2nd Global Conference
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Thursday 14th July - Saturday 16th July
2005
Mansfield College, Oxford
Conference Programme, Abstracts & Papers
Session 6: Engagement and Play
Chair: Beatriz Cerkez
Sibling Teaching in the Context of Play
Maureen
Mweru
Educational Psychology Department,
Kenyatta University,
Nairobi,
Kenya
Researchers have acknowledged the uniqueness of the sibling relationship as one of the most potentially important influences on a child’s development especially in societies where sibling caretaking is employed. In the interactions between older and younger siblings during sibling caretaking and play, younger siblings learn various values, knowledge, and skills from their sibling caretakers. Most of the research conducted in the past on sibling relationships has focused on how younger children learn from older siblings. Very little research has been conducted in the area of sibling teaching especially in the context of sibling caretaking. This paper is therefore based on a study that set out to investigate sibling teaching in the context of sibling caretaking and play among Agikuyu children of Kenya . The sample consisted of sixty seven older siblings aged between three and a half and eleven and a half years who were videotaped as they interacted with their 34 two-year-old toddler siblings. In the context of play, the children were seen to demonstrate teaching skills according to their age with older children displaying more advanced teaching skills. They also displayed the capability to use different teaching strategies which were verbal, non-verbal or both. In addition, teaching was seen to occur in a cultural context as the children displayed social relationships which are a reflection of the wider Agikuyu society. As the siblings interacted, they were socializing each other to behave in culturally appropriate ways. The children could therefore be regarded as cultural teachers to their younger siblings. This study showed how children teach their younger siblings and therefore showed the possibility of siblings as guides for each others development. This means that if children are taught they can be teachers of each other, their skills can be used to help their younger siblings.
Embracing the Child at Play
Daniel
Shepherd
Fordham University, USA
The 94 th aphorism in Friedrich Nietzsche’s Beyond
Good and Evil (BGE) reads “Mature manhood: that means to
have rediscovered the seriousness one had as a child at play.” Though
short, the aphorism stimulates us, as adults, to reflect deeply
on the earnestness of the child at play.
Nietzsche emphasizes a
focus on the momentofdecision rather
than choice. The moment of decision allows the individual to focus
on beliefs and interpretations rather than simple outcomes associated
with choice, thereby inducing positive development.
Nietzsche characterizes
this interpretation as a dual re-discovery of the seriousness an adult
expresses in their own life and the seriousness of the child at play. Re-discovery
is critical for the adult. It places them before two paths. Nietzsche’s
interpretation of the wrong path limits the adult’s understanding;
they only perceive difference between ‘adult’ seriousness and ‘child’ seriousness.
Faced by a limited choice the adult cannot understand the child positively.
The path Nietzsche favors leads the adult to a less limited understanding
of the seriousness of the child at play. The seriousness expressed
by the adult focuses on the moment of decision. The serious child at
play also focuses on the moment of decision. Thus the adult understands
that the seriousness of the child at play is not dissimilar to the
seriousness they express in their own lives. Each focuses on the moment
of decision.
Adults who focus on the difference between ‘adult’ and ‘child’ seriousness
misunderstand the child at play. The adult looses positive connection
with the child at play. By focusing on the moment of decision, the
adult is able to better understand the child at play. By focusing on
the moment of decision rather than an individual’s choice, we
have a better chance of understanding the creativeness of the child
at play.
The Impact of Philosophy for Children in
a High School English Class
Chad
Miller
University of Hawaii at Manoa
“…children hunger for meaning, and get turned off by education when it ceases to be meaningful to them” (Lipman, 1993, pg. 384).
Education is in a crisis. The media reminds us of this every day with stories documenting recent test scores, annual yearly reports and teacher layoffs. However, the problem is much larger than these reported or any that lie in problems of funding, standards implementation or literacy scores. Classrooms around the country are filled with bored, apathetic and unmotivated students who see littlemeaning or usefulness in school. The purpose of school has become solely an extrinsic one; “I have to go to school so I can get a good job.” Schools must move from being institutions that give students extrinsic meanings to institutions that provide students with the necessary circumstances and tools that will allow each to personally construct meaning in their own learning and lives.