Childhood Studies

The study of risk and resilience

• Ingrid Schoon

Focusing on the experiences of children and young people growing up in conditions of socio-economic hardship, this lecture introduces a developmental-contextual approach for the study of resilience, challenging assumptions of necessary developmental constancy, as well as the idea that experiences in early childhood set up an invariant life path.

• Berry Mayall

This concise book gives a history of how the sociology of childhood has developed, from its post-war beginnings in the USA to its development in the UK and continental Europe, considering the links between sociological and rights agendas and considering research in many languages.

English children’s work during the Second World War

• Berry Mayall
• Virginia Morrow

This highly-illustrated volume reveals the remarkable, hidden history of children as social agents who actively participated in a national effort during a period of crisis.

Learning in a Digital Age

• Anna Craft

Drawing on the ideas of ‘wise creativity’ and ‘collective possibility thinking’, this book explores the changing nature of society, childhood and youth and asks how education might need to change in response. It is of interest to those engaged in grappling with the messy and difficult task of transforming education.

• Peter Moss
• Graham Haydon

This publication aims to stimulate discussion about how the Every Child Matters agenda relates to the concept of education.

Children’s Rights and Global Learning

• Don Harrison

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child affirms education rights that include the rights for all children to expression and to information, and the right to learn about the world. This book focuses on children’s rights and responsibilities as global citizens and what teachers can do to present and promote them in their classrooms.

How Childhood is Structured in the Primary School

• Dympna Devine

This is an exploration of childhood and schooling from the perspective of the children. The author has allowed the children to speak for themselves and reports their words and ideas in this text.

• Berry Mayall

There is an urgent need for adults to re-think their ideas about childhood. Children have been traditionally understood in the education system as immature, incompetent, morally suspect pupils. Sociological thinking can help reconceptualise them as people to be respected – as knowledgeable, critical, competent participants in learning.

A century of childhood

• Priscilla Alderson

Children and young people are still excluded from many areas of society. This lecture argues that it is time to adopt up-to-date research methods, theories, and findings in order to promote every person’s rights to respect for their worth and dignity.