'School is a type of big house..'

Abstract

The aim of this research is to investigate how children acquire knowledge about a specific social institution: the school. Furth's (1980) and Connel's (1971) opinion that children only start to know social institutions after the age of 6-7 is discussed. The hypothesis of the present study is that knowledge is closely related to direct experience; so the notion of school should be present also in 5to 6-year-olds. A total of 154 children aged 5-11 were examined by means of a semi-structured interview. Results indicated the presence of knowledge about school that was more precocious than that previously found with respect to other institutions. The children's conception of school appeared to develop in a sequence from the absence of any concept whatsoever to an understanding of its organization and purpose and its role within the organization of the state.

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