What Grown-Ups Aren’t Thinking About: A Response to Tran Nguyen Templeton

Authors

Wendy Luttrell, City University of New YorkFollow

Abstract

Tran Templeton opens her article “Whose Story Is It?: Thinking Through Early Childhood with Young Children’s Photographs” with a compelling adult-child encounter. Tran and 6-year-old Saloma are viewing photographs taken of Saloma by early childhood teachers in the preschool classroom where Tran taught and conducted her research. Saloma offers a piercing analysis of “grown-ups” who neglect to consider children’s own wishes. “Maybe the people [children] don’t want you to take a picture of them when they’re like that,” Saloma cautions. But it isn’t just that adults are taking pictures that may be unwanted; what bothers Saloma is how we as adults position children in diminutive ways. Tran registers the indignation in Saloma’s voice as the 6-year-old states her objection, “Like they [adults] just think, ‘Oh that’s so cute’ (makes a shutter noise ‘chk!’) and they [children] don’t even want you to do that. What about that? Grown-ups aren’t thinking about that!”

Author Biography

Wendy Luttrell



Wendy Luttrell is a Professor of Urban Education, Sociology, Critical Social Psychology and Women and Gender Studies at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. Her research examines how urban American schooling shapes and reinforces beliefs about gender, race, class, generation, identity, knowledge and power, with a focus on how systems of inequality get internalized especially by learners who have been marginalized, excluded or stigmatized.

Recommended Citation

Luttrell, W. (2021). What Grown-Ups Aren’t Thinking About: A Response to Tran Nguyen Templeton. Occasional Paper Series, (45). DOI: https://doi.org/10.58295/2375-3668.1415