Childhood Studies Essay

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Recommended: To what extent is childhood socially constructed

Childhood studies is an interdisciplinary academic field of study which asks questions about the nature and experience of childhood across generations, throughout varying cultures and within different social and economical contexts. It covers an age range from 0-18 years and invokes research from a number of different subject areas such as history, law, anthropology, education, medicine and psychology with a view to better understand the issues surrounding the changes and transitions within childrens lives. Childhood studies looks further than simply viewing childhood as a biological state of development; proffering the view that childhood is a "social construction", and as such is subject to change depending on when and where childhood occurs and which social, political, cultural and economic factors are in play. As such, it champions the view that childhood will mean different things …show more content…

It respects children's rights - Woodhead (cited in Kehily, 2009) states, "Childhood Studies offes an integrated framework for elaborating a 'child-centered' research that is holistic in approach, and built around children's agency, their rights and their well-being... which is inclusive of diversities related to age, gender, ethnicity, place and time.".
The idea that children have rights is central to childhood studies. The 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) put forward that children - without discrimination - have their own rights to provision, protection and participation. 194 countries have ratified the convention, showing an understanding within society that childrens rights need to be respected, and that on the whole, people are now willing to give children more autonomy than previously

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