Childhood education between past and present

Abstract

Childhood is an age of life, a condition of existence whose specificity has not always been recognized and whose “quality” has been differently thought over time. The “images” of childhood and the ways of child care and education have changed. The study of history of childhood and childhood education is a lens that allows us to grasp the interweaving of the phenomenic dimension – the child in its concreteness and in his life contexts –, the symbolic one – the filters through which adults have read and interpreted childhood –, and the pedagogical one – theories, interventions, educational experiences –. In recent decades, the study of childhood and its education has been enriched by fruitful research paths, such as the history of childhood and the “educational costume”, the pedagogy of day-care centres and nursery schools, the debate on early childhood educational
services quality, the support in specific educational areas (play, reading, expressive activities etc.), the training of adults who take care of children (parents, teachers), the particular declination of special education in relation to childhood, to name just a few. Not just that.. The debate on these issues has emerged from the narrow scope of the academy spreading widely and also defining itself in locations which are different from the traditional ones: not only educational institutions but also health and medical, juridical, extracurricular recreational agencies, media (print, film, advertising etc.). It should also be remembered that, in support of the child’s condition, important documents have been elaborated and disseminated aiming to elaborate and consolidate a culture of childhood and the protection of children’s rights. Last but not least, innovative experiences born “from below”, have contributed – and contribute – to the development of a theory of childhood education. It should not be forgotten, as a fundamental orientation, that the pedagogy of infancy, understood as a theory of early childhood education, must make a dialogue between theory and practice, “being” and having to be”, in an exchange that involves a plurality of actors, including the children themselves. The monographic issue presents some significant examples of these themes and these questions.