Module Directory

This year long module provides an introduction to the field for MA Childhood Studies students and functions as an anchor for the MA experience.

At the outset we provide foundations in exploring elements of the history of childhood and the development of childhood studies as a field for students from a diversity of undergraduate and professional backgrounds.

This module draws predominantly on psychosocial studies, sociology, and childhood studies and aims to explore and respond to debates at the forefront of childhood studies and of the experience of being a child. The historical development of both childhood studies and the concept of `children` and `childhood` are outlined and students are introduced to core disciplines including developmental psychology, psychoanalysis and sociology.

Students will be encouraged to reflect upon the position of certain bodies of knowledge within the field of childhood studies. This includes analysing the figure of the child embodied within each disciplinary approach and interrogating how this is manifest in theory and in children`s everyday lives. The module will use this foundation to go on to discuss core aspects of the conceptual frameworks which guide or govern childhood studies including agency, subjects, actors, relationality, and generation. Included crucially here are approaches to the rights, voices and participation of children, which are introduced in the first term and are threaded through conversations throughout the module.

The first term ends with a proposal for the unique contribution of psychosocial studies to the exploration of childhood. The second half of the module takes up the theoretical debates of the first and uses these to consider contemporary research and theory in four core areas: education, care, welfare and the state, and justice. Students will critically analyse children's lived experiences and the discourses and structures within which these are situated.

The aims of this module are: 

• To introduce students to the advanced study of children and childhood and the range of disciplines which contribute to the interdisciplinary field of childhood studies


• To support students to critically explore and interrogate the conceptual frameworks which govern childhood studies including rights, agency, generation and relationality


• To develop students` critical awareness of the lived experiences of children and the contemporary issues faced by children and young people.


• To develop students` ability to critically evaluate the discourses, structures and institutions within which childhood is located

By the end of this module, students will be expected to be able to:

1. Demonstrate knowledge of how different disciplines have contributed to the study of children and childhood, drawing on a variety of theoretical perspectives and empirical research


2. Demonstrate a critical understanding of the conceptual frameworks and debates that characterise contemporary childhood studies including for example, agency, rights, generation, and relationality


3. Capacity to draw upon theoretical arguments and empirical research with and about children to reflect upon the lived experiences and contemporary issues faced by children and young people


4. Demonstrate critical awareness of the discourses, structures and institutions within which childhood is located

Part I: What is Childhood? What is Childhood Studies?

The first half of the module introduces students to the historical development of both childhood studies and the concept of 'children' and 'childhood' and some of the core disciplines including developmental psychology, psychoanalysis and sociology. Students will be encouraged to reflect upon the position of certain bodies of knowledge within the field of childhood studies. This includes analysing the figure of the child embodied within certain disciplinary approaches and interrogating how this is manifest in theory and in children's everyday lives. The first 5 weeks of this section introduce the disciplines that make up the multidisciplinary field of childhood studies and the second five weeks explore and interrogate core concepts such as agency, generation, and relationality. These foundational disciplines and frameworks are critically applied in the topical themed weeks in part two of the module.

Week 1. The (a)historical child, or what is `childhood` anyway?

Week 2. `Inventing` the child

Week 3. The developing child

Week 4. The Psychodynamic child

Week 5. The sociological child

Week 6. Rights

Week 7. Agency

Week 8. Being, Becoming and Temporality

Week 9. Generation

Week 10. Psychosocial Childhood Studies?

Part II: Themes in Childhood Studies

The second half of this module allows for students to experience first-hand the work of academics from across the Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies and the wider University of Essex whose work focuses on children and childhood. These include those with experience in counselling, psychotherapy, sociology, social policy, psychoanalytic studies, psychosocial studies, refugee care, health and social care and human rights. Across four themed, paired weeks students will explore care, justice, education, and the family and the state. This allows for each iteration of the module to respond directly to contemporary issues in the field of childhood studies and children's everyday lives, and to feature the latest excellent research being undertaken across the University. This aspect of the module also supports our post graduate students to feel part of the wider Departmental and University research community and encourages students to engage with research across the entire MA in support of dissertation projects. The weeks listed below provide examples of the potential topics that can be critically explored in this part of the module.

Weeks 11 & 12. Debates in the Family, Welfare, and the State
Topics can include: parenting culture studies and child guidance, children's citizenship, adoption and non-normative family formations, "young" parenting, troubled families and the moral construction of welfare recipients, the figure of the mother,

Week 13 & 14. Debates in Care
Topics can include: therapeutic children's homes, the voices of looked after children, working with children who have experienced trauma, the voices of children in child protection procedures, positive touch, disabled children and residential care, care leavers and life chances, evaluating recurrent care proceedings

Week 15 & 17. Debates in Justice
Topics can include: psychodynamic perspectives on youth justice and rehabilitation, violence and young offenders institutions, transitions to adulthood for young offenders, gender, crime and young people, historical perspectives on incarceration, children with incarcerated parents.

*Week 16. Reading Week*

Week 18 & 19. Debates in Education
Topics can include: remote learning in the context of COVID19, education in a humanitarian context, non-mainstream education and pupil exclusion, school readiness and `normative` childhoods, the educational experiences of white working class boys, exporting UK early education and care across nations

Week 20. Challenging and Reimagining Childhood Studies
This final week looks to the future of childhood studies, interrogating the very nature of the discipline and its purpose.

This module will be delivered via: 

• Weekly seminars providing an environment for critical analysis through discussion and debate
• Student participation is encouraged through discussion of seminar readings, case studies and examples of empirical research
• Seminars also provide opportunities to communicate assessment information and for discussion of learning outcomes and assignment briefs, Q&A sessions, and peer review activities.