A Study Of Children's "backstage Life"

As for the development of the modem society,more and more children have been sent to the organized environment of caring and educating during the early childhood.Kindergarten has become the important places of living together with peers for the modern city children.In the kindergarten,it is hard for the adult to understand and handle the whole life of the children although they always stay with in the same environment.The adult usually ignore the children 's activities which are out of sight.These activities are precisely the important part of the children 's life in the kindergarten.The study uses the ethnographic research method to the deep field investigations of each class of the two kindergartens in city J.The researcher adopts the tragic of "atypical adult" to be the role of the children 's new"partner" and "classmate".The researcher tries to deep into the life of the children peers group as a "insider".The children accepted the "new classmate" positively and taught the "new classmate" the methods to cope with the class rules when they lived together;The children took care of and protected the taller "new partner" positively in the outside sports they were good at.The children break the stereotype of the "fragile" and "scarce capacity" which is given by the adult through their own activities.After coding and organizing the field materials respectively,the researcher brokethrough the limit of kindergarten and used the combining of the "generic form of analysis" and "scenario analysis" method to build the framework of the research report.Firstly,according to Erving Goffman's "Social Dramatic Theory",the researcher divided the children's life in kindergarten into the "front regions life" which is arranged by the adult and the"back regions life" which was arranged by children themselves by the difference of the "activities area" and the "interactive contactile objects".Secondly,combining with the coping materials of the filed notes,the method of category analysis and scenario analysis were employed to describe deeply the children's special ways of act and thinking and the values under the space and time of children's autonomous"back life".Specifically speaking:(1)According to the method of category analysis,children's activities in "back life"were divided by the order of the number and the building relationship of the participants into four themes:the activities to present children's individual "self",the peer interaction activities,the collective conventional activities of children's group,the acceptance and transformation of the rules of "front life"by children together.(2)Under the theme of "the activities to present children s individual 'self"',the present of"self" of the individual child was divided into two sub-themes:the show of the "individual ability"and the "true self".(3)under the theme of "the peer interaction activities",the interaction activities among children were divided into two sub-theme:"peaceful coexistence" and "conflict".Meanwhile,with the method of scenario analysis,each of the sub-theme had the corresponding subjects.(4)Under the theme of "the collective conventional activities of children's group",under the space and time of different class lives,the collective conventional activities created by the group of children to adapt the class environment were described deeply according to the type of kindergarten.(5)Under the theme of "the acceptance and transformation of the rules of‘front life' by children together",the children's positive "secondary adjustment" to the rules of the "front life"which were set by the adult was described deeply in the children's "back life".Children fight for more free time and spaces for themselves,and affected the teacher's replanning to the rules of"front life".The existence of "back regions life" breaks the designed image of the children in the traditional research of childhood.Children are no longer the passive waiting ones.They become the positive social actors.Children are no longer the passive waiting ones for been transformed and taught.They actively participate in the activities of social transformation.For individual child,the "back regions life" provides more free and equal space for the healthy growth of the children"self".For the group of children,the "back regions life"with "play" as the fundamental driving force is formed through the process of peer interaction.In the " back regions life",through the peer interaction activities,children are actively involved in the peer life and become a member of the "Children's culture".Through the collective conventional activities of children's group,children creatively transform the adult's culture and enrich their own life and culture with peers.Through the coping of the rules of front regions life by together,children actively resist the control of the adult world,and win over more free activity spaces.Through the group life of children,children collectively produce the "children's culture".To study the children's life in the kindergarten,more attention should be turned to the children's "back regions life" besides the "front regions life".Children's "back regions life" is the real life of children and the children are the main body."Back regions life" is full of children's creative wisdom.To reflect on the relationship between "back regions life" and "front regions life"is the way to reflect on the origin of early childhood education,to think the true meaning of early childhood education and to explore the healthy development of early childhood education.Only based on the position of understanding and acceptance,an organic link can be established between children's "back regions life" and the "front regions life" which is arranged by the adult.Then a complete and harmonious life of children in the kindergarten is formed.