The construction of 'child' and 'childhood' in official church educational documents Part 2 : Implications for early childhood religious educators

This paper following on from the paper "How Shall we Know Them? Part 1 - The Construction of 'Child' and 'Childhood' in Official Church Educational Documents" (Grajczonek, 2010), considers the implications that such constructions have for religious educators. It argues that at the heart of these implications are religious educators' own views of 'child' and 'childhood'. It is important that all educators purposefully consider the question, "Who is the child?" for themselves, and then how that sits with the construction of "Who is the child?" in these documents. Within the intricate and complex web that includes the Church documents' image of the child, the contemporary early childhood image of child and the local cultural context of the image of child, religious educators must identify and articulate an image of "Who is the child?" that is aligned with their personal views, the local cultural context views, as well as with early childhood and Church views. Given the ambiguity that exists among these, the task of early childhood institutions and schools articulating their image of child is not without its challenges. However, it is essential that religious educators at the staff level come to shared understandings of the image of the child that is informed by all key elements, as without this articulation, the child will not be at the centre of all teaching and learning in the early childhood religion setting/classroom.