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This programme is unique within the UK in catering specifically for those working, or interested in working, in the field of children, youth and international development. The course will equip you with the conceptual understanding and breadth of empirical knowledge that will enable you to critically evaluate policy and practice in the area of children, youth and development and give you the skills necessary to design and undertake research relating to children, youth and development.
Aims
To equip students with:
* The conceptual understanding and breadth of empirical knowledge that will enable them to critically evaluate research, policy and practice in the area of children, youth and development.
* An understanding of differing disciplinary perspectives on childhood and youth, and their theoretical and empirical contributions.
* The skills necessary to design and undertake research relating to children, youth and international development.
* Methodological, cognitive and transferable skills and substantive knowledge that will prepare them for employment, further study and civic engagement.
Careers
The course prepares graduates for work in international development NGOs or in government ministries and agencies in countries in the global south.
Placements
Examples of the placements students have undertaken on the Applied Learning module include:
* International Refugee Trust The student helped to develop an IRT on-line classroom from which children could learn about refugees. She posted articles on their blog and created some on-line learning activities.
* Anti-slavery International The student, who is from Nepal, worked on a project aiming to eradicate caste based bonded labour from Nepal. She created district profiles for 10 areas and communicated with project partners in order to identify cases for ASI to follow up.
* Basti RAM This is a very small organisation run from the home of its founders which seeks to improve health and education in rural India (especially Rajasthan). The students task was to plan lessons for a Global Citizenship project.
* BookAid International The student built up an evidence base for Book Aids international programmes.
* Action Aid The student worked on a campaign targeting exploitation in the garment industry.
* Commonwealth Secretariat The student worked on the CSs Youth Programme in Uganda.
* The Mouth That Roars The student worked with children in London and Saudi Arabia to create videos through which they communicated their everyday lives to each other.
* National Deaf Children's Society The student helped to develop a programme of international exchanges for deaf young people.
The programme combines four core taught modules (accounting for 90 credits) with 30 credits worth of options. The core modules focus on key issues relating to international development, children and youth, and in particular the rights and participation of young people. They also prepare students in research design and practice, in preparation for the dissertation. The option modules offer a unique opportunity to appreciate in depth how children and youth-related issues are addressed from alternative disciplinary perspectives.
The programme is intended to relate to the needs of organisations working in the field of children, youth and international development. Students will have the opportunity, should they wish, to undertake a sustained project with an external organisation as part of a placement module. This may be an organisation with which they already have links, such as a current of former employer. They may also choose to apply their 60 credit dissertation to the needs of an identified community or organisation.
A range of teaching and learning techniques are employed on the programme, most of which stress the active involvement of students in discussion and debate. The programme also emphasises reflective, independent learning, both by individuals and groups, and students are well supported to achieve this through, for instance, tutorials, workshops and seminar discussions.
Staff place a strong emphasis on tutorial support and regular tutorials are integrated into the programme. Tutorials focus on the development of study skills (critical reading and writing), careers support, exam and assignment preparation, feedback on assessments and help in developing research proposals.
ModulesCore
International Development, Childhood and Youth
Main topics of study: theories of, and historical approaches to, development; the contested moral terrain of international development: social justice, responsibility and the construction of passive subjects (including the mobilisation of the child as the ultimate passive, apolitical development object); poverty and wellbeing; livelihoods and sustainability; globalisation, global agendas and global institutions (including the export of a global model of childhood through international conventions and organisations such as UNICEF); international aid policy and politics; the state and NGOs; development programmes and projects
Young Lives in the Global South
Main topics of study: popular and academic perspectives on childhood and youth, in particular the new social studies of childhood; intergenerational relations (roles of families and social reproduction); youth transitions; vulnerability and resilience; debates around the roles of work, education, health, sexuality and migration in young peoples lives.
Global Agendas on Young People, Rights and Participation
Main topics of study: human rights: history, critiques and mobilisation; theorising childrens rights: child liberation and caretaker views; changing conceptions of childrens rights; the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child: history and critiques; alternative conceptions of childrens rights: the African Charter; childrens rights in practice: childrens rights in national laws; claiming rights; participatory development: history and practices; childrens participation: the arguments; participatory projects with children; problematising childrens participation; youth and participation; youth politics and activism.
