Year 1
Understanding University (requisite)
This module seeks to introduce students to academic study at university level. Its purpose is to enable students to reflect on and develop their skills as they progress through their first year of study. This is achieved by introducing students to the key study and academic skills required to succeed at university level study such as accessing, and evaluating academic source material, understanding argumentation and critical thinking, academic writing, and referencing. Students will also reflect on elements of academic resilience and employability.
Health and Wellbeing (requisite)
This module introduces students to a range of subject areas and key debates surrounding the health/illness and wellbeing of children in the contemporary UK. The module presents students with several perspectives through which to view these ideas: biological, medical, social and environmental. The implications of poor health and illness on the child and the family help contextualise the dynamic roles of children in maintaining their own health.
Child Development in Context (requisite)
This module investigates the developing child and the changes that occur over time within the context of the family and wider social systems that children inhabit. The module has a particular focus on the aspects of child development that influence and are influenced by social context. It will include the psychological development of babies, children and young people within the family, education and the wider social systems; it seeks to explain how the interaction between biological, social and cultural factors affect lifelong patterns of change in the individual.
Childhood, Care and Education (requisite)
This module is an opportunity to introduce students to education and the underpinning values of professional practice with a particular focus on the historical, international and contemporary conceptualisations, policies and practices of care and education. Students will be encouraged to consider how the theoretical study of the child underpins the early years and primary curriculum and adult role.
Children in Society (requisite)
Within this module, students will be challenged to ask critical questions about their social world and explore their own individual and cultural experiences within a wider context. Throughout this module, students are encouraged to examine the common assumptions of childhood as a natural, universal, fixed, and inevitable life stage. By ‘thinking sociologically’, students will identify the social structures which define, govern, and locate children and childhood.
Diversity, Rights and Inclusion (requisite)
The module will address diversity, rights and inclusion in the broadest sense, addressing two core areas: childhood and barriers to participation/inclusion. Students will be encouraged to consider the intersectionalities of children and young people’s lives. Topics range from gender, poverty, ethnicity, disability, and socio-cultural diversity to identify and explore the differing perspectives and discourses.
Year 2 - Pathway 1
Children’s Ecologies (requisite)
This module will introduce students to a ‘systems’ thinking as applied to childhood and the development of the children. It will use an ecological model of human development to place children and childhoods into the wider and complex ‘system of systems’, micro, meso, exo and macro, and the dynamic of constancy and change of these systems in time. It will focus on topics such as the family system, family-school-community collaboration; school involvement, and will then engage in broader discussions on globalisation, legislation, educational systems, et caetera. The systems approach underlying the ecological model of human development is a theoretical framework that allows, and encourages, integration of other theoretical views into a multi-theoretical approach.
Safeguarding (requisite)
The module provides students with an historical policy context in which to understand the origins of safeguarding children and the social construction of abuse. The shifting power relations between the state, professionals, families and children is a core theme that is critically explored through an examination of the legal framework, particularly the Children Act (1989) and Children Act (2004) and also Child Abuse Inquiry reports.
Reflecting contemporary safeguarding policy, the module explores the related themes of early intervention, prevention, and child protection as every professions responsibility. At the core of safeguarding children is developing a theoretical understanding of why children are abused, the ability to identify signs and symptoms, and understand the impact of abuse and neglect on children’s wellbeing.
Understanding Research (requisite)
This module grounds students in the principles of social science research and methods employed to develop our understanding of the social world. The module covers core aspects of the research process and offers students opportunities to focus on particular methods of interest to them and relevant to their field of study. The module aims to provide students with the knowledge and confidence to undertake independent, ethical and robust research in the social sciences. This module also acts as a precursor to the dissertation module.
Disability, Health and Wellbeing Pathway: Developmental Disabilities (optional)
The modern discourse on atypical development goes well beyond a narrow medical or clinical view, to incorporate the complex interactions with the larger contexts of family, society and culture. This module explores topics such as the historical shift from views of Impairment, Disability and Handicap toward Functioning, Activity and Participation, a range of developmental and other medical disabilities and the influence of atypical development on children’s ability to learn in the typical school context exploring the spectrum of Special Educational Needs (SEN). The module will also explore the influence of the social and cultural contexts on the developmental path of these children and their families, on the diagnosis process, and on the outcomes of the intervention.
