Emulations. Childhoods at School

An issueof *Émulations. Revue de sciences sociales*, to be published in early 2019 by Presses universitaires de Louvain, will be devoted to the theme“Childhood at School,”edited by Frédérique Giraud (Max Weber Center, ENS Lyon).

Sales Pitch

Childhood is an undeniably social biological stage, shaped by culture and history, rather than simply a natural phenomenon (Court, 2017). Childhood is a period marked by specific efforts at indoctrination and socialization at the intersection of family and school life. It is punctuated by various interventions that make it a strategic time for the acquisition and internalization of cultural and social norms and values—linguistic, physical, behavioral, and others—that children learn to master. In this process of shaping, educational institutions play a leading role, one that varies according to local contexts, the composition of the student body, families’ expectations, and the backgrounds of those involved. As places where children and staff live and socialize on a weekly basis, educational institutions contribute to the development of children’s ways of seeing and thinking. Viewing educational institutions as “cultural phenomena in their own right” (Riesman, 1991), this issue aims to examine the ways in which these institutions—through the actors who embody them—conceive of children and childhood, by closely studying their characteristics and the concrete practices of educational actors. Above all, the aim is to document the (geographical and cultural) variability of schooling principles in Europe by focusing on studies that highlight the diversity of stakeholders’ expectations regarding school, as well as the varied contours of practices and representations concerning pedagogy and childhood.

These questions overlap with, but do not fully encompass, the issues that have occupied educational sociologists for many years. The perspective we propose—one that is resolutely open to the intersection of disciplinary viewpoints—aims not only to (re)document social inequalities in learning, but also to reveal, by studying school settings from the inside, how educational institutions and actors contribute to shaping diverse worlds of childhood. Comparative studies are therefore welcome. The aim of this special issue is to examine and compare the diverse and often conflicting (Delay, Frauenfelder, 2013) socialization processes carried out by all those who work with children in educational institutions: teachers, care staff, doctors, peers, and parents. From one school to another, even among children of the same biological age, children are not the same and do not experience childhood under the same conditions. The objective is to shed light on how school conditions contribute to this differentiated development of children and to the coexistence of diverse childhood worlds.

We propose the following areas of focus, while remaining open to other suggestions that fall outside these areas:

1. Children in School Classrooms: Expectations, Perceptions, and Practices

Because school is a space for socialization that complements, competes with, or sometimes contradicts the family environment—a space where children spend significant amounts of time each week and develop ways of thinking and acting—it is interesting to learn how they talk about their school and their experiences there. Contributions that shed light on children’s perspectives on school, their educators, and their peers will help us explore different ways of experiencing childhood at school, while paying attention both to the objective social affiliations of the children, their families, and their educators, as well as to the residential and symbolic factors that distinguish their living spaces.

Examining children’s experiences in school also involves analyzing the factors that influence the choice of school type (Joannin, Salaméro, Mennesson, 2013) (local “public” schools, private schools, schools with alternative educational approaches—such as Montessori, Freinet, and Steiner) as well as the decision not to enroll children in school made by family members, some of whom have been shown to act as “school consumers” (Ballion, 1982), with varying levels of information and unequal access to capital and resources. Articles may explore the effects of differentiated socialization—both prior to and within schools—which interact with educational mobility (Dauphin, Verhoeven, 2002), the choice of extracurricular activities, the choice of whom to seek advice from (teachers, activity leaders, school psychologists, medical professionals), and so on. Taking into account the diversity of educational options available to parents—and the choices associated with them—will shed light on schools and childhoods that do not unfold in the same “worlds” (Lahire, 2012). We welcome contributions that illustrate how, within the French-speaking world, educational issues are experienced and conceptualized differently (Delay, 2011).

2. Childhood and Knowledge: Diverse Pedagogies in Action

A focus on the diversity of prescribed and implemented pedagogical approaches will reveal how these reflect contrasting visions of childhood. The growing interest among parents with cultural capital in new pedagogical approaches inspired by Steiner, Freinet, or Montessori—and the emergence of educational offerings that meet this demand—must be studied in order to bring to light the diversity of educational styles (Kellerhals, Montandon, 1991), the variability in their implementation, and, more profoundly, the ways in which they help make children the focal points and active participants in educational settings. Contributions focusing on the pedagogical methods and approaches of teachers and other professionals responsible for children’s learning will be particularly welcome. As much as possible, submitted articles should document the social drivers behind the varied configuration of pedagogical practices.

3. Childhood and Play

Caught between their playful “purpose” and educational requirements (Vincent, 2001), games are viewed as tools for structuring children’s experiences, designed to contribute to their development and enable them to make sense of the world. Thus, we can speak of “pedagogy of play” (Chamboredon, Prévost, 1973) or “play-based education” (Brougère, 1997). Between these two poles, articles may explore the place, functions, and varied forms of play across different pedagogical approaches, while taking into account their varying degrees of distance from family play practices, without neglecting social relationships related to age and gender. Articles written from a child’s perspective may examine children’s uses of games—whether repurposed or invented—and their perceptions of these games.

This special issue, titled “Childhoods at School,” will use comparative perspectives on diverse educational systems to highlight the variety of knowledge and skills related to childhoods at school, as well as the diversity of ways of being a child, by analyzing socially differentiated childhood practices and relationships situated within the social spaces of both school and the wider community.

Calendar

March 20, 2018: Deadline for submitting article proposals

March 30, 2018: Notification of decisions to authors

June 15, 2018: Submission of V1 manuscripts (25,000–30,000 characters)

July 30, 2018: Feedback sent to authors

September 30, 2018: Submission of V2 manuscripts

October 30: Feedback sent to authors

November 30, 2018: Submission of the final version of the manuscripts to the journal

February 2019: Publication of the print issue and online release

Submission Guidelines

– Contributions to this issue should be based on a thorough and detailed analysis of field survey data, while also offering methodological and theoretical reflections on the questions raised here.

– Submit a proposal for a 1,000-word article that includes the title, a summary of the argument, details on the corpus and methodology, as well as a brief biographical note specifying the author’s discipline and professional status.
– Submit by March 20 to frederique.giraud@ens-lyon.fr and redac(at)revue-emulations.net

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