Contextualizing Childhoods

This edited collection draws together a variety of contexts of contemporary childhoods, linking thinking from Canada with spaces in the UK and Sweden. The contributors explores the discourses that shape those childhoods and how this then impacts on the way that children come to experience their everyday lives. The aim of the book is not to reflect the entirety of childhood experience but to draw off particular expertise that shine a light into partial, yet significant areas of children’s lives, with the contributions engaging with a range of voices and perspectives. As a result, the collection advocates the need for childhood studies to zoom out from a predisposition to isolate the child, which has been seen as a necessary part of conceptualizing childhood. As a result, the book focuses on a ‘context’ for childhoods through a consideration of both structure and agency, and through this seeks to recognise the interconnected nature of the arenas within which children live their everyday lives. A range of themes are covered, including the education system, identity within the home, suicide in communities, and younger children’s 'political' engagement and sense of belonging. Contextualising Childhoods will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of disciplines, including sociology, law, and education.

This volume presents the leading research in child and adolescent grief from a diverse and global perspective, focusing on the systemic, political, and cultural processes that have a direct bearing on the way youth experience loss and grief. Carrie Traher and Lauren J. Breen bring together a global community of academics, practitioners, and social activists to discuss and address the complexity of lived experiences of grief for young people today. Presented in four parts, the contributors begin by providing a theoretical overview of youth, grief, and bereavement, before moving onto other important topics, such as suicide bereavement, the trauma of war, digital grief narratives, child soldiering, and more. Within each chapter, authors address contemporary theoretical frameworks, research findings, and praxis related to both death and non-death losses, such as the Black Lives Matter movement, environmental grief, and grief on the internet and social media. Including contributors from a range of countries and from various disciplines, such as educators, health care professionals, policy makers, and advocates, the themes of coping, resilience, and growth are central and interwoven in each chapter. This handbook is essential for researchers, clinicians, scholars, educators, parents, and activists as to the most pressing societal and global issues that affect youth grief today and to provide context to their personal and professional interactions with youth. Chapter 9 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

The ebook edition of this title is Open Access and freely available to read online. Revising established research, this handbook equips readers with an understanding of the complex interplay between local and global and public and private contexts in the development of young people in Asian countries.

Discover the profound impact of family relationships on a child′s development in this insightful and comprehensive textbook. This engaging resource delves into the intricate dynamics of early family interactions, with features such as: Chapter objectives Reflective questions Case studies Chapter summaries Annotated further reading Explore key topics like adoption and fostering, abusive family relationships, and hospitalization through an interdisciplinary lens. Drawing on the latest research and practical examples, each chapter provides a rich understanding of the complexities surrounding early relationships. This book offers a straightforward guide to current theoretical debates surrounding parenting and the family, with opportunities to learn from experts with practical experience in education, health, law and social services.

The Blackwell Handbook of Early Childhood Development presents a comprehensive summary of research into child development from age two to seven. Comprises 30 contributions from both established scholars and emerging leaders in the field The editors have a distinguished reputation in early childhood development Covers biological development, cognitive development, language development, and social, emotional and regulatory development Considers the applications of psychology to the care and education of young children, treating issues such as poverty, media, and the transition to school A valuable resource for students, scholars and practitioners dealing with young children

This book concisely explores the distinguishing features of scientific knowledge and research in early childhood education and care (ECEC). It has a dual-level focus of containing and relating the concrete practices of conducting research with the more fundamental conceptual discussions around research – the Bildung of the researcher. The book introduces and succinctly explains the concepts of methodology, theoretical knowledge about method, and how all parts of conducting research are informed by theory. The interrelation of these concepts, and many premises of research, are often regarded as assumed knowledge. In this book, premises of research are explicated and discussed, as well as methods on how to engage in informed dialogue. This introductory text explicates many features of scientific knowing and knowledge building in ECEC that tend to be presumed rather than clarified. It will be important in furthering the professional development of PhD students, Master’s students, supervisors, and researchers.

In this fascinating book Chris Jenks thoroughly examines the concept of childhood. He focuses on the way the image of the child is played out in society, looking specifically at its image through history and the reality of child abuse.

"An exciting and engagingly written book. The case studies are intriguing and the discussion of previous theories impeccable." - Dr. Heather Montgomery, The Open University "What is a child? Kate Cregan and Denise Cuthbert begin this path-breaking and compelling work with a deceptively simple question. From this seemingly straightforward formulation, they unravel, interrogate and engage with some of the most pressing issues related to children in the early 21st century... This book is an absolute must for scholars in all the fields of childhood studies." - Professor Joy Damousi, University of Melbourne Global Childhoods draws on the authors’ interdisciplinary backgrounds and original research in the fields of embodiment, theorisations of childhood, children′s policy, child placement and adoption, and family formation. The book critically demonstrates how following from the modern construction of childhood which emerged unevenly from the late eighteenth century, the twentieth century saw the emergence of the conception of the normative global child, a figure finally enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The book offers a wide-ranging critical analysis of approaches to children and childhood across the social sciences. Through stimulating case studies which include the experiences of child soldiers, orphans, forced child migrants, and children and biomedicine, Cregan and Cuthbert critically test the notion of the ‘global child’ against the lived experiences of children around the globe. Kate Cregan and Denise Cuthbert draw on and contributes to debates on children and the idea of the child in a wide range of disciplines: sociology, anthropology, education, children′s studies, cultural studies, history, psychology, law and development studies. In its historical coverage of the rise of the concepts of the child and the global child, its critical engagement with the theorisation of childhood, and its detailed case studies, the book is essential reading for the study of children and childhood.