The Role of Images in Early Childhood Education
During their early years, children come across different experiences in life which shape their future and the well-being (Bredekamp, 2014). According to Bredekamp (2014), the children are capable learners who are more than just a receptor of information. However, in the previous era, the independent capability of the child was not acknowledged leading to an experience of disturbing childhood. At present, the independent capability of a child is taken into consideration However, the images of children in social media, animation movies have a psychological impact on the caregiver and parents of children (Bredekamp, 2014). The following paper will explore the images which are used as early childhood images by educational organizations. The paper will mainly analyze the story or the concept highlighted in the images through numerous aspects and different point and how it affects the perspective of the society towards childhood.
The image of a child can be described as the views of a person or people regarding the role of children in the environment and the social content. It also includes the understanding of child’s strengths, agency, development based on social, historical, and cultural aspects influencing individual’s image of the child (Martalock, 2012). There is a strong relationship between the images of the child and the early childhood pedagogies.The term pedagogy refers to the holistic nature of early childhood educators, decision making for children, teaching, and learning (Martalock, 2012). The decision making and judgment are the prime compounds of the active role of caregiver towards enhancing the learning of children. In order to make the professional decision the caregiver should have the professional skills and sound knowledge about the children, family, and community (Spodek, & Saracho, 2014). Moreover, the educators should focus on the certain beliefs the community have and values of the society which influences the learning of a child. Subsequently, it brings the creativity to every child, build up the intuitions of children and facilitate the imagination of every child from the early hood. The first theory is a developmental theory that focuses on understanding the process of nurturing and how the process of learning of child developed over the time which also refers to the environment provided to the child and the child rearing practices in the home environment. The second theory is a socio-cultural theory that focuses on the prime role of family and community in developing the respectful relationship with children and structures the mentality of a child. The third theory is a socio-behaviorist theory that illustrates how experiences of learning shape the behavior of a child (Department of Education Employment and Workplace Relations [DEEWR],2009). On the other hand, capturing images of childcare is guided by three principles namely consent, dignity and security or privacy. In the domain of consent, it is the will of the parents or the guardians of the children, which must be taken into consideration. The parents are required to made aware about the ways in which the captured images of their child will be used in digital or audio-visual media. According to Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) (2011), the advertisers and the marketers are required to respect the integrity of the children and young people through taking proper action
Relationship Between Images of the Child and Early Childhood Pedagogies
Reggio Emilia approach viewed children as competent, strong, capable and powerful individuals holding rights from birth (Rinaldi, 2013).Previous studies provide a rich source of empirical literature about the children and childhood. In the previous era, the image of children is portrayed as the representation of a different compound of society. This subsequently robbed the innocence of children in every aspect. Childhood was defined as a period from where children started facing hardships of life. Before the philosophies of Jean Jacques came into action, the children were seen as adult, locked in small bodies who will serve the community as useful human being (O’Hagan, 2017). Previously, the communities were more biased and they portray the children as a replica of adults. Therefore, an inconsiderate number of children had a barbaric childhood. They become victim of the slavery in every era long with adults. In the previous era, society made some cave art of children and their childhood which highlights the barbaric act of society tover children (Rousseau, 2018). Infants during the past decade were taught to make marks on the wall of cave and childhood was not a prime priority of children. However, philosopher Jean Jacques, first recognized the worth of development of children. He believed that children have inherent goodness in them which will provide an opportunity for shaping their future (Hill et.al., 2017). He wrote the importance of children’s freedom to grow without any image of an adult. Moreover, he believed that every child needs excellent care in their early childhood which will shape their future and this will help them to face the hardship of life without hesitation. It is after his proposed theory that the overall approach of childcare and treatment of childhood changed (Hill et.al., 2017).
At present, technology has the massive impact in influencing the society through the wrong pictures of children. Even children in the recent era tend to behave like adults because of the influence of social media and the internet. Advertisement industries manipulate the images of infants to target a specific population and gain the profit from it. Therefore, the childhood of a considerate number children become harsh due to the negative images. These negative images have psychological impact on the caregiver, society and family members.
In the early education system, the teacher or caregiver acquire the wrong conception of child psychology due to the adverse portray of children from the ancient era. Therefore, it has a massive impact on the delivery of care to child. These images also influence well-being of the children and their parents. Due to negligence and reluctance, the infants tend to become aggressive during the later part of their life with no control over their thought processes. Innocent infants tend to become a violent adult with negative perspective about the gender and society (Engel et al., 2015).
