From the acknowledgment to the recognition of children’s and adolescents’ identity

dr. Katja Jeznik

Summary:  The question of the development of an individual’s identity within the school space is related to a variety of roles that the individual takes on in the relationships that she/he builds from birth onward. In the article, I outline some possible ways of understanding an individual’s identity in the process of its formation in the institutionalized school environment, and I then proceed to answer the question about what the theory of recognition means for the support for the process of developing an individual’s identity. The theory of recognition can serve as a concrete starting point for the creation of the school space as a heterogeneous environment. I understand coexistence in diversity as a fundamental value of our time, which is—as I show in the article—also the basic starting point for the development of an open identity of children and adolescents. The article uses the example of the placement of children with special needs to demonstrate certain anomalies in the Slovenian school system that could be adequately eliminated if the described principles of the recognition theory were taken into account.