Pedagogía(s) de infancia

Abstract

Speaking of Pedagogy is to place oneself in a disciplinary space focused on the study of education, in this case, the education of young children. That pedagogical view on education has four particular characteristics: education is analyzed as a human action, as an intentional and purpose-based activity, which is oriented to the improvement of the subjects and having a regulatory structure. Considering this starting point, the text analyzes the two axes of development on which have been built childhood pedagogies: first, the recognition of the importance of early childhood education for the balanced development of children; second, the content of the educational activity at this stage and the way in which the early childhood education has responded to two basic dilemmas: the dilemma between care versus education and the dispute between the Locke’s perspective (children as empty vessels to be filled through instruction) against Rousseau's perspective (children as free beings whose natural development should be protected through education). Finally, the article outlines the three major challenges that childhood pedagogies must face in the coming years: the demands of the feminist movement, the strengthening of the environmental sensitivity and the new multicultural contexts of the childhood in our societies.