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 | The Creative Process | 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 |
MATH 203 | Introduction to Mathematical Thought | 1 |
MATH 204 | Elementary Geometry and Statistics | 1 |
MUSC 135 | Introduction to Music Teaching | 1 |
MUSC 230 | Music for Exceptional Children | 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. Dira