Childhood has become a hotly contested subject in academic
discourse. Its
growth in popularity parallels the
emphasis over the last half century in
the field of cultural studies to
give voice to the voiceless. Childhood
& Childrenıs Studies now occupy an important place in
academia, as
illustrated by the fact that
University have both recently added
degree granting Childrenıs Studies
programs. In this seminar, a
potential syllabus for a first year
undergraduate course ³Introduction
to Childrenıs Studies² will be looked at
- and a series of constructivist
activities will be used for each week of
the syllabus- to illustrate ways of
engaging student activity and critical
thought in both small seminar and
large lecture style classrooms.
Participants in this seminar are asked to read the United Nations
Convention
on the Rights of the Child
(available at http://www.unicef.org/crc/) in
advance and come to the seminar
with an activity designed to help teach some
aspect of the convention. At the
completion of the workshop each
participant will be given a copy of
each of the seminarıs activities, in
addition to a copy of each of the
activities designed by the other 14
participants. Please note that this
is a workshop for all teachers, not only
those in childhood studies, since
many of the activities used in this
workshop can be adapted and used to
cover other areas of cultural studies.
The seminar is being taught by Stephen Gennaro.
Stephen Gennaro is a
cultural historian of youth and
media. He has over 10 years of teaching
experience at all levels from nursery
school to undergraduate and has been
developing curriculum for public
school boards and private institutions for
close to 15 years. Stephen is
currently teaching in the Children's Studies
Department at
Interested parties please contact:
Stephen Gennaro
Children's Studies,
Division of Humanities
76 Winters Lane
M3J 1P3
sgennaro@yorku.ca