Gaile Sloan Cannella. (1997) Deconstructing Early Childhood Education: Social Justice & Revolution. Reviewed by Abdeljalil Akkari, Fribourg University (Switzerland)

Gaile Sloan Cannella. (1997) Deconstructing Early Childhood Education: Social Justice & Revolution. New York: Peter Lang 240 pp. $29.95         0-8204-3452-3 Reviewed by Abdeljalil Akkari Fribourg University (Switzerland) June 27, 2000           Child-centered education is rarely discussed in the dominant pedagogical and psychological discourse. Deconstructing Early Childhood Education: Social Justice and Revolution by Gaile Sloan Cannella is a successful attempt to bring our attention to the cultural production of educational discourse. The arguments presented in this book combine deep understanding of the theoretical frameworks of child-centered education and the wide range of societal implications of its hegemony.           In the introductory chapter, Sloan Cannella challenges the effectiveness of child-centered ideology. Mainstream early childhood educators consider themselves as advocates for children: "We take pride in the notion that we are child- centered and place the whole child at the forefront of our thoughts and actions. Through observation and psychological theory, we have diligently learned so much about children that we can describe how they grow and change. We know what kind of experiences to provide for them and how to advise others regarding these experiences. We dedicate many hours to issues of child development, attempting to improve home and school experiences for all children" (p. 1). Sloan Cannella wonders if these efforts have increased educational opportunity for all children. Obviously, early childhood educators' activities appear unsuccessful: "The communication and socioeconomic gaps (including access to resources) between human beings from different cultural groups and economic classes is widening in the United States and around the world. Monied children attend particular schools while poor children are provided with different experience" (p. 1).           Describing her own background, Sloan Cannella explains how she moved from a determinist piagetian perspective to postmodern philosophy. By reading the work of critical authors (e.g., Jonathan Kozol, Lisa Delpit and the like) and working with children and adult whose life experiences differ from her own, Sloan Cannella came to believe that the construction of knowledge is rooted in power relations (p. 4). She suggests that multiple forms of knowledge should be heard. Not only are these multiple voices neglected, there is also a tendency to reinforce monolithic thinking in childhood education. The National Association for the Education of young children published in 1987 a document entitled Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children From Birth to Eight (Bredekamp, 1987). This document is grounded in developmental psychology, most obviously exhibiting a piagetian influence. According to Sloan Cannella, classrooms all over the United States are currently exploring the potential use of the teaching guidelines provided in the document. Early childhood educators themselves are currently debating the universalist perspective implied by the notion of "appropriate practice."           In Chapter II, Sloan Cannella tries to undress the genealogy of childhood education. Using Aries (1962) work, she reminds us that childhood did not exist during the medieval period. French child from the middle Ages to the eighteenth century was simply treated as small adult. The construction of the child as separate and distinct from adult took place between the thirteenth and seventeenth centuries. Consequently, the idea of "graded classes" was created to protect those who are younger in years from those who were older and may have seen more of the debased world. The clergy defined childhood through the construction of school activities and ways of functioning. Regulation and control are deeply embedded in the history of formal schooling.           Sloan Cannella explains also how, the construction of child is used to perpetuate a colonialist power relationship between countries. Charitable agencies publicize for donations to "guarantee" a childhood for children in the "Third World." This perspective uses younger human being to deny the imperialism that lead to poverty, and perpetuate the notion that people in poverty are responsible for their condition. The strength and agency of a group of family and children are denied and the perception that "first World" countries are the saviors is fostered. The use of childhood creates a perspective in which we can deny the political question regarding our role in subjugating others. We do not ask what we are doing that contributes to the conditions in which people find themselves (p. 37). Sloan Cannella argument remind me the former French minister of Humanitarian action asking few years ago, schoolchildren to carry with him a rice' bag to "save" the Somalian children.           Another element in the western genealogy of childhood is positioning human beings as individual, self contained agents. Sloan Cannella criticizes the famous Kholberg (1976) theory of moral reasoning. The sixth stage in this theory clearly illustrates the Western-Christian "ideology of individualism." Nevertheless, in some cultural contexts, the highest level of morality is respect for elders, the avoidance of conflict, and the development of harmonious social relations, a form of moral knowledge that almost eliminates the construction of human beings as individuals. Focusing on the individual child as a social unit masks, in Sloan Cannella's view, gender, class, and cultural knowledge (p. 38).           