Kształtowanie tożsamości dziecka w warunkach wielokulturowej ikonosfery

The subject of these reflections is a multicultural iconosphere, as a whole of im ages characteristic of a specific place or any culture, conditioning the formation of the identity of a 7–10-year-old child in three environments: family, media and school. According to the adopted concept of Erik Erikson, identity occurs in the context of two most important relations for the child: relation to oneself and to other people, including the culture and tradition. It indicates a special type of relationship that connects the child to itself – on the one hand, with child’s own psychophysical and moral condition (self-identity), on the other – to relationships with others. In these deliberations, the author tries to answer the question: how does multiculturality determine the identity of a child in the iconosphere? The first two environments – in which a child is immersed from birth – become extremely important spaces for the child, and learning takes place through unintentional activities – socialization. The child unreflectingly accepts values, principles; shares and inherits the culture in which it grows. This world and its image is subject to internalization, becoming a reality in which the child begins the conscious, responsible creation of the self, building own identity in the form of a set of self-conscious self-characteristics (self-definition). The third environment that creates the identity of the child – the pupil – is the school environment in which intentional actions are undertaken, that is planned education. In an intentional way (including curricula, textbooks containing content that respects multiculturalism), the child’s identity at the elementary level is formed. In grades 1–3 of the primary school, the pupil continues to build autonomy and self-awareness. In the school environment the child begins to understand and evaluate itself, to take a critical attitude to different situations, conditions, structures, groups, people and even cultures.