Introduction to Child Studies

Aim

After completion of the course, the student should on an advanced level be able to:

• use an interactive Internet-based educational technology and learning model in the learning process
• describe the basic rules and regulations related to advanced studies;
• account for and apply the rules for the treatment of academic references and the principles of source criticism
• give and receive constructive criticism
• understand the implications and consequences of plagiarism
• describe the fundamental theoretical perspectives in research on children and childhood
• academically analyse and integrate a limited area of interdisciplinary knowledge within the area of children and childhood through reading and discussions, and express this both orally and in writing

Content

The course starts with an overview of child- and childhood studies, as an interdisciplinary area of knowledge. Further the fundamentals of various theoretical orientations and themes that have been developed in the area, such as research on children’s interaction and play, children’s culture and child culture, children’s rights and child policy, as well as the shifting meaning of childhood in time and space. A number of central theoretical concepts are introduced, such as children’s perspectives, child perspective, and child rights perspective, as well as different conceptions of the child and of childhood. Finally, the course encompasses treatment of the basics of academic writing.