Credit Points 10

Legacy Code 102048

Coordinator Joanne Orlando Opens in new window

Description In this subject students will engage in an exploration of what it means to be a child in a postmodern world and how different theoretical approaches influence ways of understanding children’s lives. Alongside questions of how gender, sexuality, ethnicity, 'race', language, class, ability and religion are constituted through a child’s identity, students will explore the notion of a child’s subjectivity. A child’s subjectivity is the conscious and unconscious thoughts and emotions of the child, their sense of self, their body and their way of understanding their relationship to the world. Building on this knowledge, students will also explore the four key child-environment identities of the physical child, the social child, the learning child and the natural child and by analysing a variety of scholarly and non-scholarly texts around childhood, children’s bodies and behaviour will reflect on a child’s individuality and emerging identity.

School Education

Discipline Teacher Education: Early Childhood

Student Contribution Band HECS Band 1 10cp

Check your HECS Band contribution amount via the Fees page.

Level Undergraduate Level 2 subject

Equivalent Subjects TEAC 2012 - Contemporary Perspectives of Childhoods TEAC 2010 Contemporary Childhoods (WSTC)

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this subject, students should be able to:

1. Investigate diverse texts, images, practices and constructions of what it means to be a child in contemporary society.
2. Discuss the social meaning of childhood including the historical, social and political factors and how they have influenced changing views of children and childhood.
3. Explain how different theoretical perspectives have positioned children and childhood as a social construction.
4. Identify the ways in which gender, sexuality, ethnicity, 'race', language, class, ability and religion are constituted through a child’s identity and the significance of this on everyday lived experiences.
5. Examine how social, institutional and cultural constructions of childhood play a role in shaping children’s identities, subjectivities and everyday lives.
6. Examine the ways in which children negotiate and construct their identities in contexts of diversity and difference.
7. Describe how children’s rights and responsibilities are enacted by children and adults. 
8. Describe how child-environment identity is connected to place, space, location and time. 

Subject Content

1. Who is, and what does it mean to be a child in a postmodern world? 
2. Analysis of texts, images and constructions about ‘the child’.
3. Introduction to contemporary national and international theories and philosophies related to the child.
4. Significance of gender, sexuality, ethnicity, 'race', language, class, ability and religion and how they are constituted through a child’s identity and everyday lived experiences.
5. Questions of subjectivity and a child’s sense of self, body, and relationship to the world.
6. Children’s negotiation of identity and difference in a globalised world.
7. Rights and responsibilities of the child. 
8. Child-environment identity and connections to place, space, location and time through encounters with tangible social-cultural artefacts such as toys, homes, landscapes, animals, digital technology.
9. Constructions of diversity and difference in education and community settings.