Abstract

DELVAL, Juan. Aspectos de la construcción del conocimiento sobre la sociedade. Educ. Rev. [online]. 2007, n.30, pp.45-64. ISSN 0104-4060.

The child has to construct models or representations about the reality of the society where he or she lives in order to give a meaning to the surrounding world and, furthermore, taking into consideration that these representations serve as landmarks to his action. Most of the mental representations constructed by the child are not simple copies of the adult representations; instead, they are personal constructions and differ qualitatively from those of the older people. The study of the development of knowledge about society in children is attracting the attention of many investigators. There are three main theoretical approaches to this subject: the constructivist position says that the child has to construct their own knowledge counting on their personal intellectual instruments; the traditional study about social representations originated in the French School of Sociology, that has been renewed by Moscovici; and the Historical Cultural Psychology of vygotskyan approach. The first position emphasizes the activity of the subject, while the others put the emphasis on the environmental influences and so hold a counterpoint to the constructivist position. However, the existence of children beliefs different from those from adults’ as well as from the social context, and the universality of some of these beliefs, compel us not to forget the personal work of construction made by the subject.

Keywords : Children’s Understanding of Society; Constructivism; Social Representations.

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