Su Yinshan, Huang Jin
School of Education Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210046, China.
Behav Sci (Basel). 2024 Mar 20;14(3):253. doi: 10.3390/bs14030253.
Previous studies on child development have emphasized universal developmental stages and socialization, overlooking a direct investigation of young children's subjective understanding of growing up. This study explored the perspectives of preschool children on growing up. Participant observations, semi-structured interviews, and drawing-telling were employed to investigate 56 urban Chinese preschoolers. The theoretical framework adopted for this study was Merleau-Ponty's existential phenomenology, providing a lens through which the children's voices were elucidated. The results revealed that children perceive their growth holistically across four themes: body, space, skills, and relations. Their perception of growing up adheres to a structure-agency duality, where social influences and children's agency coalesce to shape their understanding of growing up. Adults contribute by embedding significance in daily situations and designated "occupations", while children actively reinterpret these societal narratives, forging their conceptions of growing up. These findings suggest a need for educational approaches that resonate with children's interpretations of their evolving lifeworld beyond merely imparting knowledge.
以往关于儿童发展的研究强调普遍的发展阶段和社会化，而忽视了对幼儿对成长的主观理解的直接调查。本研究探讨了学龄前儿童对成长的看法。采用参与观察、半结构化访谈和绘画讲述的方法，对56名中国城市学龄前儿童进行了调查。本研究采用的理论框架是梅洛 - 庞蒂的存在现象学，为阐释儿童的声音提供了一个视角。结果表明，儿童从身体、空间、技能和关系四个主题整体地感知自己的成长。他们对成长的认知遵循结构 - 能动性二元性，社会影响和儿童的能动性共同塑造了他们对成长的理解。成年人通过在日常情境和指定的“职业”中赋予意义来发挥作用，而儿童则积极重新诠释这些社会叙事，形成他们对成长的概念。这些发现表明，需要一种教育方法，这种方法不仅要传授知识，还要与儿童对其不断演变的生活世界的理解相呼应。