Chapter III denounces our allegiance to Child Development. The author points out that developmental psychology emerged alongside the field of experimental psychology, and both were created within the context of scientific positivism and Darwinism. In multiple ways, Piaget, one the most influential developmental psychologists, reinforced the dominant beliefs of his time. For example, the "mental" was privileged over the "active", contributing to the "thinking" versus "doing" dichotomy, the "abstract" versus the "concrete." When knowledge is described as progressively more adequately organized, the adult is privileged over the child, rationality over irrationality (P. 57). Children in highly technological societies are privileged. As suggested by Dasen (1994), the Piagetian stage of hypothetico-deductive scientific reasoning is not necessarily what is most valued in every community, not even in Western societies. Indeed, the development of formal reasoning (as strictly defined by Piaget) seems to be strongly dependent on reaching secondary schooling. When Piaget studied formal reasoning in Geneva, he did so in schools that were highly selective, attended by only five percent of the population in that age group (p. 149).           Sloan Cannella holds that the concept of autonomy highly valued in developmental psychology is truly imperialist in that some cultures do not value the individualistic model of humanity. Further, the focus on the autonomous individual can result in denial of racial, class, gender, and cultural inequities. Individuals become entirely responsible for their destiny. Socio-cultural context and power relationships are completely evacuated.           Sloan Cannella carefully discusses in Chapter IV how early child experience is used to judge mother and family. Recent childhood discourse is dominated by the assumption that early experience in one way or the other determines the life of the individual. This discourse is evident in development and guidance books, displayed in every setting where education is discussed. Sloan Cannella argues that some of us may not believe that the early years are more important than any other part of a person's life; however, we have certainly internalized the notion that early experience is the foundation. Schooling after early childhood education, then, can be regarded as the confirmation of "early foundation." Failure of minority students in high school may become "natural" and related to familial factors. Clearly, an analysis of the historical construction of the concepts of "mother" and "family" illuminates why appropriate early experience emerged as dominant discourse: "We 'talk' as if the nuclear, heterosexual family has always existed and that we have evidence as to its superiority, that the best place for children to thrive is in the arms of mother within the idealized family unit." (P. 78)           Another myth discussed by Sloan Cannella is the notion of Self- concept. The focus on self-concept is a disguised method of privileging the western (and predominately American) notion of individualism, yet denying societal responsibility for social justice and the human condition. The "self" represents that decontextualized body that is responsible for growth, progress, reason, truth, and values. The individual self must be strong and disciplined and must believe in its own worth because, with a focus on individualism, there are not other resources available (P. 107). The notion of self-concept, according to Sloan Cannella is patriarchal, privileging western forms of male detachment. The assumption that all humans can and should work toward an individually oriented positive regard, an autonomous being, privileges those cultures that focus on individualism and disqualifies those cultures, groups, families, and even individuals who do not construct humanity as a group of separated beings.           At one point in her book, Sloan Cannella offers a critical examination of the discourse on parent involvement. She asserts that parent are "already involved" in the lives of their children, in multiple ways and in multiple forms. By constructing the language of "parent involvement", educators place themselves above both younger human beings and their parents as those who hold the received knowledge that must be revealed to "others." We must show parents how to be involved with their children, with the school, with appropriate early experience, with homework-- -in short how to manage children. Educators have not constructed a language that gives the message that we want to learn "from and with" parents and their children. The hidden, yet dominant, assumption in the words "parent involvement" is that parents are not involved and do not know how to be part of the lives of their children. The discourse immediately places parents on the margin and constructs power over them by those who are in the field of education (P. 107).           In Chapter V, Sloan Cannella rightly suggests that in the institutionalization of programs for young children and the determination of curricular goals and content, early childhood education has played a role in the construction of a two-tiered system and in the continual segregation of diverse groups of people (e.g., the poor, the cultural different, those with diverse world views) perpetuating societal beliefs that particular groups are inferior to others. For African-Americans, schooling was not the path to liberatory education. Under slavery in the United States, Blacks were forbidden from attending school or attaining any of the skills that were offered through formal schooling upon penalty of death. When education was offered to the poor, it was grounded in the assumptions that individuals and families were deficient and that the state must "expertly" regulate and control the behavior of those in poverty. Education has been one site for the generation and perpetuation of race, class, and gender inequity and the construction of power hierarchies. This tiered system is directly illustrated in the practice of Early childhood education over the past two hundred years. First, the field emerged from a historical context in which the regulation of poverty and the control of immigrants has been and is of utmost importance (p. 108).           