Disability, Health and Wellbeing Pathway: Children’s Mental Health (optional)
The module provides opportunities to gain an understanding of children’s mental health from a holistic bio-psycho-social perspective. Understanding children’s mental health needs is crucial for practitioners working with children and young people as it has a significant impact on other areas of development, social and educational participation and inclusion.
Disability, Health and Wellbeing Pathway: Principles of Intervention and Participation (optional)
Interventions are positioned as central to supporting children’s wellbeing and their ability to fulfil their potential. Therefore, the purpose of this module is to encourage students to explore and engage with current debates around child/family intervention and the possibilities of participation and inclusion. A range of interventions will be reviewed in the light of the holistic needs of children within an increasingly culturally diverse society and changing trends in supporting families.
Year 2 - Pathway 2
Children’s Ecologies (requisite)
This module will introduce students to a ‘systems’ thinking as applied to childhood and the development of the children. It will use an ecological model of human development to place children and childhoods into the wider and complex ‘system of systems’, micro, meso, exo and macro, and the dynamic of constancy and change of these systems in time. It will focus on topics such as the family system, family-school-community collaboration; school involvement, and will then engage in broader discussions on globalisation, legislation, educational systems, et caetera. The systems approach underlying the ecological model of human development is a theoretical framework that allows, and encourages, integration of other theoretical views into a multi-theoretical approach.
Safeguarding (requisite)
The module provides students with an historical policy context in which to understand the origins of safeguarding children and the social construction of abuse. The shifting power relations between the state, professionals, families and children is a core theme that is critically explored through an examination of the legal framework, particularly the Children Act (1989) and Children Act (2004) and also Child Abuse Inquiry reports.
Reflecting contemporary safeguarding policy, the module explores the related themes of early intervention, prevention, and child protection as every professions responsibility. At the core of safeguarding children is developing a theoretical understanding of why children are abused, the ability to identify signs and symptoms, and understand the impact of abuse and neglect on children’s wellbeing.
Understanding Research (requisite)
This module grounds students in the principles of social science research and methods employed to develop our understanding of the social world. The module covers core aspects of the research process and offers students opportunities to focus on particular methods of interest to them and relevant to their field of study. The module aims to provide students with the knowledge and confidence to undertake independent, ethical and robust research in the social sciences. This module also acts as a precursor to the dissertation module.
Education Pathway: Language and Literacy (optional)
This module examines the complex relationship between cognition and communication, alongside the stages of children’s language and literacy development. The module further examines the development of ‘desirable literacies’ in young children: their spoken language, reading and writing. Theoretical explanations for the role of the adult in supporting and extending children’s language and literacy development are included as is an exploration of the factors and conceptual frameworks that influence practice contexts in both formal and informal educational settings.
Education Pathway: SEN and Inclusive Education (optional)
This module provides an exploration of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities, and introduces students to a range of issues and perspectives in relation to SEN, disability and inclusion in general. The module poses questions regarding the social and cultural dimension of difference in learning needs, gender and culture and it seeks to allow students to critically evaluate perceptions of difference and inclusion. This module will also allow students to explore the principles of inclusive practice and to develop their understanding of how to implement more inclusive strategies and techniques in education.
Education Pathway: Creative Learning (optional)
This module focuses on understanding the value and role of creativity and play in childhood exploring the extent to which the two further children’s development through a variety of theoretical views.
Students will be encouraged to reflect on and explore historical and contemporary perspectives on creativity from a cross-cultural perspective. The module will consider how other children and adults and the wider social context impact on the play decisions and creative choices children make. Students will learn about how children express themselves, connect with the physical and social world around them through creative activities and consider how all children can be included in creative experiences.
