Initiatives

The Jonathan Levy Child Drama Symposium: Ethics and the Representation of Childhood in Performance, Pedagogy and Popular Culture

Summary

This symposium’s central question is:

Given that adults create, control, and distribute the vast majority of childhood representations, what are the ethical parameters of adult relationships with and responsibilities to children?

This conference will explore different interpretations of “childhood,” with the aim of investigating how the diverse understandings of this term affect and are generated by governmental policies, educational theories, theatre and performance, the mass media, and social expectations. Rather than understanding childhood in the Americas as static and/or a natural state of being, this conference will investigate childhood as a social category. Viewed in this light, the “child” becomes a metaphor—a pattern of meaning—created through culturally specific stories, beliefs, and customs.

Given the above understanding, the symposium will unpack and explore the ethics of how adult culture shapes and represents children.  In particular, we are interested in how these multiple understandings and shaded meanings influence adult relationships with and responsibilities to actual youth.

Symposium Substance and Significance

Adults use fluid narratives to define childhood and youth.  For example, in the United States we increasingly seem to conceive of children as either complex sets of problems (risks) to be solved or archetypal innocents in need of protection.  The reality of childhood exists at neither end of the spectrum.  This symposium aims to track the ebb and flow of cultural beliefs and experiences about childhood identity as seen in art, mass media, educational theory, and civic policy.  This multidisciplinary and eclectic approach allows participants and audience members to develop a better understanding and knowledge of the ethical issues implicated in work for and with children.  The U. S. Census Bureau estimates that over a quarter of Arizona’s total population is under 18 years of age, making the question particularly relevant for Arizona and Arizona State University.

The symposium depends on the term “representation” as a key structuring device allowing multiple perspectives and conversations.  We are interested in a broad definition which includes symbolic and metaphoric ideas; the civic and legal act of representing or speaking with authority on behalf of someone else (law, democracy, policy); the creation of a visual or tangible rendering of someone or something (fine art, print art, photography); and theatrical performance (theatre, film, television, advertising).

Need—Value Added

While significant amounts of scholarly work are available on topics of ethics and youth particularly within an educational setting (running the gamut from progressive educator John Dewey to conservative William J. Bennett or Brazil’s Paolo Freire), the majority of sources revolve around either teaching youth ethics, promoting ethical character development, or ethical research practices on children and youth. Only a handful of publications address the subject of ethics in working with youth, with the majority of these area-specific to juvenile law practices, medical care, or mental health.  An even greater number of books and training manuals make no mention of ethics at all. We are interested in establishing an ethical framework for adults across multiple fields who work with young people (e.g., social work, teaching, art, children’s television programming, and policy studies).

We expect that this conference will add value to multiple fields and career paths by:

• Bringing attention to ethical questions revolving around representations of children and youth
• Creating a network of like-minded scholars, artists, business leaders, and educators within the Northern Hemisphere concerned with articulating the ethical parameters of adult-youth relationships
• Addressing a gap in the literature and subsequent training of youth workers