BSc Education / Course details

This unit will involve an interdisciplinary examination of the theories and practices concerning childhood and youth in order to help students to consider critically and in-depth relevant educational and cognate social issues in different social, cultural, economic and political contexts.

As part of this, the unit will explore how national and global conditions and structures (e.g., globalisation, UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, etc.) impact on the lives of children and young people and ‘local’ understandings of childhood and youth. By doing so, it will help students to develop a theoretical and empirical understanding of childhood and youth as a site of inequalities associated with various factors including poverty, socioeconomic status, gender and race/ethnicity. The discussion throughout the unit will encourage students to think critically about how a particular conception of childhood and youth may support particular policies and practices including those concerning the nature and extent of the education that is deemed to be ‘necessary’ or ‘desirable’ for children and young people to achieve.

Session content on the unit will be structured around key pre-session reading, an interactive lecture, and guided debate and discussion during the lecture and the ensuing seminar.
 

The unit aims to:

•  Develop an  interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of the theories and practices of childhood and youth in local, national and global contexts as a way to understand relevant educational and cognate social issues from a wider and deeper perspective

•  Develop a  critical understanding of childhood and youth as a site of inequalities associated with diverse factors including poverty, socioeconomic status, gender, and race/ethnicity.

The intended learning outcomes of this unit will support and enhance student outcomes by developing skills that contribute to their employability including critical skills, problem solving skills, communication skills, and team working skills.

Furthermore, a knowledge and understanding of the impacts of structural inequalities on children and young people’s lives, alongside the skills to identify them in local, national and global contexts as well as those to think of possible approaches to address them, would help students to prepare themselves for employment in diverse sectors focusing on children and young people, including education, non-governmental and inter-governmental organisations.

Session topics include:
•  Childhood and youth in history and culture: Different and evolving ideas and practices
•  Globalisation as the context: Local and global childhoods and youths
•  Children’s rights: The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
•  Education and schooling: The nature and extent of education for a ‘good’ childhood/youth?
•  Vulnerable childhood/youth? Working children, children in armed conflict and young migrants
•  Childhood/youth and inequalities: poverty, socioeconomic status, gender and race/ethnicity
•  Children’s and young people’s ‘participation’ as social and political agents

Tutor facilitated sessions:

Each session will involve an interactive lecture which will combine a whole class discussion, case-based learning and other approaches to teaching and learning.

Seminars:

The interactive lecture will be followed by a seminar where students will reinforce their understanding by discussing and debating a given question(s) in small groups and/or engaging in other group activities.

Directed reading:

To prepare for the tutor facilitated sessions and seminars, students will read the materials provided on Blackboard for each session in addition to those from the preliminary reading list suggested for the unit.

Independent study:

Students will carry out independent study to identify and read additional materials relating to each session, as appropriate, and the materials relating to their chosen topic for their final assignment.

In association with their directed reading and independent study, students will be encouraged to keep a Learning Journal where they keep their summary of, and critical reflections on, the core reading material of each week and also their reflections on the week’s lecture and seminar.

Tutor hours:

Students can book a tutorial to discuss their draft assignment with the tutor.
 

• Identify the key concepts and theoretical perspectives found in investigating childhood and youth
• Explain how local, national and global factors can influence ideas about childhood and youth and relevant practices

• Critically analyse childhood and youth related practices to identify inequalities derived from such factors as poverty, socioeconomic status, gender and race/ethnicity
• Present a reasoned argument on how the above factors individually and jointly can produce childhood and youth inequalities
• Identify possible approaches to address childhood and youth inequalities in a specific context

• Identify key issues in current public debates concerning childhood and youth at the local, national and global levels
• Debate what ‘good’ childhoods and youths mean at local, national and global levels

• Apply an independent and self-directed approach to a given topic to examine it critically and in-depth
• Develop and present a reasoned argument both verbally and in written form

Online via Turnitin

Archard, D. (2015). Children, Rights and Childhood, 3rd edition. London: Routledge.

Burman, E. (2021). Developments: Child, image, nation, 2nd edition. London: Routledge.

Cook, D. (Ed.) (2020) The SAGE Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood Studies. Thousand Oaks, California & London: Sage Publications.

Horton, J., Pimlott-Wilson, H. & Hall, S.M. (Eds.). (2021). Growing up and getting by: International perspectives on childhood and youth in hard times. Bristol: Policy Press.

James, A. & Prout, A. (Eds.). (2015). Constructing and Reconstructing Childhood: Contemporary issues in the sociological study of childhood, 3rd edition London: Routledge.

Wells, K. (2021). Childhood in a Global Perspective, 3rd edition. Cambridge: Polity Press.