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Contemporary Issues and the Young Child (EDUC90613)
Graduate courseworkPoints: 12.5Not available in 2017
Overview
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Contemporary international research is calling for the early childhood field and education more broadly, to reconceptualise their understandings of children as innocent and malleable to an image that supports children as sophisticated agentic builders and negotiators of identities. In this subject students will study major issues in how the young child as learner is understood through examining current early childhood research from different disciplinary areas including the new sociology of childhood, socio-cultural theory, developmental theory, linguistics, postmodern and postcolonial theory. Students will negotiate a study program of classes, reading and investigative work to develop an in-depth case study of a major contemporary issue or debate about early childhood identities in the 21st century.
Intended learning outcomes
On completion of this subject students will be able to:
- Identify and understand changing historical and contemporary theoretical perspectives on conceptualising childhood;
- Identify the diverse ways the young child is understood across and within local and international contexts and across and within different theories;
- Engage with new and multiple theoretical understandings of the young child in order to rethink and respond to contemporary issue;
- Understand and discuss the intersections of theory and practice (praxis) in working with the young child in early childhood education policy and practice.
Generic skills
On completion of this subject students will be able to:
- Identify and be familiar with a range of contemporary theories, concepts and strategies for contextualising and exploring the young child and their identities;
- Through the development of an in-depth case study, enhance their engagement, knowledge and skills in a contemporary issue of the young child today;
- Enhance their skills of scholarly critique through reading widely in diverse journals and texts;
- Use knowledge of a wide range of contemporary theories to engage with debates around the young child in contemporary times.
Last updated: 10 February 2024