PA234-5-AU-CO:
The Social History of Childhood
2020/21
Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies
Colchester Campus
Autumn
Undergraduate: Level 5
Current
Thursday 08 October 2020
Friday 18 December 2020
15
12 December 2019
Requisites for this module
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
BA L520 Childhood Studies,
BA L521 Childhood Studies (Including Year Abroad),
BA L522 Childhood Studies (Including Placement Year),
BA L523 Childhood Studies (Including Foundation Year)
In this module students will learn to reflect critically on the ways in which the experience and interpretation of childhood has shifted historically, and on the ways in which different versions of childhood have been argued for in different contexts and at different times.
The social history of the lives of children is hard to gather into one place, fragmented as it is between many different factors: the history of the family, the history of religion, of education, medicine, rights and legislation, of classes and cultures, states and nations, gender and sexuality. But the social history of 'childhood', is a little easier to trace, tied as it is to various attempts – particularly from the eighteenth century onwards – to construct childhood as a special zone, cordoned off from the world of adults, with its own rules and conditions.
Throughout the last two hundred years 'childhood' has been the object of intense social concern and debate, as something to be managed, safeguarded, shaped, idealised or demonised, developed, promoted or commercialised as the case may be. This module supplies an important background context to the themes introduced in year 1 and also links to issues of the 'representation' of children explored in 'Where the Wild Things Are: Literature, Childhood, Psychoanalysis' this year.
Focusing on British social history (in order to make the most of local resources, and to contextualise contemporary practice in Britain) we will cover some key stages in the development of modern social policies about children – the Factory Act (1833), the 1870 Elementary Education Act (1870), the Children's Charter (1889) – but we will do so in the context of particular debates and arguments about children's lives and experience. In this sense, the social history of childhood is very much about the history of conversations by adults and professionals about children. However, throughout the module the Moodle site for the course will be used to post vignettes from oral history and photographs alongside excerpts from key documents, and other materials so that we also get an understanding of the changing social experience of childhood in its various social dimensions. This angle on the experience of childhood will be supplemented by a field trip to the Museum of Childhood and The Ragged School Museum.
• To give students a broad historical overview of developments in the experience and understanding of childhood in Britain since the eighteenth century.
• To examine the lives of children in different social contexts in Britain over the same historical period.
• To introduce students to key debates in social history over the construction of modern ideas of childhood.
• To give students historical contexts through which to understand the development of modern educational and social policy around children.
• To use the historical record as a way of comparing different social experiences of childhood.
• To use the historical material as a springboard for critical reflection on, and evaluation of, the shifting meaning of childhood.
• Students will gain an overview of key developments and phases in the social understanding of childhood in Britain in the last 200 years.
• Students will gain a sense of the varieties of childhood experiences in different social contexts in Britain in the last two centuries.
• Students will be informed about key debates over the way ‘childhood’ has emerged as a social construct in modern history.
• Students will gain knowledge of formative moments in educational and social policy towards children, and the supporting historical context for this.
• Students will have learnt to compare the experience of childhood in different social and historical contexts.
No additional information available.
9 x one-hour lectures
9 x one-hour seminars
1 x field trip
1 x 2-hr revision seminar
- Heywood, Colin. (2018) A history of childhood: children and childhood in the West from medieval to modern times, Cambridge: Polity Press.
- Brookshaw, Sharon. (2009) 'The Material Culture of Children and Childhood', in Journal of Material Culture. vol. 14 (3) , pp.365-383
- Fass, Paula S. (2013) The Routledge history of childhood in the western world, Abingdon: Routledge.
- Kehily, Mary Jane. (2010-03) 'Childhood in crisis? Tracing the contours of ‘crisis’ and its impact upon contemporary parenting practices', in Media, Culture & Society. vol. 32 (2) , pp.171-185
- Cunningham, H. (1991) 'The Response to Child Labour 1780-1850', in The children of the poor: representations of childhood since the seventeenth century, Oxford: Blackwell., pp.50-83
- Thom, Deborah. (1992) 'Wishes, anxieties, play, and gestures?: Child guidance in inter-war England', in In the name of the child: health and welfare, 1880-1940, London: Routledge., pp.200-219
- Remer, Ashley E. (2019) 'Lesson Object as Object Lesson: The Embroidery Sampler', in The Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth. vol. 12 (3) , pp.345-352
- Fletcher, Anthony. (c2008) Growing up in England: the experience of childhood, 1600-1914, New Haven [Conn.]: Yale University Press.
- Margaret May. (1973) 'Innocence and Experience: The Evolution of the Concept of Juvenile Delinquency in the Mid-Nineteenth Century
Original text', in Victorian Studies: Indiana University Press. vol. 17, pp.7-29
- Barrie Thorne. (no date) 'The Seven Up! films: Connecting the personal and sociological', in Ethnography.
- (2017) British cultural identities, London: Routledge.
- Davin, Anna. (1996) 'State, Child and Parent', in Growing up poor: home, school and street in London, 1870-1914, London: Rivers Oram Press., pp.208-217
- Heywood, Colin. (2018) A history of childhood: children and childhood in the West from Medieval to modern times, Medford, MA: Polity Press.
The above list is indicative of the essential reading for the course. The library makes provision for all reading list items, with digital provision where possible, and these resources are shared between students. Further reading can be obtained from this module's reading list.
Assessment items, weightings and deadlines
| Coursework / exam |
Description |
Deadline |
Coursework weighting |
| Coursework |
Field Trip Review |
|
25% |
| Coursework |
Essay |
|
75% |
| Exam |
Main exam: 48hr during Summer (Main Period)
|
Additional coursework information
1 x 1000 word Field Trip Review, 1 x 2500 word Essay
Exam format definitions
- Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
- In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary,
for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.
Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.
Overall assessment
Reassessment
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Dr Jessica Battersby, email: jessica.battersby@essex.ac.uk.
ppsug@essex.ac.uk
01206 874969 Room 5A.202
Undergraduate student administrator: ppsug@essex.ac.uk
01206 874969 Room 5A.202
Yes
Yes
No
Dr Claudia Lapping
UCL
Reader
Available via Moodle
Of 465 hours, 0 (0%) hours available to students:
465 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
0 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s).
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