Child Developmental and Social Psychology identifies and explores the major issues and debates of relevance to early childhood studies and childhood & youth studies within the discipline of psychology. In considering the importance and impact of developmental psychology on the study of childhood and youth, the module focuses on cognitive development, attachment theory, personality theories and views of intelligence in psychology. It additionally addresses key perspectives in social psychology including theoretical perspectives concerning social identity and group processes, psychological explanations of aggression and attitude, and wider interpersonal influences.

Children and Young People in Society explores both historical and contemporary dimensions of childhood and youth. The module introduces the idea that childhood is a social construction dependent on the history, cultural values and power structure of the society in which children live. You will consider the way in which the social, economic, political, scientific, legal and institutional contexts in which children have lived and live today shapes their experience of childhood. The module challenges some commonly held beliefs about children and the institutionalisation of childhood. It also provides a personal development programme that will develop essential academic skills including time management, academic reading and writing, information retrieval, critical thinking and analysis.

Introduction to Social Policy and Welfare provides an overview of some of the key areas of social policy and welfare, such as education, health, employment, poverty and child welfare. The module offers a critical introduction to key approaches to the development of social welfare policy and the political ideologies that have influenced it in historical and contemporary perspective, exploring how these approaches to the provision of welfare compare and contrast with one another. You will also discover different philosophical and ideological understandings of key concepts in social policy, including equality, rights, liberty, social justice and deservingness and how they have – and might – influence the development and implementation of contemporary social policy.

Understanding Social Concepts introduces sociological concepts to students who have never studied sociology before and introduces a different way of thinking sociologically for those students who have some grounding in the discipline. The module will enable you to understand sociology as a subject but also to appreciate the practical application of sociology in making sense of society and your place within it. The aim is to encourage you to view sociology as a “living subject, a living practice and a living way of coming to know about the world” (Jenks, 1998).

Exploring the Social World offers an opportunity for you to explore your personal beliefs and attitudes towards a range of social issues. Visiting speakers will talk to you about particular issues and related social campaigns. Working in teams, you will choose a social issue to focus on and you will be introduced to basic research skills so that you can look further into them. You will be supported in collecting, describing and evaluating a range of materials and you will use your findings in order to design a leaflet and poster campaign in support of (or in opposition to) your chosen issue.

Working with Children, Young People and Families introduces you to notions of professional work with children and young people including issues around inter-professional working, law and policy. The module considers issues which may arise when working with young people as a professional and begins to unpick the contrasting notions of professionalism and managerialism.

Research Methods One provides you with an important grounding in social research methods. The module gives you an overview of the fundamental aspects of social research including philosophical approaches to knowledge production, literature searching, sampling and ethics. It addresses both quantitative and qualitative approaches. You will have the opportunity to choose a topic and design, conduct and report on a piece of your own research. This will involve the use of a range of different methods including interviews and questionnaires and you will be supported in this process through the module’s seminar programme.

Youth Studies: Key Concepts and Issues provides you with an understanding of the key themes, concepts, issues and debates in the field of youth studies. Starting from an historical perspective, you will look at the broader social, economic and political factors which have shaped understandings about youth and the so-called ‘youth question’ from early to late modernity. The module will then turn to contemporary debates about youth, including themes such as transition, risk, culture and social policy.

Work-based Learning and Employability 1 is designed to bridge the world of higher education with the world of work. You will develop a critical understanding of the changing context of work and of social, economic and political factors shaping the labour market and contemporary patterns of employment. There will be an opportunity to apply theory and disciplinary specialist knowledge to practical experience within a work-based setting with students undertaking a 60 hour placement. You will also enhance and develop a range of transferable skills to enhance your employability.

Self-Directed Learning enables you to focus on a particular agreed topic or focus and explore it, with tutorial support, to produce a project-based piece of work which relates to a particular career trajectory. The project will involve addressing a social issue or problem and/or one organisation’s response (voluntary, public or private sector) to a social issue or problem. It will involve not only desk research such as library searches but information retrieval from a range of primary sources. The self-directed learning focus allows for a sense of both leading on the learning taking place and reflecting on its progress, problems and problem-solving.

Research Methods Two enhances your knowledge of social research and your skills in applying this knowledge. You will have the opportunity to explore a wide range of methodologies and methods including a variety of innovative approaches to social research, such as visual methods. An introduction to evaluation is also provided. You will get the opportunity to carry out your own innovative research project using photography. This will be on a topic of your choice and you will be given support to design and carry this out through the module’s seminar programme.

