Educating the Postmodern Child: The Struggle for Learning in a World of Virtual Realities

Educating the Postmodern Child traces the philosophical challenges posed by children living in an information age. Fiachra Long explores the construction of childhood in today's society arguing that the postmodern child is exposed to the public world before its time and he explores the significance of this public/private shift. Issues considered include education, appearance, space, empowerment, globality, tactility, talent, and visibility. After setting the context, each chapter uses a phenomenological approach to describe experiences common across computer-literate children today. Chapters draw on sources in the history of ideas to critique the situation described, provide a rich combination of educational and philosophical theory and apply some speculative concepts to the situation of children.