Unpacking Child -Centeredness: A History of Meanings
Chung, Shunah
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Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/80371
Description
Title
Unpacking Child -Centeredness: A History of Meanings
Author(s)
Chung, Shunah
Issue Date
2000
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Daniel J. Walsh
Department of Study
Education
Discipline
Education
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Education, History of
Language
eng
Abstract
This study examines the historical development of the term child-centered in the discourse of early schooling in America. My discussion begins with the founder of the kindergarten, Friedrich Froebel, and traces the development of the kindergarten in the America until the 1930s. I explore how underlying meanings of the term child-centeredness have changed---which were lost and which survived---by tracing the educational and philosophical currents of each historical context. The term balances on many layers of complex and sometimes contradictory meanings that have been forged over the years by competing interest groups, each appropriating the term and, adding to and taking away from the existing meaning, molding it to their own purposes. In the process, some underlying meanings were lost, others were added. Meanings were changed and then shared within and sometimes across groups. The term has masked complex and contradictory underlying assumptions about children and their learning and development that should be addressed.
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