Child-Centered Education: Incorporating Reconceptualism and Poststructuralism

Reconceptualists and poststructuralists increasingly criticize child-centered pedagogy as being overly reliant on outmoded notions of (developmentally appropriate) practices. Reconceptualists believe that developmental theories should be critically examined cross culturally, whereas poststructuralists work from a social perspective to reconstruct views of a child based on his or her multiple meaning making and discourse. This paper shows that the tenor of following a child's lead is a product of three paradigms (child-centeredness, reconceptualism and poststructuralism) and differences in the scopes of understanding of a child and his or her acts of inquiry. Incorporating these paradigms can develop child-centeredness (1) with an expanded scope of view-from the micro layer of schooling to the meso layer of community and to the macro layer of society-and (2) by exacting acts of applying, revising and restructuring. Such a synthesis would result in a deeper understanding of a child's optimal learning and in a broadening of the purpose of pedagogy at the macrosocial level. (Contains 1 figure.)