Discourse on the Identity of Childhood Policy: Self-Contextualisation of Indoctrinated Meanings in Documents on Education

Abstract

The article positions the most important specific discourses that form the identity of childhood: cultural, philosophical and political. It discloses and contextualises indoctrinated meanings of changes in education, analyses the relation of child-orientated education paradigm with the model of changes in education policy. It is concluded that, considering the sociocultural traditions of childhood phenomenology, present traditions – to develop the conception of childhood policy – are adequate. Therefore, it is necessary to discuss the context of identity of childhood phenomenon and the context of the dialogue with the sociocultural environment; this means that the identity of childhood policy acquires the features of specific political culture and becomes social-pedocentric. This way the discourse on indoctrinated meanings of changes in education is disclosed as a social, humanitarian method that constructs new cognition of childhood, helping to respond to essential questions on education in childhood, which are essential to educational policy. The identity of childhood policy has to state universal constitutional (legitimatized) values of childhood, maintaining the identity of childhood as the initial identity. Based on theoretical analysis, it is stated that the contemporary policy of childhood is explained as the whole of ideas, concepts and categories, which are being changed by social actions, about  children’s education, which is being implemented in a network structure and in which the essential shift of strategic state functions takes place (transition to ‘activating’ policy) and in which the new concept of childhood policy is being developed, putting more emphasis on empowerment of the child  and mediation as elements of ‘network management’. The article explains how in the context of change of the educational paradigm (from traditional to post-modern) theoretical-philosophical perspectives of discourse approaches (social constructivism and phenomenology) can be applied. Contextualised diversity of childhood conceptions in regulatory documentalistics is presented.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ss.75.1.1587