Tracing Curiosity with a Value Perspective

This article aims at examining a common concept often taken for granted: curiosity. On the basis of four selected policy documents/official documents concerning the field of early childhood education and care (ECEC), the purpose of this document study is to identify descriptions of the concept of curiosity in order to investigate the dominant value aspects of curiosity that can be traced in ECEC. Moreover, the study investigates whether there are any missing value dimensions in the selected documents.

Overall, the study shows that the selected documents have a dominant focus on curiosity as a competence for learning, and especially a competence for gaining knowledge about natural science, such as mathematical concepts and natural phenomena. At the same time, the analysis indicates that curiosity is excluded from the central learning areas of for example art and music. According to the authors, this suggests that curiosity has a closer connection to natural science than other areas of knowledge such as "art, culture and creativity" and "ethics, religion and philosophy". Curiosity is described as a competence needed to meet the challenge of lifelong learning, with children’s acquisition of knowledge as the overall goal.

The analysis shows that other possible connections to curiosity are only represented to a lesser degree, while other value aspects are missing completely in the selected documents. Curiosity is mentioned to a lesser degree in connection with the value field democracy, in which central keywords are participation and equality. But also here, curiosity is sometimes connected to learning competence. The analysis shows that, on the one hand, curiosity is connected to a competence regarding future challenges and, on the other hand, it is connected to being a future participant in society.

The final value field examined by the author is caring. Keywords connected to this value are caring, well-being, empathy, human dignity and recognition. Here, the analysis shows that interpersonal relationships do not seem to be connected to the concept of curiosity in the selected documents. According to the author, there is only one example of something resembling a connection between curiosity and the value field of caring; i.e. in the Framework Plan, which describes that curiosity towards differences is important in today's diverse society.

The author concludes that curiosity is presented as a positive concept, with almost no traces of morally negative aspects or downsides, and this represents a predominantly positive understanding of curiosity. As the analysed documents do not mention the possible downsides of curiosity, such as restlessness, superficiality or the compromise of privacy, one might ask whether the selected policy documents/official documents concerning the fields of ECEC convey a romantic understanding of the concept. Moreover, the author concludes that the analysed documents share a similar focus on curiosity, in the sense that, with a few exceptions, curiosity is represented as a competence leading to future personal or societal benefits. Curiosity is thereby neither represented as a value in its own right nor as a driving force for experiencing meaning, and the author indicates that the selected documents lack an existential dimension of the concept curiosity.

The study was designed as a qualitative content analysis of an OECD report (Starting Strong III: A Quality Toolbox for Early Childhood Education and Care), two white papers (Stortingsmelding 41 – Kvalitet i barnehagen (Quality in Kindergarten) and Stortingsmelding 24 – Fremtidens barnehage (The Kindergarten of the Future) as well as the Norwegian Framework Plan for the Content and Tasks of Kindergarten. As an analytical approach, the study used three established value fields described in several Nordic curricula for ECEC: democracy, caring and competence. In this way, the author identified possible connections between the concept of curiosity and the value fields mentioned.

Menning, S. F. (2017). Tracing Curiosity with a Value Perspective. Nordisk tidsskrift for pedagogikk og kritikk, 3(1), 1-16.