A social construction entails any phenomenon that is created or constructed with the intentional or unintentional consent of the particular people of the society after following a particular culture that escorts them to behave in a certain manner that encompasses the follow up of conventional rules. Social construction is an established school of thought adopted in various perspectives b society. Examples include the issues pertaining to the status of class and gender in our society, racism, childhood, etc. In brief, a social constructivist approach lets us decide which social ideas we like to follow the most in our society.
Childhood in a social constructivist approach is a natural developmental stage that influences when one possesses varying cultural standards. Childhood and culture go together. For example, a child whose rearing is in Eastern culture adopts Eastern values. He is subjected to obedience but lacks decision-making on his own and takes even his personal decisions not without the mutual consent of his parents or caretakers. A child who is raised up in Western culture is bold and confident in most of the matters of his life and does not solely rely on his caretakers while making an attempt to decide.
The perspective that childhood is a social construction leads us to think in two diversified manners, of which both can and cannot be considered true at a time. The first manner elucidates that childhood is a natural phenomenon that occurs throughout every culture, whereas the second approach opposes it. This tells us that if childhood is a social construction, it is not a natural phenomenon. However, in order to evaluate to what extent childhood is social constructivism, let us measure its natural ability to fit in several circumstances. Social constructivism also escorts childhood to be perceived under ethics as the leading theorists of child development is challenging.
The image of the child is what is being perceived by a society that usually portrays innocence and even a bit primitive construction, which contains both fear of the unknown, the chaotic and uncontrollable, and a form of sentimentalization. Rousseau believes that society reflects childhood along with the belief that what a society emphasizes and the belief in the child’s capacity for self-regulation possess an innate to seek out true virtue and beauty. It is society responsible for the good and bad of childhood. Therefore, society must learn to know itself in the light of inner nature and essential self-through transparency and introspection. Contemporary psychology understands the link between childhood and society and legitimate this construction of the young child, especially experts of young children who have placed the child’s expression in free play and free creative work at the center of pedagogical activity.
Let it say in two different ways; this image of the child induces a concept of providing shelter to children on behalf of the adults from the corrupt surrounding world-violent, oppressive, commercialized, and exploitative-by constructing a form of environment in which the young child will be offered protection, continuity, and security. Or this image of a child is suppressed by the outer world by practicing authority. However, it is noticed that societies which become more and more aware of the fact that if they hide children away from a world of which they are already a part, then societies not only deceive themselves but do not take children seriously and respect them.