Abstract
The category of dialectical inferences was proposed by Piaget to interpret the inferences arising in the coordination of meanings within the construction of cognitive novelties in physical and logical-mathematical phenomena. First, the different uses given to the concept of dialectics in Piagetian work will be analyzed, emphasizing the original meaning of the term “inferential dialectical.” Second, the results of a study on the construction of children’s ideas about the right to privacy at school will be analyzed using the category of dialectical inferences. This study was based on interviews with 30 children between 7 and 12 years old living in the city of Buenos Aires to study the development of their ideas about this right. At the same time, we observed the school practices in which these children participate to characterize how students’ personal information was treated at school. Thirdly, we propose a discussion on the construction of social knowledge, identifying the constructive activity of subjects and, at the same time, the peculiar interactions they sustain with social practices from which the object of knowledge is cut out. In this article, we conclude that the category of dialectical inferences, used to investigate the development of physical and mathematical logical knowledge, can be fruitful to interpret the development of social ideas.
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Notes
Age in years followed by months.
In this article, when we use this term, we refer to those social actions of teachers that are directed at students. An example of this might be when a teacher, on occasion, publicly exposes a student’s personal information in the school classroom.
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The research was supported by a grant from University of Buenos Aires, UBACYT 2018–2022 20020170100222BA.
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Axel Horn, José Antonio Castorina, and Alicia Barreiro work together in writing the manuscript. Axel Horn had more participation in sections dedicated to the study on right to intimacy and José Antonio Castorina in the sections on dialectics in Piagetian work. Alicia Barreiro contributed through along the different section discussion ideas and writing.
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This research project was approved by the Secretaria de Investigación de la Universidad de Buenos Aires (Argentina). All participants voluntarily and explicitly gave their consent to be part of the study. Informed consent was also requested from the adults responsible for the minors who were interviewed, because they were minors.
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Horn, A., Castorina, J.A. & Barreiro, A. Dialectical Inferences in the Construction of Social Domain Knowledge. Hu Arenas (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42087-023-00341-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42087-023-00341-x