Children's Perceptions of ‘Work’—an exploratory study

Abstract

While there is a growing case‐study literature on school‐industry links in the primary school, most of it tends to be entrepreneurial or concerned with simulating industrial processes. This article reports an attempt to ground a school‐industry curriculum in the primary school in the perceptions children already have of ‘work'and in their attempts to make sense of ‘work’ as an aspect of the world.

The perceptions of some 60 children were investigated using a variety of techniques as a preliminary to a curriculum development project undertaken by collaborating teachers. These showed that children do indeed have sophisticated conceptions and understandings of ‘work’ but that these are not without contradictions. Children seem concerned, for example, that work of ‘value’ does not necessarily attract ‘reward’. The curriculum phase of the project was developed by a practitioner/consultant group in response to issues raised by the children in the investigation phase. These issues include the children's present understanding about ‘work’, their anxiety about the changing nature of work, and their views on the relationship between schooling and ‘work’.

While the study reported here is limited in scope it does suggest that there are a number of areas worthy of further, more detailed investigation.