Interdisciplinary Foundations Of Childhood Studies

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The study to gain an in-depth understanding about the child and childhood through historical, social, philosophical, educational, theoretical, and many more lenses embody childhood studies. This essay will analyse the image of the child and childhood through interdisciplinary foundations of childhood studies. Furthermore, it will examine the need of childhood studies.
Article 1 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 defines a child, as well as the childhood stage, as anyone “under the biological age of 18 years” (p. 170, Tesar, Rodriguez, & Kupferman, 2016). However, this age overlaps the transitional stages between childhood, adolescence and youth.
As underpinned by Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model of development …show more content…

2016 as cited in Tesar, 2016; Tesar et al., 2016).
In addition, Locke noted child as a “blank slates” (Tesar, 2016, para.3) and childhood as “empty” (Tesar, 2016, para. …show more content…

Thus, it gives us an insight of childhood over centuries. Given that it is a study and research about children and childhood through different lenses and numerous disciplines, it strives to create an unbiased and authentic picture of the child and childhood over centuries. It debates on social issues related to children, such as participation, power and agency (Tesar, 2016). In addition, it provides a robust platform for child advocates, thus contributing to various social and political reforms that lead to the growth and development of humanity (Tesar, 2017). It gave recognition to the child as not only a local but also a global citizen of the world who can make a difference in the society. Furthermore, contributing to formation of laws and policies that fosters equity and justice. For instance, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 and the Memorandum of Good Practice on Video Recorded Interviews with Child Witnesses for Criminal Proceedings 1992 under the Criminal Justice Act 1991(Lee, 2001).
Given that childhood studies acknowledged the power relationship between the adult and the child, it challenged the Ethics of Research in the field of Psychology. Thus lead to a shift in the field of research about children. The traditional practice of the research ‘on children’ was