CI560:

CI 560 Theories of Childhood (3 credits)

The study of childhood from cultural, historical, psychological and philosophical perspectives.

The information contained on this page is designed to give students a representative example of material covered in the course. Any information related to course assignments, dates, or course materials is illustrative only. For a definitive list of materials, please check the online catalog 3-4 weeks before the course start date.

Overview | Student Expectations | Objectives | Materials | Library Resources | Technical Requirements | Course Requirements and Grading | Course Schedule | Academic Integrity | Accommodating Disabilities | Additional Policies

Overview

"There is no child independent of race, ethnicity, social class, gender, religious beliefs, cultural and subcultural membership, and history.  All children are ancestrally and sociohistorically located” (O'Loughlin, The Subject of Childhood, 2009, p. 26).

In this course, we will explore the highly variable ways that childhood has been constructed and enacted across multiple cultures and throughout history. We will begin by considering how notions of the nature of childhood—for example, children as innocent, as primitive, or as blank slates—have functioned across history and in our own memories and sense of nostalgia about childhood. We will expand our understanding of historic and contemporary childhoods through comparative studies of children. We will examine and critique normative theories of child development and will finish with an examination of contemporary child culture, including play and how changes in global culture affect children's lives.

The course instructor will provide the readings for the course, as well as background information and organizing topics. The instructor creates and assigns activities and provides or oversees discussion questions to organize student thinking for a productive discussion. It is the instructor's responsibility to create an environment conducive to students' development of an open, vibrant learning community; to establish and oversee course standards; and to assist students to achieve both the course objectives and their own.

There are no prerequisites for this course. Given that all participants have had a childhood and some may be parents, the memories and experiences each participant brings may be both a help and a hindrance. That is, insofar as our own childhoods or those of our children cause us to believe that we already know what childhood is, we need to recognize the limitations of our memories and experiences. The diversity of childhoods that will be represented across the members of our course is a considerable resource for us to  develop an ever-broader understanding of the cultural and historical nature of childhood.

Student Expectations

A Web-based course grants you a great deal of freedom, but also a great deal of responsibility. Although you don't have a fixed schedule of classes, you do have a fixed schedule of deadlines by which assignments must be completed. In general, you should expect to put in about as much work and about as many hours as you would for a traditional resident-instruction course.

Be aware that there is much reading in this course. Pace yourself accordingly and don't allow yourself to get behind. This class is also highly participatory as you will be in online discussions with your classmates throughout the term. Most weeks involve time-sensitive small group work. For this to be successful, you will need to collaborate closely with your small group and each person will need to be scrupulous about communicating actively and meeting her/his responsibilities to the group.

Make sure that you check your email every day. Please use the course-email system (Select the Communicate link on the left menu on the course site, and then click on View Inbox to view, read and compose messages. Please make sure that you check the "Send a copy to each recipient's Internet e-mail if known" option before you send out the messages. During the workweek, if you send an email to your instructor, you can expect a reply within 24 hours.

Objectives

Throughout this course you will:

• Develop an understanding of childhood as a product of particular historic times and places
• Consider the political and practical effects of what does and does not get counted as “proper childhood”
• Actively examine how the idea of childhood comes to appear natural through multiple means such as child and adult literature, pictorial representations, child-rearing, popular culture, education, psychology, and personal/cultural memory
• Demonstrate the synthesis of your developing understanding of childhood as a social/historical/cultural discursive production through your course participation and projects

Materials

Most World Campus courses require that students purchase materials (e.g., textbooks, specific software, etc.). To learn about how to order materials, please see the Course Materials page. You should check LionPATH approximately 3–4 weeks before the course begins for a list of required materials.

Library Resources

Many of the University Libraries resources can be utilized from a distance. Through the Libraries website, you can

• access magazine, journal, and newspaper articles online using library databases;
• borrow materials and have them delivered to your doorstep—or even your desktop;
• get research help via email, chat, or phone using the Ask a Librarian service; and
• much more. 

You must have an active Penn State Access Account to take full advantage of the Libraries' resources and service.  The Off-Campus Users page has additional information about these free services.

Technical Specifications

Student Education Experience Questionnaire (SEEQ)

During the semester you will receive information for completing the Student Education Experience Questionnaire (SEEQ). Your participation is an opportunity to provide anonymous feedback on your learning experience. Your feedback is important because it allows us to understand your experience in this course and make changes to improve the learning experiences of future students. Please monitor email and course communications for links and availability dates.

If you need technical assistance at any point during the course, please contact the Service Desk.

For registration, advising, disability services, help with materials, exams, general problem solving, visit World Campus Student Services!

Course Requirements and Grading

Thoughtful, thorough, engaged and on-time completion of class assignments

You are required to engage in different assignments and activities. Some of the materials that are created by you will need to be released on certain due dates, e.g. main exhibitions by Saturday 9 am Eastern Time, and  side exhibitions by Tuesday 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time. Several of the projects require on-going small group discussion and multiple responses, so you will need to be online working on the course over multiple days each week. 

