Childrenʼs perceptions of unpaid and paid work : From the educational practice of writing about the lives of people close to them and their parents

アンペイドワーク　ト　ペイドワーク　ニ　ツイテ　ノ　コドモ　ノ　ニンシキ　ミヂカナ　ヒト　オヤ　ノ　クラシ　ヲ　ツヅル　キョウイク　ジッセン　カラ

クキタ, キヌヨ

Kukita, Kinuyo

オオサカ ダイガク ダイガクイン ニンゲン カガク ケンキュウカ キョウイクガクケイ

Department of Education, Graduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka University

The purpose of this study is to explore how children perceive the two types of labor performed at home, and how they interpret them through the practice of writing about their lives. Using texts obtained from the author’s personal practice in 2000, using both Japanese language and comprehensive learning time as the object of analysis, discourse analysis was conducted to explore children’s perceptions at the time, that is, when they were in the first year of junior high school. Three issues were elucidated in the analysis. First, most of the children did not perceive unpaid work as labor, and considered only paid work as labor, with the father playing a central role. Nevertheless, nearly half of the children described unpaid work because it was a practice of writing concretely about their daily lives. Second, there was a difference in the way girls and boys interpreted unpaid work. Girls were more aware of unpaid work and recognized its value, compared to the boys. This suggests that children had internalized the gender division of labor and sexism (disregard for women’s roles) at the time of writing. Third, the practice of writing about their daily lives could provide an opportunity for children to become aware of the existence of unpaid work, and consider the actual situation and issues of gender division of labor.