Constitutions of Childhood Through Interpretations of a Curriculum

ABSTRACT

Central values promoted in a national curricula are often uncontested (Arnot, Hopman, & Molander, 2007; Colnerud, 2004; Popkewitz, 2009). Therefore, a critical understanding of these values is crucial, as is an understanding of how students are affected by interpretations of certain values as fundamental. The aim of this study is to cast light on how educators in a Swedish compulsory school interpreted the values promoted in the national curricula, when they formulated local work plans. Using critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 2010) combined with the sociology of childhood (Corsaro, 2005; James & Prout, 1997; Lee, 2001), the analysis focuses on the constitutions of childhood through local interpretations of values promoted by the curricula. The results suggest that the values upheld in the local work plans were closely intertwined with the educators’ own understandings of what children in the school’s neighborhood needed. The educators identified social problems in the community, such as crime, and built the curriculum from there. As a consequence, the local work with core values risked constituting an even more segregated and stigmatized childhood. However, the study did show that the process of revising allows educators to gain insight and take a salutogenic approach.

KEYWORDS:

• Childhood
• critical discourse analysis
• curriculum
• educators
• school
• values

Notes

1. Each meeting was about 2–2.5 hr long, except for the second one, which was a whole-day (8 hr) conference.