Miradas de educadores y padres sobre la infancia actual

Abstract

The present article stems from the research work carried out at Universidad Nacional de Villa María, Córdoba, Argentina: “Study of the socio-cultural, psychological and pedagogical connotations of the concept of “present-day childhood.” The study focuses on the social representations that teachers, parents and children have of present-day childhood. Data collection included interviews with adults, and life stories, documental narrative and children’s drawings. Data analysis showed that the social representations of the teachers differed from those of the parents in relevant aspects. Most teachers sustained a naïve; nostalgic and idealized view of childhood conceiving boys and girls as heteronomous subjects (Aries, 1987), thus going back to a modern conceptualization, while stigmatizing children´s ties with technology. In contrast, parents conceive present-day childhood in a more realistic fashion; giving account of new ways of connecting with their children and questioning the asymmetric relationship of the past. On the other hand, parents and teachers agree on the fact that it is not childhood that is in crisis, but adults, who, not being able to take on their roles as educators and together with the influence of technology and the means of communication, generate changes which configure unique characteristics of the “new types of childhood” in the 21st century.