The "Structure" Of Childhood: Based On A Case Study Of 32 Primary School Students In Shanghai

With the deepening of industrialization and urbanization,children's childhood life has undergone profound changes.Children's childhood life is characterized by more in-class and extra-curricular work,participation in many training institutions,and less free play time under the control of adult society.Changes in western society also appeared in Chinese urban society after entering the new century,this"structured" childhood,highly controlled by adult society,is a new norm for the survival and development of children.The aim of this study is to analyze progress and impact of the "structured"childhood among Chinese children systematically based on empirical research,revealing how children themselves recognize,understand and interpret the new childhood style of "structured" childhood.This study chose to interview children,parents and teachers in Shanghai.This study chose Shanghai as the survey location.In the early stage,I got on unstructured interview with 11 children in a book store in Xuhui District.In the later period,two primary schools were selected for investigation,including a general primary school and a key primary school.A total of 32 primary school children,11 child parents and 3 primary school teachers were selected.This study finds that the "structured" childhood presents the following characteristics:First,children's daily life present the characteristic of educational daily life.The pressure of double homework from schools and families has greatly reduced children's sleep and self-determination time.The only leisure time are both entertaining and educational under the control of adults.Faced with the arrangement and decisions,children adopt more implicit resistance strategies to fight for their own autonomy within a certain scope according to their own understanding and interpretation of their life situations.Second,children's school life is occupied by formal courses,and the autonomous space is compressed,and the only outdoor activities are carried out in a highly organized manner within a defined time.They can only cautiously violate the rules and regulations of the school owing to unequal relationship between teachers and students.Thirdly,most children are arranged by parents to receive training from off-campus educational institutions,and their childhood life tends to be "institutionalized".Under the pressure of the entrance examination,the children interviewed were generally arranged by parents to participate in a number of off-campus training programs for the purpose of promote competition in the entrance exams,which has become a routine for children's daily life.As the main body of participation in extracurricular training,children compromise and resist simultaneously,they also actively create space for self-social and entertainment and build their peer culture.This study explores the formation process,current situation and causes of"structured" childhood through the description of the "structured" childhood style,and reveals how children use existing resources and opportunities to cope with the rigor of adult society in their daily lives and creatively produce the so-called"structured" childhood.