For me, therefore, one of the most exciting chapters was the deconstruction by Cannella Sloan and Viruru (Chapter VI) of child-centered, play-based instruction. Rooted in the work of Rousseau, Pestalozzi, and Frobel, contemporary early childhood educators have constructed child-centered instruction as a form of learning that is both natural and appropriate for all younger human beings: "Child-centered pedagogy perpetuates the dominant ideology that reifies a universal child and describes that child as processing through predetermined stages of human development. Child-centeredness becomes the universal human pedagogy that is appropriate for all human beings, the truth for everyone." (p. 117). Five central tenets of Child-centered Pedagogy were masterfully discussed in this chapter: (1) readiness as adult privilege, (2) choice as the illusion of Individual, self- Governance, (3) needs as natural authority, (4) play as cultural artifact, and (5) discovery as privileging mono-cultural knowledge.           In the concluding chapter, Sloan Cannella attempts to reconceptualize early childhood education as the struggle for social justice. She suggested that in the United States and Europe, our lives have been and are embedded in a political, social, and historical context in which we have constructed regulatory desires around notions of universal truth, progress and hierarchy. These beliefs and desires are part of our culture and as human constructions deserve some form of respect. However, when these constructions are imposed on all human beings, power relations are produced that foster injustice, oppression, and regulation. This deconstruction of early childhood education was conducted to unveil the way in which our particular cultural desires, constructions, and beliefs are biased; how our regime of truth have been perpetuated; and who have been privileged or oppressed by dominant perspectives in the field (p. 157).           As we choose our struggles, Sloan Cannella affirms that we could at least begin by addressing social justice within and around institutionalized settings. Multiple questions have to be asked: "How do we eliminate two-tiered system? Does the curriculum respect the multiple knowledge and life experiences of younger human beings from diverse backgrounds? How does our current practice perpetuate a classed structure in the society? Is the message provided by education to each human being equitable regarding his or her background, beliefs, and life experiences? Does the educational/care system treat everyone fairly with respect? Are there those whose life experiences create privilege for them within the school contexts that we have created? Is this socially just?" (P. 164)           For Sloan Cannella, an alternative to mainstream early childhood education, may consist in "hearing and responding" to other people voices to overcome the struggle for equal opportunities.           Originating from the opposite perspective (early childhood education), Sloan Cannella arrives at the end of her essay at the same conclusion that Freire did in discussing adulthood education: the necessity to transform educational institutions from "oppression" to "concientization", and from "hegemony" to "liberation." Hegemony represents an anti-dialogical situation that serves the oppression of subordinate groups of separated being. Liberation characterizes a collective dialogical action where oppressed people achieve their empowerment through shared power and responsibility (Freire, 1970).           In this book, Sloan Cannella addresses her criticisms mainly to European and American (mainstream) educators. However, I think that her message is also valid for minority educators. As pointed out by McLaren (1988) "[T]he dominant culture is able to manufacturate dreams and desires for both dominant and subordinate groups by supplying terms of reference (i.e., image, visions, stories, ideals) against which all individuals are expected to live their lives [and] in which the value of the dominant [culture] appear so correct that to reject them would be unnatural, a violation of common sense." (P. 174) The perpetuation of cultural domination needs the passive collaboration of the oppressed and the dominant.           One of the biggest strengths of this book is Sloan Cannella's commitment to engage her personal responsibility in challenging her "professional expertise" as specialist of early childhood education. The power of this book resides also in its revolutionary potential. It is an invitation to discuss the most established tenets in psychological and educational discourse. This book is a valuable source of information that would be useful and motivational for educators engaged in critical thinking. References Aries, P. (1962). Centuries of childhood- A social history of family life. New York: Knopf. Bredekamp, S. (Ed.), (1987). Developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood programs serving children from birth through age eight. Washington DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children. Dasen, P. (1994). Culture and cognitive development from a Piagetian perspective. In W .J. Lonner & R.S. Malpass (Eds.), Psychology and Culture. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Seabury Press. Kholberg, L. (1976). Moral stages and moralization. In T. Lickona (Ed.), Moral development and moral behavior: Theory, research and social issues (pp. 31-53). New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. McLaren, P. (1988). Life in schools: An introduction to critical pedagogy in the foundations of education. New York: Longman. About the Reviewer Abdeljalil Akkari is a Senior Lecturer in the department of Education at Fribourg University (Switzerland). He teaches courses in multicultural education and sociology of education. He was a visiting professor at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. His major publications include articles on youth identities, home-school relations and educational inequalities. About the Author Gaile Sloan Cannella is an Associate Professor of early childhood and multicultural education at Texas A&M; University. She received her Ed.D. in early childhood education from the University of Georgia. In addition to numerous research articles in professional journals concerned with the education of young children, she has written on social justice and teacher education.