a practical look at the concept of freedom with a philosophy approach for children in early childhood

Abstract

Both social studies and preschool programs mention freedom as a value. However, in typical social studies curricula, the philosophical perspective is not included and no discussion takes place. In the preschool curriculum, freedom is an abstract concept, and the belief that children cannot understand abstract concepts prevails, while value studies are still limited to determining the frequency of values rather than interrogating them. As such, this study aims to explore young children's views on the concept of freedom, how these views changed after their participation in a philosophically oriented activity, and how, consequently, the concept of freedom might be addressed in social studies on a philosophical level. The researchers used an applied qualitative study design, in which 19 children (14 boys, 5 girls) aged 5-6 years were interviewed before and after the presentation of the well-known folk tale “Rapunzel,” along with the question, “… am I free?” An exercise taken from the Philosophy for Children curriculum, "Freedom is similar to…, because…” was used in both pre and post interviews. The study used semi-structured interviews and document analysis as data collection instruments. The data obtained were subjected to descriptive and content analysis. As a result of the study, it was found that before the activity, children tended to discuss the meaning of freedom in the context of its limits (e.g. permission, prohibition, rules), and, following the activity, in the context of positive freedoms (e.g. growth, being independent).

Exploring 5 Years of Research on the Conceptualization of Child Participation from the Perspective of ECE Philosophy: A Systematic Literature Review

“…Additionally, this study aims to identify one of the limitations, which involves examining the sample size employed by prior studies. To examine the relationship between educational philosophy and children's involvement in the school setting, numerous research has exclusively concentrated on children and teachers as the subjects of investigation (Wakabayashi et al, 2020;Yüceer & Keskin, 2023;Weiland et al, 2021). To effectively promote children's holistic development, it is essential to consider not just their communication skills in the classroom and the scaffolding activities provided by teachers, but also the influence of parents.…”