incentives. Teachers display academic motives for engaging in farm visits, but also a broader focus on shaping children's world views, connectedness to food and nature and fostering life skills. The farm can be an important setting for promoting food, agricultural and ecological lit- eracy. We propose more generic collaboration models of farm-school collabora- tion to characterize the field: from short-term, informal cooperation involving just a farmer and a teacher to longer-term and closer collaboration involving several teachers, farms, schools or other stakeholders from a foodscapes approach. These characterizations of farm-school collaboration can contribute towards future re- search of farm-school programmes. The study applies a foodscapes approach and in doing so uncovers learning opportunities in the foodscapes in and outside the school, which goes beyond eating. This adds to a broader understanding of school foodscapes.

The "Metaphorical Collage" as a Research Tool in the Field of Education

The aim of this paper is to propose a research tool in the field of education - the metaphorical collage. This tool facilitates the understanding of concepts and processes in education through the analysis of metaphors in works that include pictorial images and verbal images. We believe the metaphorical collage to be an important research tool that enables both researcher and research participant to understand children's worldview in regards to concepts in the field of education. The permits the use of expressive language in order to describe the question under investigation. The researcher has the ability to interpret the meaning of the events in which people are involved, and he is also capable of evaluating their educational significance. It is the researcher who is equipped with the requisite ability, sensitivity, and experience for conducting research by means of the metaphorical collage. With the help of the collage, the educational situation is grasped, and its meaning is interpreted.

Do Quality Informational Children's Books Show a Gender Bias? A Pictorial Examination of Ten Years of Sibert and Orbis Pictus Award Winners

Art has the ability to influence a child's worldview. This analysis looks at how the images in children's books may impact girls' gender beliefs about their future role in society, in particular, in science and engineering. In children's books, the art, not the text, often primarily defines the message (and the effects) according to picture book theory. This paper explored science-oriented (informational) children's books. Such books are focused on real life not fiction, and therefore, expose children to future roles and careers. As such, they can combat negative stereotypes before the first critical drop-out point for girls in science, namely before their transition to middle school. This paper did a pictoriallyfocused mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative) content analysis of Sibert and Orbis Pictus award-winning informational (non-fiction) children's books, and used the textual information only as a secondary source for role identification. The analysis found moderate to severe gender bias in both the frequencies of male to female images and in the stereotyping of roles. These findings were in line with current and past research that has focused instead on fictional award-winning books.

Message in postbox: Eat well be active community programs from a child's world-view

Message in postbox: Eat well be active community programs from a child's world-view

