This module adopts a multidisciplinary approach to understand how childhood and the early years have been constructed, and reimagined, throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Drawing on a range of texts, you'll explore how childhood is shaped through language, media, visual culture, and popular narratives. As your focus broadens to include parenting and child-adult relationships, you'll be encouraged to reflect critically on your own perceptions of childhood. Academic work on the 'image of the child' and visual politics will support your exploration of how cultural representations influence both policy and personal understanding.
Explore how children engage with and participate in cultural texts and phenomena created by and for them. Taking a cultural studies approach, this module examines the dynamic nature of children's cultural worlds and the complex relationships they form with media, stories, and popular culture. You'll critically challenge the idea of children as passive consumers, and instead consider them as active interpreters, meaning-makers, and social actors who shape, and are shaped by, their cultural environments.
Explore how dramatic storytelling and ritual can be used as tools for social change when working with young people in challenging contexts. This module critically examines the historical and contemporary role of applied drama, theatre, and performance in therapeutic, educational, and community settings. Through seminar activities and project-based work, you'll collaborate on the practical development of drama techniques in a range of community and educational environments. This includes a placement with a community theatre company. As your skills and understanding of the artistic and therapeutic potential of applied drama grow, you'll critically reflect on the practical, ethical, and creative processes involved, particularly when working with marginalised groups.
Investigate an area of personal or professional interest related to education, methodology, or professional development. During this module, you'll design, carry out, and evaluate a small-scale educational study, engaging critically with relevant literature throughout the process. You'll collect, analyse, and interpret data, drawing thoughtful conclusions while considering both the strengths and limitations of your research. This independent enquiry will contribute to your ongoing professional learning and development.
Explore the ways that children develop concepts of social identities from early years to adolescence. You'll investigate the ways in which social, political, and cultural forces influence children's identities and the extent to which identity is assumed or enforced. This module explores ideas of identity as multifaceted, fragmented, dynamic, and performative. You'll study 'intersectionality' – the interconnected ways in which different social identities overlap along with related systems of oppression. Your study will conclude with an investigation into the ways in which social identities influence the life chances of children; how social identities relate to inequality and how inequalities are perpetuated.
This module offers a critical and in-depth exploration of ethnicity, migration – both voluntary and forced – and diaspora. Through a range of historical and contemporary case studies, you'll examine these themes as local, national, and global issues. Upon completion, you'll be able to link key ideas from critical ethnic studies with broader theories and concepts in race and ethnicity. This will deepen your understanding of how identity, movement, and power intersect across different contexts.