Education Pathway: Developing Practice GP1 (optional)
This first practice module seeks to explore with students the underlying professional practices and principles of the early years and primary education. Students are encouraged to consider how the theoretical study of the child underpins the early and primary curriculum. The module will support students in adopting a professional approach to working with young children. The module is broadly split between taught sessions on campus and days spent in practice in educational setting. The ethos is to support students to develop core knowledge and skills in practice appropriate for working towards the role of graduate practitioner.
Year 2 - Pathway 3
Children’s Ecologies (requisite)
This module will introduce students to a ‘systems’ thinking as applied to childhood and the development of the children. It will use an ecological model of human development to place children and childhoods into the wider and complex ‘system of systems’, micro, meso, exo and macro, and the dynamic of constancy and change of these systems in time. It will focus on topics such as the family system, family-school-community collaboration; school involvement, and will then engage in broader discussions on globalisation, legislation, educational systems, et caetera. The systems approach underlying the ecological model of human development is a theoretical framework that allows, and encourages, integration of other theoretical views into a multi-theoretical approach.
Safeguarding (requisite)
The module provides students with an historical policy context in which to understand the origins of safeguarding children and the social construction of abuse. The shifting power relations between the state, professionals, families and children is a core theme that is critically explored through an examination of the legal framework, particularly the Children Act (1989) and Children Act (2004) and also Child Abuse Inquiry reports.
Reflecting contemporary safeguarding policy, the module explores the related themes of early intervention, prevention, and child protection as every professions responsibility. At the core of safeguarding children is developing a theoretical understanding of why children are abused, the ability to identify signs and symptoms, and understand the impact of abuse and neglect on children’s wellbeing.
Understanding Research (requisite)
This module grounds students in the principles of social science research and methods employed to develop our understanding of the social world. The module covers core aspects of the research process and offers students opportunities to focus on particular methods of interest to them and relevant to their field of study. The module aims to provide students with the knowledge and confidence to undertake independent, ethical and robust research in the social sciences. This module also acts as a precursor to the dissertation module.
Society and Welfare Pathway: Sex and Gender in British Society since 1500 (optional)
This module offers students the opportunity to study the role of sex and gender in the lives of British men and women over the past five hundred years, and to question the extent to which both informed the lives of Britons. It provides a historical context to understandings of gendered identity and its consequences for families, parents, children, the law, citizenship, bodies and selfhood.
Society and Welfare Pathway: Alternative Perspectives of Welfare in Childhood (optional)
In this module students evaluate changing perspectives of welfare provision which has historically shaped the structure of childhood. Perspectives applied by those in authority have shifted through discourses of state paternalism, individualised responsibility, rights discourses, social investment and social threat. Each perspectives constructs an alternative childhood. In this module the social policies which have cared for, and controlled changing expectations of childhood will be highlighted, with particular significance placed on relevant policy provision surrounding children in deprivation, education, disability and the family.
Society and Welfare Pathway: Children’s Material Worlds (optional)
Often, we think of toys and child furniture as largely interchangeable objects in the serious work of play and learning; however this module will focus on the design history of “children’s things” and explore how these objects are used as vehicles for society’s attitudes toward childhood, identity, and development. This module will centre on treating children as citizens, rather than consumers, and offer critique of agenda-driven policies which fence-in children’s fun.
Society and Welfare Pathway: Childhood since 1500 (optional)
This module provides a historical analysis of the cultural situation of the child, with a particular consideration to the changing legal status and emergence of child protection legislation. This module considers how diverse experiences of childhood were shaped by social and cultural change over time, and affected by ideas about class, race, ethnicity and religion. Legislative changes, which had a slow but steady development until 1960, began accelerating, further defining and regulating an “ideal” childhood. This module also brings in the thoughts and feelings of children themselves through diaries, testimonies and oral histories, and use a wide range of sources to access the perspectives of adults, governments and nations.
Year 3 - Pathway 1
Independent Project (requisite)
This module is designed for students to produce a final year projects that allows students to exercise their independent judgement and skills in the development and execution of a project or dissertation relevant to their field of study. Under the supervision of an assigned tutor, the module provides students with the opportunity to independently apply the core subject knowledge and skills developed over the course of their degree.