Embodying Parenthood in Academia

Intrigued by Pillay's (2009) call for writing motherhood into one's scholarship and creating liberatory intellectualism (p. 51 1), we write this commentary to encourage exploration of and inquiry into viable metaphors of hands in poo and goo; performing paranoia, suspicion, and constant worry into one's scholarship; and moments that embody parenthood with academia. In considering the plenitude of recent attention as seen in The Chronicle of Higher Education (Chavez-Garcia, 2009; Laster, 2010; Williams June, 2010; Wilson, 2009) and other publications (Mason & Goulden, 2002; Raddon, 2002) on issues related to parenthood in academia, we find value in integrating parenthood into our academic, scholarly identities. Writing and creating parenthood identity as visibly and tangibly integral to academic identity can generate new insights and metaphors.Hands Metaphorically in Poo and GooFor scholarship about art education, metaphors from children's worldviews can help us to articulate and contemplate praxis. Most children are interested in bugs, critters, and other living things that are sizable to them. Parents must eventually face bug-related phobias in order to participate in the bug-inspector processes of learning performed through play by children. For example, a sculpture unit based on the dung beetle is a brilliant entry point to explore sustainable education, the cycle of life, and the role of art in the diverse contexts of local/global environments. The three types of dung beetles: rollers, tunnelers, and dwellers share a quest for animal feces as highly valuable goods because the composted resources contain a high percentage of life-supporting energy ready to be reused. What if we see the energy and knowledge students bring to the classrooms as gathered social poo incredibly rich in resources and potential that can be rolled, stored, and lived in? Our teaching then would need to be open and attentive to, and accepting of, seeing potential in students through often unpleasant struggles, rolling the dung in tandem with them, instead of quickly dismissing their struggles as a deficit.By thinking about the rich metaphorical potential from parenthood experiences, we were further led to think about education as wiping, simultaneously cleaning and fixing up messes, and purifying with water. These acts are not conceptualized as pleasant or unpleasant, but necessary; so too is the commitment needed in teaching (and parenting) to attend to the of students' learning. Wiping, cleaning, fixing, and purifying are acts needed to restore order, not unlike the acts of good teaching, attending to messes and figuring how best to address them.Performing Paranoia, Suspicion, and Constant Worry into ScholarshipPerhaps we have read too many parenting books, checked unnecessary websites for the latest parenting gadgets and childhood ailments, watched too many television shows of women giving birth or children being abducted. While the boogeyman syndrome (the imagined immediate danger lurking everywhere that targets children) has been a contributing factor in parents' radar of children's physical outdoor play and their general mobility and dwindled independent play, one must acknowledge that the United States is in a state of flux: although the crime rates are not the highest In the Western world, they still are significant (NationMaster.com, 2003-2010). It would seem it now takes an army of gadgets and parent efforts to keep children safe from the natural and built environment, cyber attacks, 'bad' television and games, diseases, foods, medical treatments, toys, terrorists, 'friends,' aliens, and other ill-intended heroes (think Michael Jackson and Disney). What implications, if any, should this sense of parental alertness and caution have on scholarship? Should one write or otherwise depict paranoia, suspicion, and constant worry into one's scholarship; and if so, how? In the next section we explore these questions and conclude with our Insights on the value, process, and potential of performing paranoia as scholarly inquiry in art education. …

“A Taste of College”: Children and Preservice Teachers Discuss Books Together

Partnerships where preservice teachers work with children have been found to be effective in providing real world feld experiences for university students. However, little is known about what children gain from these collaborations. This research attempts to rectify this by analyzing a year-long literacy partnership in which 30 children and 55 preservice teachers participated in literature circles together, looking specifically at what factors influenced the children during this engagement. Through observations, free writes, interviews, and pen pal journals, the impact of the collaboration was examined. Results from this study suggest that the children had significant relationships and personal advocates, the children gained confidence in talking in literature circles and managing them, the children considered different perspectives and issues, and the children gained perspectives on college. Ultimately, the children's worldviews were enlarged.

Getting to Knew You: Cross-Cultural Pen Pals Expand Children's World View

Getting to Knew You: Cross-Cultural Pen Pals Expand Children's World View

Working to Promote Resilience with Latino Youth in Schools: Perspectives from the United States and Mexico

Throughout the Americas large numbers of children and adolescents would benefit from some type of mental health intervention. For many, however, traditional mental health approaches are culturally dystonic and fail to incorporate the child's cultural worldview, the result being that Latino young people use mental health facilities less than they might. Intervention with Latino young people requires consideration of contextual factors and accounts for the significant stigma associated with seeking mental health treatment. School-based mental health services attempt to decrease the gap between need and underutilization by providing support for Latino young people in a key area of access – the schools. This paper focuses on the provision of mental health services to Latino youth in the United States (US) and Mexico. Factors associated with risk and resilience are discussed as are ways to provide culturally syntonic school-based mental health to US Latino and Mexican youth.

Mickey Mouse Spirituality? Children's Worldviews and the Culture Industry

Postmodern approaches to spiritual education, such as that proposed by the Children and Worldviews Project (Erricker and Erricker 1996a, 1996b, 1999, 2000a, 2000b, 2000c, 2001; Erricker, Erricker, Ota, Sullivan and Fletcher 1997; Erricker, Erricker, Ota, Sullivan and Logan 1994; Erricker, Ota and Erricker 2001) are strongly pragmatic and constructivist. Drawing on the thought of Herbert Marcuse and contemporary socialist thinkers, I argue that this project is an example of ‘resistance postmodernism’ which is naive regarding the encroachments of capital and fails to take into the account the way in which spiritual identities are constructed by the market. As an alternative, I propose a framework for spiritual education which suggests that emancipatory approaches to religion ‐‐ such as liberation theology ‐‐ offer valuable pathways to spiritual understanding.

