Notions of the Child in Basal Readers for the Third and Fourth Grades of Primary School

Abstract

Notions of the child, as inherently human creations and cultural and historical artifacts, represent a multidimensional phenomenon that needs to be approached interdisciplinary. This paper presents the results of a study aimed at identifying and interpreting the notions of the child presented in the basal readers for the third and fourth grades of primary school and their compatibility with modern notions of childhood and children. The notion of the child was co-constructed by means of induction and operationalized through six components: a) nature of the child; b) needs of the child; c) children’s way of solving problems; d) peer relations; e) relationship of adults toward children; and f) parenting methods and actions of the adults. The sample comprised eight basal readers for the third and fourth grades within which we managed to identify 32 pieces of literary prose suitable for analysis and interpretation of the notion of the child. By using a descriptive method and the technique of content analysis, we determined the existence of different notions of the child with regard to all components analyzed, as well as certain compatibility with modern notions of children and childhood. According to the obtained results, pedagogical recommendations are placed in the context of a continuous review of notions of the child, which are related to systemic solutions and direct teaching practices, as well as harmonization of notions of the child from different actors' perspectives in order to reduce discontinuity among family, school, social and cultural environment.

Keywords

• notion of the child
• childhood
• basal readers
• literary prose.