Children’s Studies Minor

The interdepartmental Children’s Studies minor offers a multidisciplinary perspective on children and childhood to help students achieve a deeper and broader understanding of children and childhood. Children are examined in contexts of culture, historical era, educational systems, socioeconomic class, geographic setting, religious ideology, political and economic systems, and so on. In addition, Children’s Studies is concerned with children’s “lived” experience. Thus, some courses may examine exigencies that affect hundreds of millions of children globally (e.g., poverty, hunger, war, disease, labor, etc.). Children’s Studies also emphasizes advocacy and service for children. Thus, many courses in the minor involve a service-learning or fieldwork component in which students work with children directly (e.g., in a hospital, community center, counseling clinic, school). These opportunities not only enrich students’ understanding of children but enhance students’ growth as involved citizens and also benefit children and organizations in the community.

The Children’s Studies minor could benefit students from many departments. Many education and psychology students could be interested but there are other audiences and specialized interests: pre-med students interested in pediatrics, English majors interested in children’s literature, pre-law students interested in family law or child advocacy, computer science or engineering students interested in educational or recreational software, and so on. Collectively, the courses in the minor will expose students to new undergraduate opportunities as well as varied educational and career options.

The minor consists of five courses from the list below, with the following stipulations. At least four courses must be at the 200-level or above, and no more than two courses taken in any one department can count toward the minor. Per University policy, students cannot double count courses for a major and a minor. (Thus, for example, an education major could not count EDUC 201 Educational Psychology for this minor because it is required for the education major, but the student could use PSYC 307 Culture and Child Development to count for the minor.)

EDUC 201	Educational Psychology	1
EDUC 230	Foundations of Classroom Assessment	1
EDUC 235	Integrated Arts in Learning	1
EDUC 316	Teaching in Diverse Environments	1
EDUC 318	Multiculturalism and Education	1
EDUC 323	Education of Young Children	1
EDUC 334	Later Childhood and Adolescence	1
EDUC 335	Child & Adolescent Development	1
EDUC 347	Family, School, and Community Partnerships	1
ENGL 218	Studies in Children's Literature	1
ENGL 220	Young Adult Fiction	1
ENGL 290	Special Topics	1
MATH 117	Introduction to Mathematical Thought	1
MATH 118	Elementary Geometry and Statistics	1
PSYC 207	Developmental Psychology	1
PSYC 307	Culture and Child Development	1
PSYC 320	Children's Studies	1
PSYC 337	Child Development in Denmark	1
SPAN 323	Latin American Short Story	1

Faculty

Co-coordinators: Chris J. Boyatzis, Lori A. Smolleck