Researching Children, Childhood and Youth
Main topics of study: the nature and philosophical foundations of social research; politics and ethics of social research, including considerations for cross-cultural research; special considerations for researching with children (including ethical issues); designing a research strategy for academic and policy research; designing monitoring and evaluation of projects; researching with/ in organisations; data collection (secondary data sources, fieldwork, collecting quantitative data, collecting qualitative data, visual methods, PAR etc); data analysis (quantitative and qualitative, discourse analysis, policy analysis, programme evaluation); communicating research writing up and other dissemination strategies.
Dissertation
The choice of the topic for the research project is suggested by the individual student, but is subject to the formal agreement of the module leader. In general the topic is likely to be developed from substantive material covered elsewhere in the programme, and related to individual interest, experience and opportunities. The dissertation is usually developed from the research proposal produced in the research methods module, in discussion with a member of staff the project supervisor.
Options
(Please note, not all options are available every year and some have capped intakes.)
The Anthropology of Childhood and Youth
Main topics of study: the concept of the child in society; children's participation in society; children's ways of coping with violence; child play; child labour; the history of youth as a political category; young people's resistance to marginalisation; the radicalisation of young people.
Sociology of Youth and Youth Work
Main topics of study: the study of the Social world; society and social processes; the sociology of youth; deviance, control, crime and young people; sociology, youth work and the youth service; young people in non-western cultures.
Contemporary Issues in Youth and Community Work
Main topics of study: education and lifelong learning: roles for youth work; dimensions of social cohesion: class, race, gender and disability in youth and community work; the significance of community and community work; listening to young peoples voices; youth work, citizenship and society.
Social Policy
Main topics of study: youth service in the welfare sate; consensus and conflict in welfare policy; local services in the 21st Century; youth work, youth service and contemporary social policy; the welfare state, youth work and youth service in the 2000s.
Anthropology of Education and Learning
Main topics of study: education and learning: culture and cognition; learning and embodiment; education, learning and apprenticeship; learning, language and knowledge; learning, identity and social difference; learning and social memory
Anthropological Perspectives on War and Humanitarianism
Main topics of study: contemporary warfare and complex emergencies; humanitarian responses to contemporary warfare; origins of humanitarianism: from the founding of the Red Cross to Medecins Sans Frontier; war and ethnic violence; war, famine and scarcity; refugees and mass forced displacement; international criminal justice and humanitarian assistance; re-building war-torn societies. Ethnographic case studies from East Africa, West Africa, South America, Eastern Europe and the Middle East will be used to engage with these topics.
Applied learning (placement)
Students opting for this module will undertake a short placement (a day a week for ten weeks) with an organisation that works in the field of children, youth and international development. Through the placement, a series of workshops and coursework assignments they will examine the relevance and responsibility of their academic studies to community, voluntary action and paid work, as well as having the opportunity to develop transferable, personal and subject specific skills to enhance their employability on completing their postgraduate degree.
Typical Dissertations
* Media and motherland: an investigation of media representation of Somalia in the UK and its impact on Somali children
* A fair chance to life: young care leavers in Kenya and their transitions to adulthood
* The Trinidad Youth Council perspective on policymaking and implementation
* Gap year projects abroad: young peoples motivations, experiences and challenges
* The representation of street children in Kenya by the international media and NGOs
* A critical exploration of the relationship between young peoples agency and their access to information in a rural Zimbabwean secondary school
* Exploring the individualised relationships between donors and recipients that are created through child sponsorship programmes
* Evaluating the impact of participatory action research with young refugees and asylum seekers
* What does it mean to be an adult? Young refugees and multifaceted transition
* Our film is very good and the London film is good too: childrens experiences of creating their own films to explore and exchange their everyday life experience
* The effects of transnational migration on the socialisation of third world children and youth in the UK: case studies of Jamaican children and youth in South East London
* An emotional support program for children with HIV in Vietnam: Camp Colors of Love: a case study of global-local negotiation and internalization
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