The history of pedagogy – from child-rearing to pedagogy as a subject

When you sit on the floor and play with a child help a young person find footing or support someone with special needs you're part of a trade built on a long development in views of people. Pedagogy is about providing care creating development and giving space — and those ideas have changed much through history.

§Childhood gets a place

For long periods of history, children were regarded as small adults who should quickly work and contribute. The idea of childhood as a special, valuable life phase that requires care, play and development grew gradually from the 1700s and 1800s. Philosophers and thinkers began to argue that children learn through play and experience, and that they should be met with care rather than harsh discipline. These are fundamental ideas that still guide the trade.

§The first institutions

In the 1800s industrialization created a new need: when both parents worked in factories someone had to look after the children. Daycare centres and childcare facilities emerged often with a focus mainly on keeping children safe. At the same time educational pioneers developed ideas that the institution could be more than childcare – it could promote the child's development. The German pedagogue Friedrich Fröbel founded in the 1800s the idea of kindergarten where play and activity were the means to learn.

§How it looked before

In early menageries and gardens the care was often characterized by guesswork. You fed with what was at hand kept animals alone even though they were herd animals and did not systematically combat infection. Through the 1900s scientific understanding grew: people learned that different species have vastly different needs for food temperature light and company and that animals can suffer both physically and mentally.

• 01Many children per adult and focus on storage and safety.
• 02Fixed routines and discipline rather than the individual child's needs.
• 03Care without formal education at the beginning.
• 04Harder view on discipline than today.

§Pedagogy becomes a subject

In the course of the 1900s, pedagogy developed into a proper trade with education, theory and methods. People began to research how children develop, how they learn, and what creates well-being. The view of the child changed: from being something to be shaped and tamed to being a human with their own feelings, the right to be heard and the need to be seen. This led to professional training and to a completely different everyday life in the institutions.

§A broader field.

Over time, the pedagogical field grew beyond kindergarten. Today, pedagogical staff also work with schoolchildren, young people, adults with disabilities and people with special needs. The profession is not only about supervision, but about supporting development, participation and a good life for many different people. The pedagogical assistant is an important part of this broad field – close to the users in everyday life.

§The craft today.

Today pedagogical assistant is an independent profession with education where you work with people across life's breadth — often children but also young people and adults who need support. You create secure frameworks support development and play see the individual person and collaborate with colleagues parents and other professionals. The historical line from the daycare to today's institution is about a fundamental change: from storing to seeing supporting and developing the individual person.

“The history of pedagogy is the story of how the child – and later all people with support needs – came to be seen as a whole person who should be met with care.”