Our lecture / tutorial today focused on society and culture and how these relate to ‘youth culture’. It gave me more of an insight into what society and culture mean. Culture is the traditions shared by members of a group that are reflected in their way of life. Whereas a society can range from a small to large group of people, these groups could be formal or informal and not everyone has to have the same views. We also discussed the term ‘youth’, what it meant and what a subculture was in relation to it. The term ‘youth’ can be described by ‘a particular stage of physical, emotional and social development’, it is the stage between being a child and an adult. Some examples of youth subcultures are punks, hippies and goths. It is a group from the wider society that is known from its cultural patterns.
Another key concept covered in the tutorial was the differences and commonalities between youths around the world. Some of the main commonalities that my group came up with was informal education (for example learning through play and adventure), puberty and friends (interactions with others their age). There are also many differences, some being formal education (schooling, not every youth across the world has the chance to go to school), human rights and responsibilities (the driving and drinking age and the minimum wage or right to work). Overall the thing I took away from this the most was that although many things are similar in youths around the world, there are even more differences in culture and society, these are evident across the globe.
We then moved onto talk about the theories of adolescence, some theorist being Piaget, Erikson, Maslow and Kohlberg. Piaget believes that children go through set stages at certain times in their lives, these focus of how children think and how they interact with the world around them. Likewise Kohlberg agrees with Piaget about moral development and that children go through set stages, he however does not attach these stages to age. He also believes that children go through a principled level at stage 5 and 6. However Erikson doesn’t believe in stages as such, he believes that during the transition from childhood to adulthood (12-18), youths climb steps in order for them to become an adult. Youths now start to look into the future in terms of relationships, housing and careers, he also believes that they are now trying to look for a society to fit into.
There was however one theory that I was struggling to comprehend, Maslows theory. During the lecture I feel like I knew the basics, I understood the triangle but I struggled to understand it in as much depth as the others. As I don’t feel as confident on this theorist I aim to look more into him before the exam so that I feel confident to write about each if need be in the exam. I will look at the recommended reading for this topic and I will visit the library if need be. I think this will help develop my understanding of not only Maslows theory but the rest too, so that I go into the exam feeling confident on this topic.
Before the exam I will also need to look further into the example case studies provided. I believe that reading these more in depth will aid my understanding of the topic as a whole.
I feel like what I have learned today will help me in the future to have a deeper understanding of the children in my classes. I think this will in turn make me a better teacher.
Overall I believe that what I have learned over the past few weeks have been very useful and interesting. Looking back on the last two weeks I can now see how everything fits together and I look forward to taking the information gained further in my career as a primary school teacher.
