Activity Instruction: Childrens encounters and connections with environments impact on their experience of childhood and being a child. We see places and spaces, both public and private, that children experience their everyday lives inside and outside of structured in different ways. The characteristics of these environments play a role in positioning children in a particular way and they reflect the way in which children are viewed by adults. For this activity, you are asked to map and thoughtfully think about and the way in which two self-selected environments position children. 1. Select one public space and one private space that you have easy access to and children use regularly. For example, a home setting and public play space (either indoor or outdoor). 2. Map and document the two spaces, identifying the toys, play elements or artefacts present, social rules, role that adults play in the settings, role that children assume in the settings and the adult-child power relationship and other relevant elements to children’s everyday use of the settings. 3. Critically think about the range of ways that the elements you observe position children and reflect how children are viewed by adults and society. Consider gender, race, ability, sexuality, stereotypes and how these might be reflected in the environments and influence childrens identity. Draw from the theory and key concepts from the readings you should be using listed below to strengthen your analysis of the two spaces. Wyness (2018). Childhood, culture and society. Malone (2018). Children in the Anthropocene.Show more