Assigned Readings

Completion of all class readings as evidenced by your ability to refer to and use the course readings for projects, discussions and reflections. You must complete the assigned readings in a time frame that allows for group collaboration on responses. 

Museum of Childhood

You will contribute to the co-creation of a Museum of Childhood on our class PBworks site (Note: You can learn more about PBWorks via the Learning Tools link on the left menu. You can also visit the museum via Museum Map or Museum Visitor Center link on the left menu). Each student will be randomly assigned to a group, lettered A, B, C, D, or E, to work on museum exhibitions. Each of you will make three kinds of contributions to the museum:

1. Curate Main Exhibitions

In an assigned week between Lesson 5 and Lesson 9, you will collaborate with your group members and use the wiki space to curate one main display in our virtual museum. We will call this the Main Exhibition. Because the Main Exhibition will be used by classmates to think more deeply about the readings that week, the Main Exhibition is due midweek. This will require the group that is curating to read and work ahead that week. The instructor will provide examples of Main Exhibitions for the Lesson 2, Lesson 3, and Lesson 4 readings to guide the groups.

A draft of the Main Exhibition must be uploaded by the curating group by Thursday, 9:00 a.m. (Eastern Time, USA). The instructor will review the Main Exhibition and provide feedback by Friday, 9:00 a.m. (Eastern Time, USA). The curating group must complete any necessary revisions by Saturday, 9:00 a.m. (Eastern Time, USA). Because the curating group has only 24 hours to complete the revision after receiving feedback from the instructor, please make sure that you plan ahead with your group members in order to finish the revision in time, and have the Main Exhibition for visits by other members of the class by Saturday, 9:00 a.m. (Eastern Time, USA).

The shell for each group's main exhibition space has been created. You can access the space for your main exhibition by going to the gallery where the exhibition is located on the museum map or the theme of your museum exhibition on the schedule of museum exhibits via the Museum Map link on the left menu.

To create the Main Exhibition, you will upload artifacts and text to that space. The texts and artifacts included should help to create a better understanding of that week’s readings, as well as potentially extending and/or critiquing the readings. Examples of these artifacts or exhibits include (but are not limited to): images and/or text from children’s literature, paintings, photos, videos, commentaries, bibliographies, snippets of biography or autobiography, memories, radio essays, music, ads, toy images, games, clothing images, links to education curriculum, connections among the displays in the rooms; in other words, whatever artifacts and oddities you find that add to the goals of stimulating lively discussion on a topic that you would like to explore in greater depth. Do not summarize the reading -- we have all done the reading already. Rather, your display should raise questions and prompt deeper thinking, connections and discussion about key themes and issues in the reading. Think about links, questions, and activities that will actively involve the visitor as s/he goes through the exhibit.

Note: Because curating a main exhibition requires extra work on the front end, the group curating each week will be excused from curating a side exhibition during the previous week in order to give them extra time for reading. Please see the schedule and explanations below for more information.

2. Visitor Contribution to the Commentary on the Main Exhibition

The Main Exhibitions will be available to all students no later than Saturday 9:00 a.m, (Eastern Time, USA). All students who did not curate that week’s Main Exhibition will visit the Main Exhibition, and contribute an individual comment on the exhibition by choosing the "add a comment" option at the end of the exhibition page. Keep in mind the Main Exhibition will be a work-in-progress until Saturday 9:00 a.m. Thus, do not visit the Main Exhibition until then and make sure that you visit the exhibition and submit at least one individual commentary by Sunday, 11:59 p.m. (Eastern Time, USA). You should then continue to revisit the exhibition to read the growing commentary and add at least two additional comments before the exhibition is closed by Tuesday, 11.59 p.m. (Eastern Standard Time, USA). There are 11 weeks of discussion; contributing 3 or more comments earns you one point for that week; less than three contributions earns you zero points for that week.

Each curator for that week should read through the comments and, identifying him- or herself as a curator, add at least one comment (e.g., response, clarification, disagreement, additional information, etc) to the visitor's comments. This is due by Tuesday, 11:59 p.m. (Eastern Standard Time, USA).

Note: For Lessons 2, 3, 4, and 11, there are Visitor Forums for sharing your responses to questions, as well as Main Exhibitions.  You are encouraged to reply to classmates' posts in the Visitor Forums.  During these lessons, a reply to a classmate in the forum would count as an additional comment in the exhibition.

3. Create Group Side Exhibitions

From Lesson 4 to Lesson 9, each student will work with her/his assigned group (A, B, C, D, or E) to discuss and respond to a compelling issue raised either in the reading or in the Main Exhibit. Your group will demonstrate this process by creating an additional display for that week’s museum theme.  We will call these Side Exhibitions.

The purpose of the Side Exhibitions is to give group members a chance to work through the readings, ensure understanding of the reading content, and then take the discussion further by exploring one aspect of the ideas or questions posed in the main exhibitions, the readings or film for the week.  The group side exhibitions are not intended to be as comprehensive, lengthy, or in-depth as the Main Exhibition; rather, choose one aspect of that week's topic to explore in greater depth.
 

