A Comparison: Constructivist and Critical Theory in Child Development

This essay delves into the constructivist and critical theory paradigms within the context of child development. It begins by highlighting the significance of child development in modern society and the evolving perspectives on it, particularly in relation to educational and public policies. The essay then outlines key stages of child development, drawing on the theories of Freud, Erikson, and Vygotsky. It contrasts the constructivist-interpretivist approach, which emphasizes the child's active role in constructing knowledge, with the critical-ideological perspective, which considers the influence of societal factors. The essay examines the philosophical underpinnings, research methodologies (qualitative and quantitative), and ethical considerations of both paradigms, ultimately supporting the constructivist approach for its emphasis on diverse ideas and educational value. References to relevant literature are also provided.

Running head: THE CONSTRUCTIVIST VS. CRITICAL THEORY PARADIGM IN CHILD
DEVELOPMENT
The Constructivist vs. Critical Theory Paradigm in Child Development
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Child development has been a very important factor in the modern society as the
development of children has a very special part in the betterment of the society as well (Kail,
2015). The child development has come to the spotlight in the very recent times as the term
development; has been viewed from different perspectives. The public policies and the education
policies are related to the fact how the education of children has been initiated in the recent
times. The rationale for the child development has been an important fact because the idea of
child development and pedagogy has been emerging from the beginning of the 20th century.
There have been certain philosophical discourses regarding the development of the children. The
child development can be divided into several concepts like the cognitive, emotional,
psychological, educational and social aspects (Spodek & Saracho, 2014).
The research topic that can be selected for understanding the child development is the
educational development for the children. The children’s education begins from the time when a
child is around three or four years old. There are several stages of the child development (Cherry,
2012). These stages are the infancy, early childhood, middle childhood and so on. The children
are thought and considered to be the little versions of the grown up adult people. This is why it is
out of basic necessity that the children should be brought up with a positive mindset and
providing a better opportunity for them to learn new things and apply them to the real world
situations. There are some of the theories about the child development (Cherry, 2012). These
theories were initiated by Sigmund Freud, Erik Erikson and Lev Vygotsky.
In his theory, Sigmund Freud had devised a psychosexual development stage. It was his
belief that the children could move forward through different stages of development (freud,
2014). These developments are specific and they are driven by an innate and unconscious sexual
drives. The theory that Freud had initiated ends at adulthood only. The theory by Erik Erikson

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was a bit different from that of Freud. Erikson thought of this development in another way and
exclaimed that social relationships drive the children for development. The role of education has
a strong bond with that of building the social relationships. This theory can be considered as
most comprehensive one. The theory by Lev Vygotsky states that social interactions are very
much important for the growth of the children’s minds. If the children have to be developed, the
parents have to take some risks as well (Charlesworth, 2013).
The reality of the child development is to prepare the children in a way that they could be
socially presentable and their presence could reflect the ethnicity of their parents. Proper
education can give the children a direction to their lives and make them aim at their career
targets. If the parents, teachers and the educators play a vital role in directing the lives of the
children in a proper way, the children will be benefitted a lot (Crain, 2015). The schools can be
seen as laboratories where the teachers are the researchers. They try to develop the students’
minds by giving them education and teaching them the morals of life. The teachers can be seen
as the change agents who could offer the students to form small groups and stay together, help
together and perform their activities together. The cultural values will have to be incorporated
within the minds of the children so that they can act by maintaining the moral guidelines. The
parents should present opportunities where the children can develop individually as well as grow
to be a social being by the guidance of their schools (Entwistle, 2012). Proper education has a
big role to play here since the little children do not have the maturity to identify what is right and
what is wrong.
The idea of child development can be seen as an idea that is pushed by value. In contrary,
some of the experts have opined that there is no such value in the society that can be called
inherent. People create them and attributes to the society. Development can be termed as a

