De-Communization of Childhood. Introduction to Research on Transformations of the Discourse on Child and Childhood in Post-Communist Poland

Article
Open Access
by Pawel Walczak1
1 University of Zielona Góra (Zielona Góra, Poland)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29202/fhi/10/12
Received: August 21, 2018 / Accepted: September 25, 2018 / Published: November 26, 2018

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Abstract

The article is devoted to the phenomenon of “childhood de-communization” as a process of changing the way of childhood’s conceptualizing and social practices related to childhood during the political transformation. The aim of the article is to design and justify research revealing changes in discourse about child and childhood in science and culture in post-communist Poland. Referring to the achievements of contemporary humanities and social sciences, a child and childhood are assumed as a socio-cultural construct that its representations are present in the texts of culture and science. This kind of research reveals the relationship between the concepts of a child and childhood and social practices aimed at the child. The subject of the research project has been designated in the area of education, law and the so-called private (subjective) education theories. The article describes the methodological assumptions that have their source in the field of children studies and contemporary humanities. Particular attention is paid to historical research, the posthermeneutic trend, qualitative research related to gender studies and posthumanism. In addition, research into the “de-communization of childhood” is inspired by the concepts of Michel Foucault (1926-1984) and his analysis of the discourse of power and the work of Swiss psychoanalyst Alice Miller (1923-2010), studying the mechanisms of intergenerational transfer of negative educational concepts and so-called “black pedagogy.”

Keywords: child, childhood, children studies, de-communization, post-totalitarianism, education, children’s rights

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Walczak, Pawel (2018) De-Communization of Childhood. Introduction to Research on Transformations of the Discourse on Child and Childhood in Post-Communist Poland. Future Human Image, Volume 10, 112-122. https://doi.org/10.29202/fhi/10/12
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