Aspects of the construction of knowledge about society

Abstract

The child has to construct models or representations about the reality of the
society where he or she lives in order to give a meaning to the surrounding
world and, furthermore, taking into consideration that these representations
serve as landmarks to his action. Most of the mental representations
constructed by the child are not simple copies of the adult representations;
instead, they are personal constructions and differ qualitatively from those
of the older people. The study of the development of knowledge about
society in children is attracting the attention of many investigators. There
are three main theoretical approaches to this subject: the constructivist
position says that the child has to construct their own knowledge counting
on their personal intellectual instruments; the traditional study about
social representations originated in the French School of Sociology, that
has been renewed by Moscovici; and the Historical Cultural Psychology
of vygotskyan approach. The first position emphasizes the activity of the
subject, while the others put the emphasis on the environmental influences
and so hold a counterpoint to the constructivist position. However, the
existence of children beliefs different from those from adults’ as well
as from the social context, and the universality of some of these beliefs,
compel us not to forget the personal work of construction made by the subject.