Credit Points 10

Legacy Code 101112

Coordinator Christine Jones Diaz Opens in new window

Description This subject introduces students to a range of contemporary theoretical frameworks that will develop their understandings about the social construction of difference, identity and subjectivity within social, historical and political contexts. A critical awareness of the intersections between language, knowledge, power and discourse provides students with the practical and theoretical tools necessary for reflecting, analyzing and deconstructing inequalities and subjectivity in personal and professional contexts.

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 LGYA 0317 - Diversity and Difference 2 Understanding the 'Self' in Socio-Cultural Contexts

Learning Outcomes

After successful completion of this Unit, students will be able to:

1. Understand the social construction of gender, sexuality, ‘race’, ethnicity, language, age, ability, religion and class;
2. Critique processes of power in sociocultural, historical and political contexts through feminist poststructuralism, critical, cultural and post-colonial frameworks;
3. Recognise the historical, social and political circumstances which have shaped postcolonial Australian identities;
4. Explain how subjectivity, identity, knowledge, and power operate in contexts of equity, diversity and difference;
5. Analyse the different ways that individual subjectivities are socially constructed within socio-cultural and educational contexts;
6. Articulate the relationships and intersections between social identities, institutional power and discourses;
7. Analyse the construction of ‘difference’ and ‘deviance’ and processes of ‘othering and marginalisation in sociocultural contexts related to age, gender, sexuality, ‘race’, class, ethnicity, ability, language and religion;
8. Identify the implications of equity and social justice issues for children, families and staff in early childhood settings and schools from minority communities.

Subject Content

1. Feminist poststructuralism, cultural, critical and queer theory, concepts of nomalisation and post-colonial perspectives
2. Cultural capital and relations of power in macro and micro contexts
3. Discourse
4. Language, knowledge and discourse
5. Subjectivity and identity
6. Agency and subjectivity
7. Relationships and intersections between social identities, institutional power and discourses
8. The construction of difference, deviance and innocence in the construction of social identities
9. Processes of othering and marginalization in discursive and institutional contexts
10. Equity and social justice for children, families and staff from minority communities