A Critical Discussion Upon the Relationship Between the Psychoanalytical Perspective of Developmental Psychology and its Adaptation to Educating Teenage Mothers

This paper will critically explore elements of the psychoanalytic paradigm of developmental psychology in relation to the professional practice of working with teenage mothers in an educational setting. Particular focus will be given to the psychosexual and psychosocial staged theories of development. The framework for this critical analysis will examine each stage of psychosexual and psychosocial theory in relation to teenage motherhood. These perspectives have been specifically chosen due to the explicit links between staged childhood experience and adult behaviour in relation to sexual and social aspects of development, both aspects having fundamental links to teenage parenthood. Four case study examples are used to demonstrate how psychoanalytical theory may relate to this cohort. These are taken from the author’s past professional work as a teenage parent programme lead. The examples are given to shed light on the impact of each psychosocial and psychosexual stage of development. This article concludes that whilst both the psychosocial and psychosexual models of development are useful in giving educators a perspective into behaviours that are displayed in adolescence, they are but one of many perspectives that should be taken into account when working with this cohort

Critical Analysis of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need

This paper intends to provide a critique of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need, a psychological model that often goes unquestioned within the education sector. Examples will be given of the authors own professional practice and experience in relation to the Hierarchy of Need (HON) and discussed in terms of the critique. The paper concludes that whilst some elements of the HON may be useful in education it does have some serious flaws that also need to be considered when applying this to practice. This paper hopes to demonstrate that, quite often, the theoretical underpinning and research basis for theories that are widely used in education are neglected, highlighting that each planned action or perspective that may be used within education needs exploring in terms of context, evidence base and relevance

Children and young people as geological agents? Time, scale and multispecies vulnerabilities in the new epoch

In this paper we frame children as geological agents, very much part of epoch and biospherical processes, enfolded in Earth system changes. We draw on the experiences of Indian childhoods in a context where the land, water, animals, children's bodies and forests are being shaped by a politics of corporate city building. We analyse how children and young people contribute to Earth system changes and consider the everyday, multispecies consequences of living with anthropogenic urbanism. The paper shows how children's bodies are entangled with human and non-human forces; they are geological agents which challenge, negotiate and have cyclical and rhythmic relationships with land and resources. We argue that time, scale and multispecies vulnerabilities are important reference points in our thinking through anthropogenic processes and thus contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the place of children and young people in the new epoch