Children's World View as a Subtext of O. Mandel'štam's ‘Putešestvie v Armeniju’

Children's World View as a Subtext of O. Mandel'štam's ‘Putešestvie v Armeniju’

Drawing together hope: 'listening' to militarised children.

Art can be used as both a therapeutic tool and a communication tool. Art has been used with refugees/militarised children but has tended to focus on their pathology. Art in this study was used to explore children's hopes for their future. Children talk more when they are/have drawn what they are trying to describe. Art can be used to understand children's world-view and explore their beliefs and opinions.

Introduction: Children's Literature and Religion

Introduction:Children's Literature and Religion Naomi Wood (bio) Little round planet In a big universe Sometimes it looks blessed Sometimes it looks cursed Depends on what you look at obviously But even more it depends on the way that you see. —Bruce Cockburn Religion in children's literature functions as a mechanism of social ordering, of setting up hermeneutic categories with which to view the world. As such it is both ideological and imaginative: narratives are constructed to support an ideological understanding of the world and human behavior and also to reflect the categories of cosmic organization defined by the particular religion or worldview that informs them. At the same time, because religion determines the shape and texture of narratives, it can be seen as a source of all creative activity—the source of fiction-making itself. "In the beginning was the Word," the gospel of John tells us, and J.R.R. Tolkien affirms in his classic essay on fairy tales that "we make in our measure and in our derivative mode, because we are made: and not only made, but made in the image and likeness of a Maker" (145). The creative process rivals the authority and power of the gods and the cosmos, yet it also pays homage to them. Ever since the Puritans codified the doctrine that children, no less than adults, need to read the Bible and understand what it says, religion and religious issues have been part of children's literature. Indeed, it could be argued that children's literature as we know it here in the West grew out of the Puritan revolution. The effort to influence children's worldviews and psyches, to teach them what is considered essential to their well-being in this world or in the hereafter through appeals to their love of narrative and drama, has always characterized much if not all children's literature. In the nineteenth century, authors as disparate as Charlotte Yonge, Louisa May Alcott, Charles Kingsley, and George MacDonald all deployed story to innoculate readers with religious faith. By following the trials and triumphs of narrated children, readers might learn to "[draw] nearer to the Friend who welcomes every child with a love stronger than that of any father, tenderer than that of any mother" (Alcott 80). From the Romantic movement on, however, overt and even covert advocacy of religion (particularly Christianity) in secular children's literature has become increasingly suspect and subject to censorship. Even writers with strong religious convictions, such as Katherine Paterson or Madeleine L'Engle, write covertly about religious faith; reluctance to proselytize and awareness of a diverse readership may contribute to this reticence. At the same time, general societal interest in the world of the imagination, imaginative connections with the past, and spiritual exploration has, if anything, increased. Readers consume with equal avidity C. S. Lewis's translation of the Christian story into the Chronicles of Narnia, Philip Pullman's reaction against the thesis of Paradise Lost in his Dark Materials trilogy, and Sheri Tepper's ironic celebration of human ills in Plague of Angels. Such speculative fiction lets us explore the moral and theological questions that humans have posed for millennia, offering new mythologies to imagine old moral dilemmas. Many contemporary works of fiction for children also demonstrate the ways religious belief as expressed through folkways connects children with the past, their heritage, and thus their identity. Nancy Farmer's The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm and Virginia Hamilton's Magical Adventures of Pretty Pearl are just two examples. All of L'Engle's speculative fiction attempts to establish connections between scientific truth and spirituality: from A Wrinkle in Time onward, L'Engle reads science through the lens of spiritual understanding. Ten years ago Craig Werner and Frank Riga argued in their introduction to ChLAQ's previous theme issue on children's literature and religion that "religion is what provides the necessary mental and spiritual security to bring order out of the chaos that modern writers are concerned with" (2). This strong ordering mechanism, as the following essays will show, has its positive and negative aspects. That earlier issue on children's literature and religion featured contemporary...