These Side Exhibitions can be accessed by clicking on the number of the side exhibitions listed on the schedule of museum exhibits via the Museum Map link on the left menu. Sticking with the museum imagery, we will picture these as smaller side rooms off the Main Exhibition. Your group will use the same group label for the side exhibition in each gallery. For example, you are in Group A, you will always create your side exhibition in side exhibition Room A, i.e. Gallery 105A, 106A, 201A, and 202A.  Each group will create four Side Exhibitions. To know when you are responsible for side exhibitions, please see the side exhibition schedule listed on the schedule of museum exhibits via the Museum Map link on the left menu. 

Your group will have until Tuesday at 11:59 pm (Eastern Standard Time, USA) to create your Side Exhibition. Your small group will need to communicate during that period in order to:

• Discuss and clarify the readings
• Agree upon one issue you want to discuss and explore further;
• Discuss that issue; and
• Co-create a Small Group Exhibit that synthesizes your new ideas, bringing together previous and outside readings, children’s literature, experiences, current events, films, music, images, class discussions, etc

All class participants are strongly urged to visit one another's side exhibit. You are invited, though not required, to leave commentary for one another. Playing the role of Museum Reviewer and Critic, the instructor will visit and provide feedback on each exhibition (see grading, below).

Following the completion of each main exhibition and side exhibitions, you must complete a peer-evaluation of collegiality, professionalism, and fair contribution to the group’s work. The assignment will not be considered completed and will not be graded by the instructor until the peer-evaluation is done.  Thus, altogether you will be asked to complete five evaluations, one for the main exhibition and four for the side exhibitions. The forms will be available via the Peer Evaluation link on the left menu. The average of the total points assigned to you by you and your group peers will be added to the overall possible points for the course.

The peer evaluation criteria is adapted from Geoff Issacs' Assessing group task (2002). The criteria include: (1) maintained contact with other group members, (2) communicated consecutively/worked collaboratively, (3) showed intellectual insight, (4) did his/her fair share of the work, (5) completed all jobs agreed upon by the group, (6) read and commented in a timely manner on drafts of the project, and (7) overall contribution on the group task.

Individual/Group Activities

During Lessons 1, 2, 3, 10, 11 and 12 you will not be be creating Main Exhibitions or Side Exhibitions. For those weeks, you will complete response questions and/or projects. The instructor will assign specific individual or small group activities that named in the schedule below and will be explained on the "Tour the Lesson Activities" page for that week. You are required to complete that lesson by Tuesday11:59 pm (Eastern Time, USA).

Final Project

Choose an idea related to childhood that has surprised or engaged you this semester. Your final project will include two parts to engage in a further exploration of this idea. You must do both parts.

1. Create an annotated bibliography of at least fifteen resources that in some way illustrates your current thinking about childhood. These resources must include a minimum of eight children's or young adult literature texts, but may also include film, music, websites, video games, or music.
2. Write a brief essay, approximately five pages, that describes your previous and new thinking about childhood. You must include references to course readings to discuss the development of your thinking about this topic. Consider these questions:

• What is the idea about childhood you wish to talk more about? Why?
• What did you believe before? How has your understanding of childhood changed?
• How are these ideas—previous and current—represented or challenged in the media (books, film, etc) you have chosen?

Course Philosophy

Knowledge is not given from one person to another; rather, it is actively constructed by each learner. In this course we value both careful study and risk taking. Students are expected to develop strategies for digging deeply into the meanings of the reading and to take the risk of making connections among the course materials, the input of the instructor and classmates, and their own existing experiences, beliefs, interests and desires. Careful, systematic thinking AND initiative, enthusiasm, curiosity, and a adventurous creativity in putting together ideas materials will be positively noted.  

Semester Grading

Course Schedule

Note: If you are planning to graduate this semester, please communicate your intent to graduate to your instructor. This will alert your instructor to the need to submit your final grade in time to meet the published graduation deadlines. For more information about graduation policies and deadlines, please go to the Graduation Information on the My Penn State Online Student Portal.

Note:  Beginning with Lesson Two, each week you should work in this order:

• Begin with the Introduction for the week
• Review the Museum Director's Notes (on the Introduction Page) during weeks when students curate the exhibitions (Lessons 5-9 )
• Complete any required introductory activities
• Proceed to the readings
• Create (if curators) or visit the Main Exhibition
• Provide commentary to the main exhibition
• Complete the required activities for that week - Side Exhibition (if not curators), project or other required response for weeks without student curated exhibitions
• Complete the peer evaluation form, if required that week
• During student curated weeks, revisit the Main and Side Exhibitions to read classmates' commentary

Note: Do the readings in the order provided below. They are structured in such a way as to build upon one another or interact in certain ways.

Formal instruction will end on the last day of class. Provided that you have an active Penn State Access Account user ID and password, you will continue to be able to access the course materials for one year, starting from the end date of the academic semester in which the course was offered (with the exception of library reserves and other external resources that may have a shorter archival period). After one year, you might be able to access the course based on the policies of the program or department offering the course material, up to a maximum of three years from the end date of the academic semester in which the course was offered. For more information, please review the University Course Archival Policy.