Essay Sample on Kids: Active Agents in Society's Structures & Change

Introduction

Children represent active agents in the society since they construct their own culture and are the primary contributors to the adult world production, thus forming part of the societal structural form. Children being significant contributors to the societal preservation coupled with the societal change is viewed in the realms of their adaptations and developments in society. Children have, over time, been marginalized in the community following their position, which is subordinate together with their sociological conceptualized theories. Social theorists, therefore, juxtapose children's methodological and theoretical approaches in the sociological realms as causes of alarms and the threatening social problems that need to be solved, hence pushing them to the margins of the social structures instead of their needs and desires being appreciated.

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Contrary to other subordinate groups, children do not represent among sociologists even in their challenging, transforming and reforming theoretical and traditional approaches and most scholars have admitted the neglected attention on children. It is for that reason that sociology has devised new ways of conceptualizing children as underscored from the rise of the theoretical perspectives of the interpretive and constructivists in sociology. That implies that children's social objectives would be debated interpreted and given a social action definition process, thereby making children be viewed in the realms of social constructions (Corsaro, 2005). The interpretive and constructivists, therefore, in juxtaposing children's sociology of childhood. Assert that both children and adults are alike, and both are active players in childhood social construction in their shared cultural interpretive reproduction. That is contrary to traditionalists that envision children as consumers of adults' established cultures.

Traditional Theories/Socialization in Children's Theoretical Approaches

According to the traditionalist theorists, most sociological views on children and childhood are derived from socialization as the theoretical framework which informs the children's internalization and adaptation to society. Most theoretical approaches on sociology underlie early socialization as stemming from the family where the child is depicted to be as an internalizing society. He, the child, is not viewed as a society yet hence must first be shaped and guided by external forces before advancing to become wholly societal functional members. Over time, there has been a proposal of deterministic and constructivist models of socialization when analyzing children's theoretical approaches in sociology. The deterministic model underlies children's passive roles in which children are viewed as simultaneous novices with the potentiality of maintaining the societal and a threat that needs to be tamed through training.

The constructivist model underscores children as active agents with the potentiality of learning; hence the child can construct their social world their belonging in it.

Socialization of children in the functionalist perspectives lost meaning owing to the development of the sociological theory. The social theorists came up with a notion that after internalization of the functionalist theory, society was viewed as a social control mechanism that informed social reproduction prevalent in childhood.

The Constructivist Model regarding Piaget's Theory

Because of Piaget's theory of Intellectual Development in the constructivist model, it juxtaposes children's evolution of knowledge .coupled with their psychological development. Piaget had a belief that children have the ability of interpretation, organization, and use of their environmental consciousness in the construction of the conceptions of their social and physical right from infancy. Piaget's notion is vital in the sociology of children since it is a reminder that children can qualitatively organize and perceive their worlds in ways that are different from adults. The theory also explains that any children's sociological theory explains children's understanding, their use of information from adults, coupled with their participation and participation in their peer world that is vital in their cognitive levels of development (Corsaro, 2005).

Additionally, Piaget's theory underlies a central force, an equilibrium which prompts children through their cognitive stages of development. Most social theorists use stability in explaining a child's behavioral changes and changes in attitude in society as an equilibrium process.

Vygotsky's Social Cultural View of Human Development using Constructivist Approach

Just like Piaget, Vygotsky emphasized the active roles of children in human development, albeit the former believed that it is the collective societal actions of children that inform their social development. According to Vygotsky, the societal changes, specifically on the individual demands call for strategies in the quests of managing those demands. He asserts that the procedure for managing societal needs are typically collective, thus calling for interaction among individuals, which would subsequently foster psychological and social developments (Corsaro, 2005). Hence when a child interacts with others, he can acquire new skills and knowledge that transforms him from the previous skills. The children become internalized, and their culture is also appropriated during their interactions with others. That is prevalent in the language where the child's perception is encoded. Vygotsky, therefore, asserts that children, in the quests of dealing with their problems, they usually develop strategies collectively through their interaction with others. That, thus, presents human development as a collective entity rather than individualistic, as asserted by Piaget.

Vygotsky's theory is based on the contexts of development and history, while Piaget's philosophy is based on the cognitive processes and structures. Vygotsky asserts that all the actions in the event of a child frequently appear twice at the social level and the individualistic level, between people and between themselves (Corsaro,2005). By that, he meant that both our cognitive, emotional and emotional skills are acquired through interactions with others. Things are first developed at interpersonal levels then internalized at an individual level; hence children can quickly develop the ability to voice out their views by themselves after interactions with people.

Children as Collective Participants in the Society

Childhood sociological theories should stop the notion of viewing children in the individualistic perspectives as own internalization of the skills and knowledge of adults. Instead, children should be considered within the realms of sociological perspectives, which not only focuses on internalization and adaptation but also reinvention, reproduction, and appropriation. Socialization, on the socialization perspective, emphasizes on communal and collective processes as opposed to individualistic approaches when viewing childhood sociological adaptations. That would also enable children to participate in routines that would subsequently allow them to set their predictable rules, thus gaining insights into their generative cultural participation. It is the same routine that would enable them to display their knowledge and discuss their interests with supportive adults (Corsaro, 2005). Hence when they become part of their culture, the children would easily interpret their place in the world through interactive routines that inform their cultural development skills and knowledge. The institutional fields and family would then tell their production and participation in the peer cultures.

Conclusion

Over time, sociology has paid little attention to children and childhood owing to the traditional views of socialization, which accords children of passive roles. Both Piaget and Visclosky have attempted to change that narrative in their theories of cognitive development and sociocultural approach, respectively. Additionally, the constructivists have emphasized on the active roles of children in development and participation in the world of adults coupled with their collective activities in production and cooperation as active members of childhood and adult cultures.

Reference

Corsaro, W. (2005).Social Theories of Childhood. The Sociology of Childhood. Retrieved fromDOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781483399027.n1