ERIC Number: EJ1346311
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2022-Oct
Pages: 13
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1082-3301
EISSN: EISSN-1573-1707
Available Date: N/A
Revisioning Fairness as Social Justice in Early Childhood Education
Lee, Sunmin; Adair, Jennifer Keys; Payne, Katherina A.; Barry, David
Early Childhood Education Journal, v50 n7 p1083-1095 Oct 2022
Young children's ideas of fairness have been studied in a range of laboratory settings with findings that children see fairness as equal distribution of resources. However, many studies occurred in decontextualized environments (i.e., laboratory settings), which hardly provide opportunities for children to exhibit nuanced ways to enact fairness. By observing children in more authentic contexts, their classrooms, this article complicates the concept of fairness as equality and attends to the ways that children respond to issues of fairness by acting as contributors to their classroom communities on a daily basis. Drawing on a larger video-cued ethnographic research project, we specifically focus on full-day films taken across three early childhood classrooms to contextualize young children's capabilities when they encounter issues of fairness. The findings indicate that young children have the ability to respond to fairness with social justice-oriented solutions by giving up resources, prioritizing other's needs, and advocating for others. When children confront issues of fairness in real-life contexts, they are capable of finding solutions that endorse equity.
Descriptors: Childrens Attitudes, Young Children, Prosocial Behavior, Social Justice, Early Childhood Education, Resource Allocation, Ethnography, Problem Solving, Social Cognition, Advocacy, Learning Processes, Observation
Springer. Available from: Springer Nature. One New York Plaza, Suite 4600, New York, NY 10004. Tel: 800-777-4643; Tel: 212-460-1500; Fax: 212-460-1700; e-mail: customerservice@springernature.com; Web site: https://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2123/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Early Childhood Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A