Early Childhood Studies

This module aims to develop your knowledge of a range of theoretical approaches and perspectives on early childhood development. Specifically, you will acquire an understanding of the developmental influences on the individual child within the wider context, considering the circumstances and environment that impact on child development.

This module enables you to explore and build your understanding of the multi-disciplinary nature of Early Childhood Studies and differing perceptions and perspectives on babies, young children and childhood.

This module aims to introduce you to the philosophical and practical ideologies associated with key historical pioneers. This introduction will support an awareness of the need to recognise and challenge inequalities in society and to embrace an anti-bias approach when working with babies, young children and their families.

This module enables you to develop your knowledge and understanding of children and childhood from a range of perspectives, and to reflect on sociological, historical, cultural, philosophical economic and political influences.

This module enables you to develop your understanding of key issues, perspectives, concepts and their inter-relationships within Early Childhood Studies through exploratory and research visits, observation, reflection, peer discussion, guided learning and self-directed independent learning. You will also develop your core academic skills.

This module builds upon Pedagogical Approaches (Part 1) - Working with Babies, Young Children and Families. You will be introduced to the research area surrounding Education for Sustainability and develop your understanding of the origins of the research and philosophy.

This module provides you with an opportunity to deconstruct children's development using an ecological approach. You will learn to analyse key factors that lead to individual differences, investigate the work of key theorists from within the child development discipline, and scrutinise an ecological approach to understanding children's development.

This module provides you with a knowledge of a range of approaches to researching subjects within Early Childhood Studies and to support preparation for placement in semester two. You will be supported to understand how your research inquiry from Level 4 can be developed for your block placement experience. You will be supported to write a literature review as a sound foundation for your inquiry into research methods.

The aim of this module is to develop your knowledge of research methods, as appropriate to Early Childhood Studies, and how they are applied in the field. This module will engage you in reflections on the block placement and support the development of student inquiry. You will engage in the processes necessary to write an academic research proposal for consideration and adaptation at Level 6.

The aim of this module is to provide you with opportunities to explore global inequalities and unequal childhoods in a range of countries. You will examine complexities of childrens' lives globally using key theories and concepts including sociological, philosophical, political-economic and postcolonial theory. This module will enable you to contest and problematise globalised discourses of childrens' lives with reference to rights, participation and policy.

This module aims to prepare you to empower children to make informed decisions about their own health and, where possible, to act upon those decisions. You will learn to evaluate the social determinants of health, to assess the concept of health literacy in a way that is developmentally appropriate, and to formulate an argument related to health literacy for babies and young children.

This module provides you with a knowledge of social policy in the UK and how it relates to professional practice with babies, young children and families. You will learn to analyse social policy and investigate the ways in which this impacts on the lives of young children and their families. You will also scrutinise different professional approaches taken in the application of policy when working with babies, young children and families. 

This module will build upon your knowledge and skills gained from the level 4 Early Childhood Studies modules. The aim of the module is to explore the four National Early year's curricula within the UK and to develop an awareness of pedagogical approaches for learning. You will engage with historical and current developments in relation to Education for Sustainability within Early Childhood Education.

This module enables you to critically analyse the mechanisms that exist in society to support babies, young children and their families, and to encourage you to reflect critically upon concepts, issues, theoretical models and working practices in relation to the complexity of multi-agency working. A review of historical and current policies will support you to engage with examples of professional practices.

This module enables you to develop a critical perspective of the influences on international principles and practice within early childhood work. You will learn to critically examine and compare systems in a range of countries with reference to global contexts. Issues such as ethnocentric bias in research and practice, and reliability and validity of cross national data will be examined.

This module aims to provide you with appropriate skills and understanding to initiate, design, conduct and report an early childhood studies research project that is either empirical based research or library-based research under appropriate supervision. You will demonstrate a highly developed ability to recognise its theoretical, practical and methodological implications and limitations, and you will be aware of the complexity of ethical principles and issues.

This module aims to provide you with a knowledge and understanding of therapeutic practice with children and their carers in the UK. You will develop the ability to critically analyse what reflective practitioners offer therapeutically, in a variety of contexts, appropriate to the needs of children, their carers, organisations and society. We will also discuss therapeutic theory and practice for working within early childhood.

This module aims to provide you with a knowledge of social work with children and families in the UK. You will develop the ability to analyse the context in which social work with children and families takes place in the UK, to critically assess guiding principles relating to social work practice with children and families, and to evaluate key challenges facing contemporary social work in the UK.

The aim of the module is to bring together two critical areas of research in order to explore and extend research inquiries around relationships and responsibilities that can shape more sustainable futures. Research studies into early childhood education have confirmed the importance of these formative years in the formulation of identity, willingness to learn, as well as engagement with the world. You will develop your understanding of Education for sustainability considered within this module and you are encouraged to engage in systematic personal inquiry in order to document your understanding of the terminology from an international perspective.