Education, parenting and concepts of childhood in England, c. 1945 to c. 1979

Abstract

article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. Laura TisdallFaculty of history, Lady margaret hall, University of oxford, oxford, UK ABSTRACTBoth education and parenting became increasingly 'child-centred' , or 'progressive' , in post-war England. This article contends that the impact of this shift for concepts of childhood, and for children themselves, was equivocal. Progressive methods were physically and emotionally demanding for both teachers and parents, and popularised versions of developmental psychology and psychoanalysis shaped a limiting concept of the child. This article also suggests, in line with recent work by Thomson and Shapira, that changing concepts of childhood map democratic selfhood because the capabilities that children lacked were those that must be possessed by the adult citizen. By exploring how children were defined in relation to adults, and how adults' needs were increasingly subordinated to those of the child, this article also begins to question how we might usefully use age as a 'category of historical analysis' .

Cultural Hybridity in Parenting in Indonesia

“…Independence is also another dimension highlighted in western parenting practices; for example, children have been trained to sleep separately from their parents since the age of five months [30]. The democratic values and independence will make children more independent and confident [31].…”

Architecture, cinema, and images of childhood in 1950s Britain

“…Thus, it captures the postwar experience vividly, as one in which language must be reinvented. Communication is severed in the fragmented postwar city where the people, both the brothers, and the 'normal' children, are marginal figures [5]. However, at the same time it stages a reality that is more open to interpretation.…”

“…They were also transformed by attachment theory and developmental psychology, 4 which influenced approaches to education and parenting. 5 Childhood was seen, on the one hand, as a period separate from adulthood, in which freedom and free exploration had to be allowed and provided for, as part of a process of learning to become a future democratic citizen. 6 On the other hand, the child was seen, in light of the same psychoanalytic theories 7 and contemporary sociological research on 'juvenile delinquency', as self-centred, wild and destructive; an image both alluring and intimidating that was also supported by popular culture.…”

“…Children populated the cities of postwar films and became the main protagonists of staged street scenes. Importantly, in films like De Sica's Ladri di Biciclette (1948) 51 and Miracolo a Milano (1951), 5 and Jean Pierre Melville's Les enfants terribles (1950) 53 it was their own point of view that became dominant as their gaze conveyed a moral message to the world. 54 It was the child's playful and unrestrained creativity in dwelling the world that provided a new emphasis after the Second World War.…”

In Loco Parentis, Corporal Punishment and the Moral Economy of Discipline in English Schools, 1945–1986

“…16 It is only comparatively recently that attention has begun to alight on the construction of personal, subjective identities in relation to the classroom and the children taught, with earlier professional histories having elided these aspects and focusing instead on organisational structures and key points of dispute with authorities. 17 While not wishing to underplay the significance of the heterogeneity and diversity of unions groupings, their relative homogeneity on the issue of corporal punishment and in loco parentis should gave pause for thought as to whether both served as markers of professional identity. 18 It is for these reasons that trying to map changes in frequency over time is problematic.…”