BA (Hons) Early Childhood
The education of very young children has never received so much attention as it is currently receiving in England.
This change in national consciousness has arisen from a combination of social, political and economic changes that have all had effects on the nature of family life, the forms of caring for the young and the expectations of state educational provision. To this should be added the continuing impact of science and technology on our understandings of life, birth and nurture.
The subject itself is a fascinating one, providing opportunties to explore and reflect upon childhood from the many vantage points offered by art and science, as well as those found in popular and international culture.
The course explicitly combines two agendas. The first comes from its location within the already established field of Education Studies. This setting offers you the means to engage with educational theory through a study of social, political, philosophical and cultural thought. The second comes from our vision of early childhood study:
- the theorisation of the institutions related to early childhood, the expectations generated by the spread of professionalism and the scientific and social factors which impact upon these
- the nature of childhood itself and its representations, including the status of childhood as a philosophical, scientific and psychological category
- the development of the early years curriculum and the various pedagogical theories that have been, and are, used to justify these developments
You can visit our website at http://www2.winchester.ac.uk/edstudies
For specific course details, go to BA (Hons) Early Childhood