Educational Thinking from the Perspective of Children: Contemporary Comments on a Traditional Slogan

Abstract

Educational thinking has always been linked with a specific view on children.Although it is a matter of common knowledge, in closer examination the authorsfigure out that educational concepts deal surprisingly and imprecisely with their keysubject.While progressive approaches made the term “From the perspective of thechild” famous some 100 years ago, a brief analysis and the post-history enlightenedcontradictions, misunderstandings, and, in parts, fatal consequences of a careless ordogmatic use of the slogan. In their inconvenient meta-analysis, the authors vote for aconsequent re-interpretation of the ideologically overloaded slogan by using it as acritical working-formula. Doing this, educational thinking from the perspective ofchildren has massive consequences on the practical interaction between adults andchildren and the theoretical foundations of pedagogy. And it opens the door for adifferent kind of educational research with its objective to analyze the variety,heterogeneity and diversity of the life-world of children.

Keywords

• Progressive education
• child-focused education
• Maria Montessori
• intergenerational relationship
• Bildung and self-cultivation
• educational interaction