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 may count toward the minor. Per University policy, students may not double count courses for a major and a minor. (Thus, for example, an education major may not count EDUC 201 Educational Psychology for this minor because it is required for the education major, but the student may use PSYC 307 Culture and Child Development to count for the minor.) One of the five courses may be a 1-credit independent study, completed in any department, that has an appropriate focus and content to count for the minor.  Before starting such an independent study, it must be approved by the coordinators if the student wishes it to count toward the minor.

ANTH 305	Womb to Tomb: Culture and the Life Course	1
EDUC 201	Educational Psychology	1
EDUC 227	Immigrant Youth in U.S. Society	1
EDUC 230	Foundations of Classroom Assessment	1
EDUC 235	Integrated Arts in Learning	1
EDUC 240	Literacy and Learning in the Diverse Classroom	1
EDUC 290	Gender Issues in Education	1
EDUC 318	Multiculturalism and Education	1
EDUC 322	Psychology of the Exceptional Child	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
ENLS 218	Studies in Children's Literature	1
ENLS 220	Young Adult Fiction	1
ENLS 290	Special Topics	1
FREN 370	Topics in Civilization (Learning to be French: Education and Identity in Modern and Contemporary France)	1
MUSC 135	Introduction to Music Teaching	1
MUSC 230	Music for Exceptional Children	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

Faculty

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