Child Welfare, Family and the State provides you with the opportunity to explore the focus and structure of child protection and welfare services for children and young people. The module considers the complexity of the relationship between the state, the family and the child in the context of children and young people’s welfare and well-being. You will be given the opportunity to explore and assess key legislation and policy initiatives that focus on child welfare and the protection of children and consider their influence on practice with children and their families.

Children’s Cultural Worlds introduces you to some of the ways in which children experience and organise their social worlds. You will learn about a variety of children’s cultural practices from this perspective such as their play, friendships, family, sexuality, food, literature and language practices. In order to do this you will study a range of research which has taken a ‘naturalistic’ approach to children’s cultural practices. Naturalistic studies are those which seek to remain faithful to the nature of the phenomena which they investigate. In the study of human social life, this requires being faithful to how the people we study actually experience things. It involves refusing to impose our own views on other people but trying to gain an appreciation of how they look at things, how they understand things and how they organise their lives from their own points of view. This module will help you to develop this particular analytic sensibility.

Children, Food and Sustainability examines children’s food practices, environmental issues and the links between the two. The module introduces the analysis of children’s food practices and relations with animals and the environment under the rubric of understanding connections between children, childhood and nature. Themes to be studied include food practices in schools, food poverty, children and climate change and child-animal relations. These topics provide rich areas for investigating important developments in early childhood studies including children’s agency, voice and rights, in addition to children’s health, childhood consumption and children’s ethical engagement with the natural world. The module also illuminates debates on educational philosophy and explores childhood as a time and space for democratic and ecological renewal.

Promoting Equality in Childhood provides you with an overview of strategies to promote equality and social justice for children in institutional settings. The module will explore processes of discrimination and oppression and focus on the ways in which practitioners and those working with children and families might promote equality and raise children’s awareness of issues relating to diversity and equality. You will also focus on policy and practice with those who might be considered to come from some of the most marginalised sections of society and enhance your appreciation of the importance of anti-oppressive practice in working with such children, young people and their families.

Representations of Childhood and Youth in Popular Culture explores and analyses the ways in which childhood and youth are represented in popular culture in historical and contemporary genres. These representations will be examined in the context of popular culture about, and specifically for, children and young people. A critical approach will be adopted by drawing on theoretical perspectives including cultural theory and constructions of childhood and youth. In taking this approach, consideration will be given to representations of social divisions such as age, gender, sexuality, race and disability. Areas of study will include children as adventurers and heroes, children and young people in war and conflict, representations of children and young people’s experiences of education, and the globalisation of childhood.

International Perspectives on Children and Families establishes a global perspective on the study of children and young people. The module explores children’s experiences in relation to race, ethnicity and discrimination. A socio-cultural approach is adopted which draws on differences within the European experience, expanding to global dimensions to consider experiences in culturally different and developing societies. The aim is to examine how constructions of childhood, family and youth are shaped by interactions between cultural representations and political and economic structures in differing social contexts. You will also consider how the experiences and impact of race, ethnicity and discrimination vary and are dependent on these contexts.

Youth Offending: Critical Perspectives provides a grounding in issues of youth offending. The module contains an introduction to policies around children, youth and crime and provides a background to current practices around the management of youth offending, in particular the issues of case and risk management. It will explore issues affecting youth offending but will place these in a critical and international context.

Dissertation provides an opportunity for you to engage in an independent study of a relevant area of social science area of your choice, supported by tutorial guidance and supervision to deliver an extended piece of writing.

Youth Studies: Critical Perspectives takes a critical analytical approach to the contemporary ‘Youth Agenda’ and the wider social, economic and political factors shaping work with young people. The module will address issues concerning such subjects as citizenship, education, training, young people’s health, housing, youth justice, employment, transitions etc. The module is intended to provide a forum to enable you to engage with research, services, theories and practice in working with young people.

Critical Autism Studies adopts a critical approach to understanding autism and seeks to challenge the dominant medical model of neurological deficit. Rather than viewing autism as a cognitive development disability, you will be encouraged to consider it as a naturally occurring form of cognitive diversity. The module will examine the argument that autism has been constructed as a neurobiological deficit in a context of neurotypicality or cognitive normality. Understanding autism as neurodiversity opens up spaces for more positive interpretations of autistic people’s experiences, skills and identities. The module is underpinned and, in part, informed by, research by members of the programme team which is focused on areas of sexuality and autism and, specifically, what professionals and care workers should do when providing support for people whose intellectual disability or mental condition makes their consent – being informed, competent and free from coercion – legally unreliable.

International Perspectives on Early Childhood, Education and Care investigates the way in which childhood and family are understood and shaped in different countries by policy and practice. You will compare provision and policy in different countries and develop a critical and comparative approach in order to understand the way in which what we provide for children and families in terms of education, health and social care is influenced by, and influences how, we see the place of children and the role of the family in particular societies.

