Fabricating the Developing Child in Institutions of Education. A Historical Approach to Documentation

Abstract

Using a historical perspective, this article describes how specific forms of documentation turned institutions of childhood into laboratories of child development. Drawing upon ‘laboratisation’ as an analytical concept derived from Science and Technology Studies, an arch will be traced from diaries kept by bourgeois fathers at the end of the 19th century to the scholarisation of childhood some one hundred years later, and on to ECE facilities at the start of the 21st century. This shows how institutions left their mark on individual children and, as laboratories of childhood, spread their institutional logic into broader areas of society by deploying practices and instruments of documentation.

Beasts, victims or competent agents: The positioning of children in research literature on manipulation

“…Our review was motivated by the observation that children, across different practice contexts and in the media, are constructed either as ‘evil’ or ‘innocent’, which goes against the grain of the ‘global movement’ to engage and listen to children in research, policy and practice (Birnbaum and Saini, 2013: 260) and precludes more nuanced perspectives on manipulation. At first glance, this is not all that surprising, as other scholars, for example, Gramme (2004), Turmel (2008) and Esser (2015) have also found pre-sociological views on childhood to be powerful in today’s moral project of childhood (Ansell, 2016; Esser, 2015; Gram, 2004; Turmel, 2008). However, these scholars point to the Apollonian view, in particular, as dominant.…”

“…At first glance, this is not all that surprising, as other scholars, e.g. Gram (2004), Turmel (2008 and Esser (2015) have also found pre-sociological views on childhood to be powerful in today's moral project of childhood (Gram, 2004;Turmel, 2008;Esser, 2015;Ansell, 2016). However, these scholars point to the Apollonian view, in particular, as dominant.…”

“…Moreover, these simplifications risk ‘othering’ children who are located in unprivileged positions in the generational dimension of the social order (Alanen, 2009; Wihstutz, 2017). In continuation, scholars have also identified how Dionysian and especially Apollonian views on childhood, despite growing recognition of children as competent agents and efforts to encourage their participation in various arenas (Birnbaum and Saini, 2013; Woodhead, 2010), are still powerful in today’s moral project of childhood (Esser, 2015; Gram, 2004; Knezevic, 2017; Turmel, 2008). However, research on, how research literature on manipulation contributes to this moral project, is still scarce.…”

Med uppdrag att dokumentera de yngsta barnens lärande : en verksamhetsteoretisk analys av förskolors dokumentation

“…Kapitlet avslutas med en beskrivning av de olika samhälleliga motiv som förskolan har att hantera där också ökade krav på ämnesdidaktisk kompetens hos förskolepersonalen lyfts tillsammans med ett interkulturellt förhållningssätt. Esser (2015) beskriver dokumentation utifrån ett historiskt perspektiv och visar hur statens, föräldrars, lärares och forskares intresse, men också oro, för barns utveckling ända sedan slutet av 1800-talet har drivit fram allt fler metoder för observation. Metoder som sedan dess utvecklats och använts utifrån varierande syften.…”

“…Även långt innan dess, enligtEsser (2015), går upphovet att finna i hur borgerliga fäder på 1800-talets slut började intresseras sig för utvecklingspsykologi och registrera de egna barnens utveckling utifrån dessa teorier.…”