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Children's Cultures: School and Community Contexts
Goldsmiths - Full Curriculum Program
London, England
Dates: 9/22/21 - 12/18/21
Children's Cultures: School and Community Contexts
OVERVIEW
CEA CAPA Partner Institution: Goldsmiths, University of London
Location: London, England
Primary Subject Area: Education
Instruction in: English
Transcript Source: TBD
Course Details: Level 200
Recommended Semester Credits: 4
DESCRIPTION
This module aims to understand children's cultural worlds and social interactions within the context of schooling. We will explore the idea of schools as social microcosms and children as astute social actors engaged in processes of identity formation and social power plays.
We will examine some of the ways that children come to understand themselves in these complex, engrossing settings by considering processes that are particularly significant for children's identity constructions including gender, ethnicity, sexuality, religion and race.
The module begins from the premise that much of children's social learning takes place outside of the official curriculum and that children create for themselves complex social worlds and meanings in and around the spaces of schooling.
Although we will focus on research that has taken place in schools, we will also go beyond this to look at other important sites of learning and meaning-making for children including the playground, neighborhood and home.
The module will begin with an introduction to childhood studies and will go on to look at the social construction of childhood from a historical and sociological perspective. We will look at the ways in which children are produced as subjects within schools and at the historical significance of schools as sites for disciplining, containing and developing children into socially competent adults.
We will then go on to look at some important studies of children's cultural worlds that have been set in and around the school. Specific topics we will explore include: children's learner identities and testing cultures, the playground and children's use of space, children's gender and sexual cultures, friendships and peer hierarchies, sport and extracurricular activities, children's engagement with the media and online activities and family backgrounds and relationships.
The module will also touch on some ongoing controversies in relation to childhood including risk dismodules and children's physical safety, the sexualisation of childhood and the obesity epidemic.
We will examine some of the ways that children come to understand themselves in these complex, engrossing settings by considering processes that are particularly significant for children's identity constructions including gender, ethnicity, sexuality, religion and race.
The module begins from the premise that much of children's social learning takes place outside of the official curriculum and that children create for themselves complex social worlds and meanings in and around the spaces of schooling.
Although we will focus on research that has taken place in schools, we will also go beyond this to look at other important sites of learning and meaning-making for children including the playground, neighborhood and home.
The module will begin with an introduction to childhood studies and will go on to look at the social construction of childhood from a historical and sociological perspective. We will look at the ways in which children are produced as subjects within schools and at the historical significance of schools as sites for disciplining, containing and developing children into socially competent adults.
We will then go on to look at some important studies of children's cultural worlds that have been set in and around the school. Specific topics we will explore include: children's learner identities and testing cultures, the playground and children's use of space, children's gender and sexual cultures, friendships and peer hierarchies, sport and extracurricular activities, children's engagement with the media and online activities and family backgrounds and relationships.
The module will also touch on some ongoing controversies in relation to childhood including risk dismodules and children's physical safety, the sexualisation of childhood and the obesity epidemic.