Module Catalogue 2025/26

Pre Requisite Comment

N/A

Co Requisite Comment

N/A

Aims

Since the end of World War I, children have been cast as the ideal “global citizen”: able to embody the flexible form of citizenship needed to survive in a time when changes in migration patterns and advances in technology increasingly required adults to interact with people of other nationalities and cultures. When tracing the origins of global citizenship, however, it becomes evident that this concept has often been deployed as a means of securing and expanding national power rather than as a means for building a world community. This module will consider the emergence and development of the concept of the child as global citizen. To this end, students will be introduced to a number of important works of literary criticism to help understand the theoretical underpinnings of the key term 'global.'

Students will also read a range of texts published for children, and will consider how these texts construct the child as 'global citizen' as well as a ‘global’ children’s literature. Module lectures and seminars will be supplemented by a range of exciting interactive sessions, including a virtual study abroad exchange with one of Newcastle University’s global children’s literature network partners.

At the end of this module you should be able to:
1. Understand how and why childhood is a site of extensive cultural and social interest
2. Interpret texts for children in a nuanced and critically appropriate way
3. Contextualise these texts within wider cultural, social and historical ideas about the child and global citizenship

Outline Of Syllabus

The core texts will be listed on the module's RLO.

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

Students will develop knowledge and understanding of the following:
-the historical and social contexts of childhood in the 20th and 21st century
-a wide range of books for children, in a variety of genres and addressing different age groups
-critical debates concerning the social roles and aesthetic forms of children’s literature
-approaches and methodologies for the critical analysis of children’s literature
-the role of the figure of the child in shaping national and global forms of identity

Intended Skill Outcomes

The module will develop skills in:
-reading and analyzing a range of texts and documents
-using secondary material critically
-giving informal oral presentations
-producing appropriate kinds of academic writing
-producing material for public audiences
-working with a group of colleagues on a common task
-participating in debate and discussion

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Methods are varied as is appropriate to the breadth and diversity of the module's content and intended learning outcomes. The lectures offer students wide-ranging overviews of the historical development children's literature and the critical strategies and methodologies appropriate to its study. The workshop-style seminars build on this foundation. They allow students to respond to the texts and ideas they have encountered in the lectures and their own independent reading, and to introduce ideas developed through in-class discussions in seminars. Fieldtrips included on this module will introduce students to key local resources that will enhance discussions of module themes.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The portfolio will focus on new skills and concepts explored on the module. This assessment builds on the skills students have practiced at Stage 2 and requires a level of independence appropriate for final year honours students. It will enable students to develop their expertise as independent researchers by asking them to choose and develop a focus which reflects their interests. Split into two assessments, students are encouraged to engage closely with the module in its entirety through the portfolio.

General Notes

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