Impact of Images on Caregivers and Parents in Early Education Settings
(Figure: Child with poster, 2015)
The above mentioned image is posted by the United Nation University in the year 2015. The image was used in an article, where the child is portrayed as a helpless and needy person where people get attracted emotionally.These are the strategies that organisations use to attract people using the children’s images (United Nation University, 2015).
(Figure: Children having nap, 2015) (Figure: Staying healthy, 2015)
This image shows the adult-led approach as the educator is reading the story and all children are lying down on the bed. This is limiting the learning and is not effective for the children as they are doing what’s been planned or according to the routine (Arthur. et al, 2018). The article 12 of UN conventions, highlights that the children have the right to say things independently that they think should occur and their views should get a noticeable attention when making decisions (UNICEF, 2015).
The second image is showing the encouraging self-help skills however, two of the children are wearing bibs which is not age- appropriate practice according to the developmental milestones unless they are additional need children (ACECQA, 2013).
(“Construction themed experience.”, n.d.)(“Playing with doll.”, 2014)
In this above highlighted image (on the right hand side), two boys are engaged in dramatic building activity with a set-up of construction site. This image is gender biased as only two boys have been highlighted to take part in the activity. In the second image, a girl is found to play with doll. Again this image is gender biased where only the girl child is portrayed t be delicate or one who loves to play with set up like home-making. In the modern era, this perspective is changing to some extent but still exists (UNICEF, 2015).
(“Doll house play.” n.d.) (“Girl with doll.” 2018)
Early childhood learning environment is essential in the process of enhancing childhood development. The environment, under which children are brought up, holds prominent significance in their future life and their executed behavior (England et al., 2011). Children are eager and curious about what happens around them during their early years. Their bodies and minds develop at a swift rate with respect to the social, physical and temporal environments. As these images are describing the factor of girls wearing pin color and playing with dolls or dolls house. This is one of the stereotypical view in the society that pink colored toys and playing with dolls or doll houses are just for the girls. The parents get influenced by all these stereotypical views and make the accessibility to the environment limited by creating such things. For instance, in the dress up corner in the child care services most of the times they are all fancy dresses for the girls. In order to extend on that, the gender schema theory highlights the fact that the relation between child rearing practices, child gender views, and child’s behaviour is possible to be affected by families’ gender role stereotypes. When parents have their own cultural beliefs and traditional attitudes, there is more possibility of having gender-differentiating practices happening in the home environment (Endendijk, Groeneveld, Pol, Berkel, Hallers, Bakermans, Mesman, 2017).
Gendered Images in Early Childhood Education Settings
(“a boy with the doll.”, 2018)
In today’s world, there are surprisingly good images of children can be seen easily but some images in the negative messages are still there. Some families do encourage the equal opportunities for all children regardless of stereotypical views. As this image depicts, a young boy in a child care centre is playing with a doll which reflects a positive message for others.
According to the Reggio Emelia approach, children are capable and strong learners who holds the ability to be potential since they are born (Rinaldi, 2013). Children begins their life by exploring the world around them by making relationships through different aspects. As stated by Martalock (2012), “A rich child is not an empty vessel waiting to be filled, but is one born equipped to engage actively and immediately in learning”. Therefore, it is essential to take children’s ideas with solemnity and exploring the environments with. In addition to that, the sustained shared thinking approach is essential to have in place in the curriculums. The images used of the educational institutions as mentioned above destroys child’s own self-identity and child’s own interests of exploring things. They used such images that attract people emotionally and gets benefit. On the other side, some images in child care still deliver the stereotypical messages to the community as discussed above.
Conclusion:
Thus from the above discussion, it can be concluded that, it is mandatory to deliver the worth information and practices in relation to children under child care environments. It becomes challenging sometimes because of some controversial views in the society. However, the educators should be valuing children’s rights while disregarding the gender stereotypical views and should be providing equal opportunities for the children. It is essential to have reciprocal relationships and sustained shared thinking approach in practice to stimulate the sense of belonging in children every day. The image of a child always depicts two different point of views- one what the observer thinks that is and the second one is the reason behind taking that image or the hiding unwillingness of the child.
References:
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