Entry requirements

General entry requirements + English 6

Progression level in relation to degree requirements

No mainfield

Course contents

The aim of the course is to enable the student to explore and analyze childhood and children’s agency from philosophical and political perspectives, as well as on a local and global level.

The United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child is the point of departure for the course as it addresses local and global interpretations of childhood rights and children’s participation in the presence. Different philosophical and political discussions of the articulations of children’s rights och children’s participation are critically analyzed and discussed in relation to different central issues in the lives of children.

Learning outcomes

After completing the course, the student should be able to…

1. Give a critical account for the content and message of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
2. Analyze different understandings and implementations of the Convention and children’s rights in general, within local and global perspectives.
3. Critically analyze the Convention in relation to children’s participation and citizenship.

Learning activities

Working forms include lectures, seminars, group work and presentations.

Assessment

Examination 1: Oral Presentation, 5 hp (learning outcome 1)

Examination 2: Paper, 10 hp (learning outcomes 2-3)

Grading criteria for the course are announced by the course leader at the start of the course.

For all assessments, the basis must be such that individual performance can be distinguished.

Course literature

Archard, David (2015). Children. Rights and Childhood. 3. ed. London: Routledge (226 p.)

Faulkner, Elizabeth A. & Conrad Nyamutata (2020). The Decolonisation of Children’s Rights and the Colonial Contours of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The International Journal of Children’s Rights 28 (1): 66–88.
https://doi.org/10.1163/15718182-02801009 (22 p)

Gibbons, Elizabeth D. (2014). Climate Change, Children’s Rights, and the Pursuit of Intergenerational Climate Justice. Health and Human Rights 16 (1): 19–31 (12 p)

Rosen, Rachel & Katherine Twamley (2018). Feminism and the politics of childhood: friends or foes? London: UCL Press (314 p)

Unicef (2021). The Climate Crisis is a Child Rights Crisis: Introducing the Children’s Climate (28 p)

Wall, John (2021). Give Children the Vote: On Democratizing Democracy. Bloomsbury Publishing (198 p)

Westover, Tara (2018). Educated: a memoir. New York: Random House (334 p)

Course evaluation

The university provides all students who are participating in, or have completed, a course to express their experiences and views on the course through a course evaluation which is organized at the end of the course. The university will collate the course evaluations and provide information about their results and any actions prompted by them. The results shall be made available to the students. (HF 1:14).

Interim rules

When a course is no longer given, or the contents have been radically changed, the student has the right to re-take the examination, which will be given twice during a one year period, according to the syllabus which was valid at the time of registration.

Additional information

The syllabus is a translation of a Swedish source text.