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teleological concept (Kelemen, 2012). It has to be identified that the children grow to be ethnic,
moral, sociable and full of other good characters as it is built upon by his previous teachings. The
cognitive theory laid by Jean Piaget states that the children play a huge role in forming their
world of understanding and according to the Behavioral theory of Skinner, development is
considered to be reaction to the rewards and punishment, stimuli and reinforcements where the
internal thoughts and feelings cannot be considered to be relevant.
In general, there are four research paradigms. These are positivism,
postpositivism, constructivism-interpretivism and the critical-ideological perspective. According
to the constructivist-interpretivist approach, reality is formed in the mind of the individuals
(Arghode, 2012). This kind of approach is similar to that of the cognitive development laid down
by Piaget. This is to say the development of the children progress as many questions arise in the
children’s minds when he goes through the learning process. From this research paradigm, it
should be viewed as the role of the individuals to inspire a child’s development. One of the
things that is very important in the constructivist-interpretivist approach is the child education
system in the Montessori school system.
The critical-ideological perspective is totally different from the previous one. When the
researchers have some proactive values, it influences the critical theory in a big way (Arghode,
2012). When the critical theoretical research paradigm is looked at, the aspects of society,
environment and family comes into focus. These things have a big impact on the child’s
development. Various research paradigms on the child development were produced upon the
beliefs from philosophy and epistemology. Diverse methods could be applied as per the
viewpoint of the researcher. Positivism and postpositivism are the basics of the quantitative
research and constructivism and critical-ideological perspectives are used for the quantitative

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research. In this perspective, qualitative research is more appropriate to understand the
researcher’s viewpoint (Arghode, 2012).
The constructivist research paradigm was formed to criticize the positivist approach. The
believers of constructivism always dismiss the idea that knowledge can be derived from
objective measures (Fosnot, 2013). These constructivist believers must have biases indeed. It is
very true both the qualitative and quantitative approaches can be used in the constructivist
research paradigm. According to ontology, the constructivists concentrate on the relationship
between the knowledge and the knower’s mind. On the contrary, according to epistemology,
knowledge and reality can be constructed through social devices like gender, race, ethnicity and
social classes.
Constructivism was formed to critique positivism and much like that critical research
paradigm was formed to criticize constructivism (Fosnot, 2013). The socio-cultural factors, the
‘lenses’ to view the world according to the constructivists may be the devices of the viewing the
real world. However, the central focus will always be on the fact of the voice of the researcher.
In the case of the childhood education, the questions of arranging the research, funding the
research and such other things will always be the question. The viewpoints of the critical
perspective and constructivist re each philosophy will always be different, focusing on the
research agenda (Wahyuni, 2012).
Ethical issues must be considered since the research subject centers around the children
and their education (Graham et al., 2013). The age of the children is vulnerable enough to be
exploited. The socio-cultural, external and environmental factors are very much important in this
scenario long with the utmost care of the researcher about the physical, emotional and

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psychological environments. As a freedom from the positivist approaches restraining it to the
logical things, it is a great thing to witness the constructivist and critical theories. The critical
theory idea is very much biased. I will support the constructivist research paradigm over the
others. This is because the constructivist approach helps to establish the idea in a better furnished
way. The good points of constructivism results around the portrayal of several diverse of ideas
and support the education as a basic device for child development.

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References
Arghode, V. (2012). Qualitative and Quantitative Research: Paradigmatic Differences. Global
Education Journal, 2012(4).
Charlesworth, R. (2013). Understanding child development. Cengage Learning.
Cherry, K. (2012). Child development theories. Psychology. About. com. The New York Times.
Crain, W. (2015). Theories of development: Concepts and applications. Psychology Press.
Entwistle, H. (2012). Child-centred education. Routledge.
Fosnot, C. T. (2013). Constructivism: Theory, perspectives, and practice. Teachers College
Press.
Freud, S. (2014). On the sexual theories of children. Read Books Ltd.
Graham, A., Powell, M., Taylor, N., Anderson, D., & Fitzgerald, R. (2013). Ethical research
involving children. Florence: UNICEF Office of Research–Innocenti.
Kail, R. V. (2015). Children and their development. Pearson Higher Ed.
Kelemen, D. (2012). Teleological Minds. Evolution challenges: Integrating research and
practice in teaching and learning about evolution, 66.
Spodek, B., & Saracho, O. N. (2014). Handbook of research on the education of young children.
Routledge.
Wahyuni, D. (2012). The research design maze: Understanding paradigms, cases, methods and
methodologies.

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