EDUC2401: Constructing Childhood and Youth

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• To enable students to reflect critically on the concept of childhood and youth.
• To examine childhood and youth as a construction of social, cultural and political context.
• Indicative.

• The image and appeal of childhood;
• The construction of childhood and youth;
• Sociological perspectives on childhood and youth;
• Critiquing the notion of the 'natural' child;
• Constructions of gender and sexuality;
• Exploring contemporary childhoods and youth through consumerism and the media;
• Exploring childhood and youth through space and place;
• Examining childhood and youth through film, literature and music.

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• knowledge and understanding of key theorists in childhood and youth studies;
• knowledge and understanding of key sociological ideas and concepts
• knowledge and understanding of childhood, youth, and the world as a social, and cultural construct;
• knowledge and understanding of the relationship between the construction of childhood, youth, and educational norms and practices

Subject-specific Skills:

• an ability to problematise childhood, youth, and the world as a social, and cultural construct
• an ability to provide a well-argued conclusion relating to issues and constructions of childhood and/or youth
• an ability to utilise a range of relevant primary and secondary sources, including theoretical and research-based evidence relating to education, in order to expound and defend an argument
• an ability to analyse complex situations concerning childhood and/or youth and development reasoned argument

Key Skills:

• an ability to read and think critically and independently;
• an ability to identify, select, interpret and evaluate a range of sources and so acquire complex information of diverse kinds in an organised way;
• an ability to construct and sustain a reasoned argument;
• an ability to develop study and research skills, information retrieval, and the capacity to plan and manage learning, and to reflect on own learning;
• an ability to use written and spoken communication skills
• an ability to work to deadlines

• Teaching and learning will be through lectures, the content of which will be broken down into seminar discussion - to which students will be required to make a positive contribution. The first term will focus on formative assessment, whereas the second term will focus on summative assessment. For the assessed work, the students will critically analyse an issue, theme or trope from childhood, in relation to this as a social, cultural or political construction. This will provide the opportunity for students to demonstrate the extent to which they have understood and are able to engage critically with the theories, ideas, constructions and concepts covered under the learning outcomes.

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