Social Work with Children and Families: Theory, Policy and Practice provides you with an understanding of the role of social work in children and young people’s services. The module will examine the way that the needs of children impact on their position in family and society and how this impact affects theirs and their families/carers’ ability to navigate and articulate their experiences. The implications these features have for children and for family social work practice, relating to both safeguarding and family support roles, will be explored.

Contemporary Theory, Policy and Practice in Education Services enables you to critically examine the world of children’s education. Lying at its heart is the claim that education is a political activity which confronts a range of issues to do with ideology, politics and values which in themselves function at a variety of different levels of power, status and influence. Themes of the module include the marketisation of education, the equal opportunities trap, educational philosophy, and globalisation and education. You will focus on competing discursive narratives which demonstrate the intensely political nature of education, teaching and learning.

Critical Perspectives in Children’s Health and Wellbeing presents you with the opportunity to explore key social, political and cultural perspectives on children’s health and wellbeing. In recent years, health programmes have focused on promoting good physical health, mental health and emotional wellbeing by encouraging children, young people and their families to develop healthy lifestyles and, in doing so, tackle health inequalities. Opportunities will be provided to reflect upon current legislation, policy and the socio-political and cultural influences that impact on the health and wellbeing of children and young people. A key feature of the module will be its emphasis on the position of children and young people’s voices in theory, policy, research and practice and their participation in the decisions that impact their lives.

Issues for Professional Practice involves a critical examination of professions, professional identity and professional practice in the context of welfare, health and education services for children, families and adults. The module will provide you with the opportunity to consider and critically analyse the meaning and development of professionalisation, frameworks for ‘best practice’ and the implications of current policy and strategies for intervention. The module will enable you to critically engage with such ideas, concepts and issues as professional power, partnership, developmentalism, inter-professional and multi-agency working, in addition to anti-oppressive, reflective and ‘critical practice’. The aim is to provide opportunities for critical analysis of the links and relationships between theory and practice and to encourage the use of learning from previous experience and learning.

Arts in Society focuses upon the way that a range of feminist and community-based artists work with specific communities and the general public in order to address social issues. The module enables you to explore and develop notions of social justice and community engagement through innovative and creative means. In its examination of the ways in which the arts can ameliorate social conditions, it raises philosophical, ethical and practical issues. You will have the opportunity to learn about a range of artists and practices and the resonance these have with the social issues that are meaningful to them and their study. You will be encouraged to think creatively and reflectively and be expected to engage with works of art as well as with critical literature.

Young People and Social Media takes a critical analytical approach to social media and the wider social, economic and political factors shaping the use of social media by young people.  As we increasingly live our lives online it is important for social scientists to analyse the meaning and nature of mediated personal and public relationships and gain an understanding of how this affects the construction of our everyday lives. The module will undertakes a systematic analysis of a number of key issues around social media.

Childhood and Sexuality juxtaposes how children and young people are constructed simultaneously as desexualised or pre-sexual beings and, therefore, in need of protection and, at the same time, young people, in particular, are portrayed as sexually ‘promiscuous’ or engaged in sexual ‘risk taking behaviour’. The module introduces you to the tensions between these contradictory constructions of youth sexuality and explores the ways in which young people understand their sexuality and develop their sexual identity.

Children and Migration critically analyses the involvement of children in international and internal migration around the world. The module reveals the differential attention paid to children in migration research, linking this to major discourses on migration and related policy-making. Burgeoning research on the topic is showing that children and young people get involved in different kinds of migration which bear different policy implications; nonetheless, the impact of migration on children and that of migrant children on receiving societies is largely ignored. The module will also look at how different cultural definitions of childhood are exposed as a result of migration.

Socio-Cultural Issues and Questions provides you with the opportunity to intensively study a particular society and culture through some of its contemporary issues. The module allows for the comparative cultural analysis of a different society to the one you live in, focused around some preparatory lectures and reflective sessions and an intensive study trip to that country. The focus of the study trip will be to explore both comparisons and contrasts, and use the experience of difference to explore social and cultural issues and problems.

Work-based Learning and Employability 2 is designed to bridge the world of higher education with the world of work. You will develop a critical understanding of issues related to organisational structure, leadership and culture. There will be an opportunity to apply theory and disciplinary specialist knowledge to practical experience within a work-based setting through undertaking a 60 hour placement. You will develop your personal and professional profiles through continuous reflection on practice using student-centred learning opportunities. Throughout the module you will also develop your employability profile in preparation for career entry.

104-112 UCAS Tariff points are required to join this programme with effect from September 2020 entry.

SPY3048 Critical Autism Studies (20 credits) added as an optional module in Year 3.