This module offers an introduction to studying childhood issues at local and global levels. The overall aim is to enhance students' interests in children and childhood by exploring diverse issues about and approaches to childhood. It takes an interdisciplinary approach to childhood issues, looking at children and young people in the contexts of psychology, sociology, history, research, media, culture, consumption, law, children's rights, family, education, and work.
The module offers an international perspective by including cultural specificity and variation as well as global concerns about and interventions into childhood issues. The coverage of the topics is also inclusive of some groups of children and young people who might often be marginalised or have more recently emerged or been recognised in society. These include topics related to new digital media, consumer culture, gender and sexuality, delinquency, disability, and diverse forms of family aided by the technology of assisted conception.
Throughout the module, we will explore how we gain an understanding of childhood; how children and childhood are conceptualised and treated by adults and society; how children and young people themselves view and experience their lives; and what kinds of inequality and power relationships might exist in the interplay between childhood and the world.
The module will encourage students to embrace alternative views and ways of thinking, including psychosocial and psychoanalytic approaches, and to think for themselves about how we could gain a closer understanding of individual children and young people's lives and experiences by allow them to advocate for themselves.