Decolonisation and Difference (requisite)
Drawing from postcolonial, subaltern, decolonial, post-qualitative and posthuman critiques, the module aims to explore the Southern “turn” to domains of knowledge - hierarchies, ‘production’, erasures and circulation - resulting in the deligitimisation of knowledges from the ‘rich peripheral countries’ to build an understanding of the impact of knowledge as capital. Engaging with this upsurge of interest in decolonisation within professional and academic environments will not only extend the University’s currency but importantly enrich students’ understanding of the current demand to decolonise educational and practice settings, and why acknowledging other knowledges and decolonisation matters, towards enabling a critical approach to future thinking and practice. In doing so, the module will interrogate what place curriculum and policies have within these calls for decolonising education and practice in the UK.
Disability, Health and Wellbeing Pathway: Contemporary Disability Studies (optional)
This module is aims to respond to contemporary issues in relation to disability and, more specifically, the lived experiences of children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities and their families in the context of current social, economic, cultural, political situation. The aim of this module is to provide students with an opportunity to explore contemporary issues of their choice that impact on the lives of children and young people with SEN/D. This may include for example birth decisions and the value of lives; children with SEN/D and friendships; sex and sexuality; the politics of family life; children and young people with SEN/D in art and visual cultures; the Para Olympics; work and employment; hate crime; or the impact of Covid-19.
Disability, Health and Wellbeing Pathway: Therapies and Counselling (optional)
This module aims to provide students with a critical exploration of the nature of therapeutic interventions and counselling, and a critical exploration of conceptual models of therapeutic and counselling skills. It explores differing perspectives, principles, ethical practice and current debates within this field.
This module will also explore the basic principles of counselling approaches in children and families and the range of settings in which this can take place. Students will develop and reflect on basic helping skills and consider a range of key theories taking into account issues of difference.
Disability, Health and Wellbeing Pathway: Child Public Health (optional)
The module will introduce students to the basic principles and topics of public health, with a particular focus on topics that are relevant to children. Students will critically analyse health problems at a global, national and local level, and will develop knowledge and understanding of the strategies aimed at reducing health inequalities through coordinated actions. Health promotion and health protection principles will be explored; students will learn about health determinants, health inequalities, and the socio-economic causes of health and illness that arise from deprivation and poverty and on the drivers of the global burden of diseases and issues of inequity surrounding these.
Year 3 - Pathway 2
Independent Project (requisite)
This module is designed for students to produce a final year projects that allows students to exercise their independent judgement and skills in the development and execution of a project or dissertation relevant to their field of study. Under the supervision of an assigned tutor, the module provides students with the opportunity to independently apply the core subject knowledge and skills developed over the course of their degree.
Decolonisation and Difference (requisite)
Drawing from postcolonial, subaltern, decolonial, post-qualitative and posthuman critiques, the module aims to explore the Southern “turn” to domains of knowledge - hierarchies, ‘production’, erasures and circulation - resulting in the deligitimisation of knowledges from the ‘rich peripheral countries’ to build an understanding of the impact of knowledge as capital. Engaging with this upsurge of interest in decolonisation within professional and academic environments will not only extend the University’s currency but importantly enrich students’ understanding of the current demand to decolonise educational and practice settings, and why acknowledging other knowledges and decolonisation matters, towards enabling a critical approach to future thinking and practice. In doing so, the module will interrogate what place curriculum and policies have within these calls for decolonising education and practice in the UK.
Education Pathway: Outdoor Learning and Environment Education (optional)
On this module students will explore how the outdoors and the environment can enhance a child's development and learning. Outdoor learning and Environmental Education are vital to a curriculum as we are living in a world where environmental concerns and issues about well-being are paramount.
Students will gain an understanding of the importance of children learning outside the traditional space of the classroom and will consider creative ideas to incorporate outdoor activities for all children. Notions of spaces and places will be reflected upon with an in-depth analysis of rural experiences and urban environments and how both settings have a particular outdoor environment which can be utilised for outdoor learning.