Science Knowledge, World Views, and Information Sources in Social and Cultural Contexts: Making Sense After a Natural Disaster

This study examined children's views of the world after they personally experienced a natural disaster—specifically, Hurricane Andrew in South Florida during the summer of 1992. The study addressed three issues: (a) children's knowledge of the hurricane; (b) children's views of the world, especially the causality of the hurricane; and (c) children's sources of information in social and cultural contexts. The study was conducted in the early spring of 1994. It involved 127 fourth and fifth grade students in two elementary schools located in areas that were particularly hard hit by the hurricane. The student sample was representative of various ethnic, socioeconomic, and gender backgrounds. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were used for data collection and analysis. Results indicate significant differences as well as similarities in children's knowledge, world views, and information sources by ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and gender. Implications for promoting scientific literacy for all students, including socially and culturally diverse students, are discussed.

Science Knowledge, World Views, and Information Sources in Social and Cultural Contexts: Making Sense after a Natural Disaster

This study examined children's views of the world after they personally experienced a natural disaster—specifically, Hurricane Andrew in South Florida during the summer of 1992. The study addressed three issues: (a) children's knowledge of the hurricane; (b) children's views of the world, especially the causality of the hurricane; and (c) children's sources of information in social and cultural contexts. The study was conducted in the early spring of 1994. It involved 127 fourth and fifth grade students in two elementary schools located in areas that were particularly hard hit by the hurricane. The student sample was representative of various ethnic, socioeconomic, and gender backgrounds. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were used for data collection and analysis. Results indicate significant differences as well as similarities in children's knowledge, world views, and information sources by ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and gender. Implications for promoting scientific literacy for all students, including socially and culturally diverse students, are discussed.

Vaiko pasaulėvaizdžio turinys ir lemiantys veiksniai

Straipsnyje aptariama pasaulėvaizdžio sąvoka, charakterizuojanti vaiko pasaulėžiūrą, aptariamas jos turinys ir reikšmė, vaiko pasaulėvaizdžio veiksniai. Pateikiama pasaulėvaizdžio veiksnių sąveikos diagrama. Darbas pagrįstas literatūros šaltinių analize ir metaanalize. Straipsnyje mėginama apibrėžti pasaulėvaizdžio sąvoką ir jį lemiančius veiksnius. Medžiaga gali tapti pagrindu svarstant, kokiais keliais, metodais ir priemonėmis būtų galima sėkmingiausiai pildyti bręstančios asmenybės „aruodus"; kaip, pasitelkus šias teorines įžvalgas, reikėtų atlikti integruoto ir dalykinio pasaulio pažinimo sistemų pradžios mokykloje lyginamuosius tyrimus; kaip ieškoti sėkmingesnę vaiko pasaulėvaizdžio plėtrą garantuojančių būdų ir raiškos kriterijų.

Journeys Through the Heart: the effect of death, loss and conflict on children's worldviews

This article will present research with young children on the above topic. It will address the way in which children respond to events that demand reasoned and imaginative ontological constructions in order to reframe their sense of reality. The article identifies how these experiences trigger the development of children's thinking and assesses what provision is demanded of schools. The article will also argue that one of the greatest hindrances to children's development are the constructions of childhood we, as adults, place upon them through an analysis of the ‘culture of sentimentality’ we construct to prevent hearing the reality that they convey. As a consequence we protect ourselves from confronting issues that we find difficulty in resolving and are nervous of acknowledging as part of our pedagogical responsibility. The article will conclude by examining our understanding of the concept of liminality and the strategies that children use to ensure that relationships with significant individuals in their life continue beyond the grave