Theories of Childhood

Catalog description

The study of childhood from cultural, historical, psychological and philosophical perspectives. CI 560 Theories of Childhood (3) In this course, participants will explore the highly variable ways that childhood has been constructed and enacted across multiple cultures and throughout history. Participants will begin by considering how notions of the nature of childhood, for example, children as innocent, as primitive, or as blank slates have functioned across history and in their memories and sense of nostalgia about childhood. Participants will expand their understanding of historic and contemporary childhoods through comparative studies of children. Participants will examine and critique normative theories of child development and will finish with an examination of contemporary child culture, including play and how changes in global culture affect children's lives. The course instructor will provide the readings for the course, as well as background information and organizing topics. The instructor creates and assigns activities and provides or oversees discussion questions to organize student thinking for a productive discussion. It is the instructor's responsibility to create an environment conducive to students' development of an open, vibrant learning community; to establish and oversee course standards; and to assist students to achieve both the course objectives and their own. There are no prerequisites for this course. Given that all participants have had a childhood and some may be parents, the memories and experiences each participant brings may be both a help and a hindrance. That is, insofar as their own childhoods or those of their children cause them to believe that they already know what childhood is, class participants need to recognize the limitations of their memories and experiences. The diversity of childhoods that will be represented across the members of the course is a considerable resource for participants to develop an ever-broader understanding of the cultural and historical nature of childhood.