Children's Interests, Inquiries and Identities

Helen Hedges, 28th October 2022

A guest post by Helen Hedges, Professor of Early Childhood Education at the University of Auckland

Email h.hedges@auckland.ac.nz

Twitter @helenhedges6

In early childhood education, we have a longstanding and important legacy of wide provision of play-based activities as forming curriculum making. A problem arising from this understanding is that “children’s choices of play activities” has frequently been equated with the term “children’s interests”.

Carl Bereiter’s criticism that adults trivialise children’s interests also motivated my research programme. He said:

… [T]he most profound of children’s questions seldom relate to activities of the moment. They relate to the larger issues and forces that shape the world - birth, death, good, evil, power, danger, survival, generosity, adventure … . Adults, even the most “child-centered”, tend to trivialize children's interests … . (Bereiter, 2002, p. 301)

Bereiter’s thinking here encapsulates further my reasons for looking for more thoughtful explanations of children’s interests than the (play) activities of the moment.

Children’s curiosity about their lives and worlds motivates many of their interests. How do interests reflect children’s desires to understand their worlds? How might we understand and select which interests are most important to children, why this is, and how they express and develop these interests in their play? In short, how might we look more deeply at children’s interests and take them seriously?

In my book, I argue that the powerful relationship between interests and informal learning has been under-recognised and under-valued. I explain and illustrate a number of ways in which children’s interests might be understood in order to get to the heart of what really matters to, and for, children. Specifically, I use concepts interpreted and applied from a sociocultural theoretical perspective such as funds of knowledge, funds of identity, curiosity, inquiry, learning dispositions, and working theories, to explain children’s interests more analytically and deeply, and connect them with important outcomes.

I use examples of children and families from my research to illustrate each concept in ways that speak to the experiences of teachers. In addition, given that teachers work in particular policy contexts internationally, I tackle “school readiness”, arguing for a different perspective of this notion using a capability-focused approach.

Another problem that arises from a legacy of child-led play is that teachers are uncertain about a place for their own knowledge and interests. I therefore also locate and argue for the place of teacher interests and associated knowledge. This positioning advocates for making more explicit the professional knowledge and identity of teachers, to contribute to increased recognition as professionals.

Throughout the book, children’s interests and inquiries are connected with their identity development. This point is made even more significant through reporting a study of young adults’ interests as children and how these have continued – or otherwise – in their lives.

Leaving behind long-standing, taken-for-granted understandings of curriculum, pedagogy, learning, and outcomes allows a new perspective of children’s interests to emerge. I conclude the book by presenting models for play and interests-based curriculum, and sociocultural curriculum and pedagogy, for future examination in research and practice. I welcome engagement with, and feedback on, the contents of the book about ways children’s and teachers’ interests come together in early childhood curriculum making.

Book details – use discount code FLE22 at the checkout if you wish to purchase to get a 20% discount until December 2022

Hedges, H. (2022). Children’s interests, inquiries and identities: Curriculum, pedagogy, learning and outcomes in the early years. Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Childrens-Interests-Inquiries-and-Identities-Curriculum-Pedagogy/Hedges/p/book/9780367689780

Footnotes

1 Bereiter, C. (2002). Education and mind in the knowledge age. Lawrence Erlbaum.

2 A range of terminology is used globally to indicate the educative role of adults in early childhood services such as educator, practitioner, pedagogue. In Aotearoa New Zealand the term used is from Māori: kaiako. In my book I use teacher to reflect that teaching young children involves professional knowledge specific to the early years.

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