my Image of the child

Starting my research I immediately became aware of my personal bias’. I have been working with children for two years, before that I was in the Early Childhood Education program. Because of that, I view children in a very specific way and that has altered how I look at research. I view children as independent, capable, blank slates. I think childhood is a series of experiences that will shape a child’s personality and mind. While during research on society’s image of the child, I found myself more inclined to use the research that supported my views and what i’ve learned from my experiences. Once I realized I was almost subconsciously doing this, I had to make an effort to look at other views and try to put my opinion in the back of my head to see things from other perspectives.

I have another personal bias that I found through researching for my project. I have a very strong stance on children and technology, and I tend to only see the negative side to it. Before I started researching I had already made my mind up that it was terrible for children and that all my findings would back that up however, while I was researching I came across some reasons technology is beneficial to children as well as beneficial for society. I had to look at both sides and finally came to the conclusion that there are pros as well as cons. For my paper I was going to focus mostly on the cons but by looking at the positive side of technology I was able to be more informed and incorporate that side into my final draft.