Global Childhoods; Rights, Protection and Justice (898L5)

30 credits, Level 7 (Masters)

Spring teaching

This module will explore legal and rights frameworks relating to children and young people with a particular emphasis on international conventions and perspectives.

The first part of the module will involve an exploration of three areas of law:

  • children’s rights
  • child protection/welfare
  • youth justice/offending. 

Explorations of these topics will include an examination of ideas of globalisation and postcolonial critiques where relevant.

In the second part of the module, case studies will be used to critically explore these issues in relation to practice with children and young people drawing on examples from the developed and developing world. An indicative list of practice topics for exploration includes: 

  • children/young people and work
  • children and poverty
  • children and homelessness
  • children and criminal justice
  • children and refugee status
  • children and the family.

The module will make connections between policy and practice approaches to children and youth in majority and minority worlds. It will also link themes such as migration, adoption and child trafficking. We will, however, pay particular attention to the specificities of work within a development context including an exploration of the practice issues asssociated with work in refugee camps and with street children.

Teaching

100%: Seminar

Assessment

100%: Written assessment (Essay)

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 300 hours of work. This breaks down into about 33 hours of contact time and about 267 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2024/25. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.