Education Pathway: Current Debates in Schooling (optional)
This module will enable students to develop their understanding of current debates and issues around schooling and education. Students will also examine a variety of formal and informal ways that children can receive schooling. Students will critically explore and evaluate how children participate in education in other ways apart from formal education at a school. Students will be introduced to key current topics and debates around children’s schooling and education and they will be given the opportunity to propose ideas for further improvement of these issues affecting children’s schooling.
Education Pathway: Children and STEM (optional)
This module will introduce students to key issues in mathematics, science and technology education, particularly those that relate to the years of compulsory schooling. Students will gain understanding of key curricular, pedagogical and social issues that relate to the teaching and learning of mathematics, science and technology which are crucial subject areas in the curriculum.
Education Pathway: Professional Practice GP2 (optional)
This second practice module is an opportunity for students to critically evaluate and reflect upon the values, theories and practical skills demanded of educational practitioners. The focus of this module is on the development of leadership skills in practice settings. Students will critically explore working in teams, change management, leadership styles and the measurement of quality in provision. The ethos is to support students in developing critical evaluative ways of working that enhance their ability to lead practice as they work towards the role of graduate practitioner. Drawing on theoretical ideas and empirical research students will demonstrate knowledge of leadership and management and its importance and application in democratic and inclusive practice.
Year 3 - Pathway 3
Independent Project (requisite)
This module is designed for students to produce a final year projects that allows students to exercise their independent judgement and skills in the development and execution of a project or dissertation relevant to their field of study. Under the supervision of an assigned tutor, the module provides students with the opportunity to independently apply the core subject knowledge and skills developed over the course of their degree.
Decolonisation and Difference (requisite)
Drawing from postcolonial, subaltern, decolonial, post-qualitative and posthuman critiques, the module aims to explore the Southern “turn” to domains of knowledge - hierarchies, ‘production’, erasures and circulation - resulting in the deligitimisation of knowledges from the ‘rich peripheral countries’ to build an understanding of the impact of knowledge as capital. Engaging with this upsurge of interest in decolonisation within professional and academic environments will not only extend the University’s currency but importantly enrich students’ understanding of the current demand to decolonise educational and practice settings, and why acknowledging other knowledges and decolonisation matters, towards enabling a critical approach to future thinking and practice. In doing so, the module will interrogate what place curriculum and policies have within these calls for decolonising education and practice in the UK.
Society and Welfare Pathway: Peripheral childhoods (optional)
This module in Peripheral Childhoods introduces students to the intersections of childhoods centring on those that have been marginalised, invisibilised or occur in contexts of multiple disadvantages. In particular, the module will critically examine the historical, international, and contemporary conceptualisations of childhood, the ‘ideal’ types, and normative benchmarks, policies, and practices, as advocated by dominant or Euro-American traditions. It will draw on the fields of childhood studies, developmental psychology, sociology, education, social policy and childhood geographies; and interrogate the historical, social, material and political conditions that shape childhoods ‘at’ and ‘on’ the peripheries.
Society and Welfare Pathway: Gendered Violence, Vulnerability and Voice (optional)
Recent decades have seen enormous progress on improving the lives of girls and women, however even where gender gaps have narrowed, systematic differences in outcomes still persist, including widespread gender-based violence and lack of voice. Sessions cover policy and legislative approaches, protection and prevention, promising practices in intervention, and definitions and framings, including feminist debates on equality, power, and control. This module aims to focus on the complex ways politics, social context, and frameworks can amplify – and also restrict – women and children’s voices and agency.
Society and Welfare Pathway: Families and the State (optional)
This module explores families and the state in the broadest sense, addressing two core areas: the influence and impact of the state and subsequent policies which imped on the diversity of family formations and the recognition of ‘family’ beyond the dominant hegemonic nuclear module. Topics range from analysing the performance of the family to same-sexed parenting to adoptive families (internationally and nationally) and the child’s right to a family life and name. The module will take a critical perspective in analysing the construction and reconstruction of family formations and challenge previous dominant rhetoric’s to highlight the diversity and reality of family formations in the UK today and the role the state and welfare systems has within these different family formations.
