International Symposium
Situating Childhood & Child Development:
Socio-cultural Approaches and Educational Interventions
April 9-10, 2010
Berlin & Potsdam

In recent years there has been a rapid growth of interest in the socio-cultural study of childhood and child development. Sociology of childhood, sociology of education, anthropology of childhood, cultural and educational psychology, childhood and youth studies are oriented towards the critical interpretation or reconstruction of situated meanings, subjective motives and lived experiences of children and their significant others in the context of local institutions and cultural-historical practices. Theoretical concepts such as ‘mediation’, ‘agency’, ‘activity’, ‘mimesis’, ‘participation’, ‘values’ are here of particular importance.

In the late 19th and early 20th century ‘pedology’—not childhood studies or developmental science—was supposed to be the general science of the child. “Although Vygotsky nowadays is known as a “developmental psychologist”, in his own time he was seen as a pedologist and the professorships he held were mainly in pedology (…) For Vygotsky pedology was the science that integrates disciplines, like medicine, psychology, education, and defectology, and applies knowledge from these fields to specific age ranges or developmental periods” . Not only Vygotsky but also a series of other scientists in the former Soviet Union (e.g. Basov, Bechterev, Blonskij and Zalkind) as well as in other parts of the world indicated themselves as pedologists. Recently pedology received much attention in the context of an international conference in Geneva where the first French translation of Vygotsky’s pedology (Léopoldoff I. and Schneuwly v. B., 2008) was presented. Vygotsky’s understanding of development seems to be of particular relevance in regard to the so called ‘new sociology of childhood’ as well as to classic sociological and anthropological approaches such as those of Dewey, Lewin, Mead und Politzer.

The International Symposium Situating Childhood & Child Development: Interdisciplinary Approaches and Educational Interventions takes the classic debates on ‘Pedology’ and the theory of Vygotsky and colleagues as a point of departure in order to investigate the cultural, social, historical and situative aspects of child development and childhood. Particular emphasis will be given to educational interventions based on socio-cultural approaches to childhood and education. Furthermore, the applications of new technologies in teaching and learning as well as in child research will be thoroughly discussed. The Symposium aims to discuss recent developments in socio-cultural approaches to education, cultural-historical activity theory, sociology and anthropology of childhood and childhood studies and examine possible ways in which these fields are interrelated.

The themes of the Symposium might include but are not limited to:
• History and Theory of Pedology and of ‘Childhood Studies’
• Socio-cultural dimensions of childhood and educational issues
• Socio-cultural aspects of child development and educational applications
• Practice, activity, agency and participation
• Play and learning in the zone of proximal development
• Developing instruction
• Participatory research with children/ youngsters
• Ethnography, multivoicedness and multi-perspectivity
• Internet, virtual realities and emerging/changing childhoods

The Symposium is a follow-up of two DFG-funded Symposia (Berlin, 2006 and Siegen, 2007) which opened the space for a dialogue between cultural-historical psychology and anthropology of childhood in Berlin, 2006 and in Siegen 2007 and established a cooperation between scholars from Germany and from other countries such as Denmark, USA or Brazil. This time the Symposium is organized in cooperation with the German-Dutch Section of the International Society for Cultural and Activity Research and aims to bring together scholars from Germany and the Netherlands as well as renown guest speakers from other European countries. The Workshop is a collaboration of a closed international circle of experts and aims a dynamic discussion of the abovementioned problems and questions. Initiatives for further cooperation in teaching and research between the participants from different countries will be welcome.
The book ‘Children, Culture, Education: A dialogue between Cultural-historical Psychology and Historical Anthropology’ (in press) which has been the result of the former Symposia will be presented and discussed and further publications will be planned. The outcomes of the Workshop will be made available for all specialists in relevant disciplines in the proceedings, published in English.

Colleagues interested in the Symposium are welcome to express their interest in participation with a short email to Michalis Kontopodis as soon as possible (please indicate the tile of your presentation or poster and give full details of your address/ affiliation). The deadline for submission of abstracts for posters and presentations is October 1, 2009. We recommend you to present your work as a poster, thus enabling the participation of more colleagues.

Organization:
Prof. Dr. Hartmut Giest, Department for Teacher Training, Potsdam University
Dr. Michalis Kontopodis, Research Cluster “Preventive Self”, Institute for European Ethnology, Humboldt University Berlin

For further information and application, please contact:
Michalis Kontopodis
ISCAR Secretary & Coordinator for Germany and the Netherlands,
Institute for Eur. Ethnology, Humboldt University at Berlin
michalis.kontopodis[at]staff.hu-berlin.de