Policy, Protectionism and the Competent Child

Abstract

This article examines the way that recent policy initiatives on childhood in Britain generate contradictory models of childhood. It is argued that the childcare and educational policy contexts suggest that children are (1) in need of greater protection, control and `redevelopment' and (2) more active in constructing strategies for dealing with problems within the home and the school. In an attempt to make sense of these seemingly irreconcilable definitions of childhood, the article locates policy within a broader context of shifting adult boundaries between public and private spheres which generate more fluid roles and responsibilities involving adults and children.