This free course, Childhood in crisis?, explores an idea much repeated in minority-world media that childhood is in crisis. Looking at this idea is a starting point for the study of childhood. You will consider the concept of childhood and the ways in which the notion of crisis may shape how children in the West are seen. By completing the activities, you will be introduced to different ways of understanding this idea and also asked to consider your own feelings in relation to it.

After studying this course, you should be able to:

• explore the concept of childhood and some of the ways minority-world childhood is characterised as ‘in crisis’
• develop ideas on how childhood may be constructed
• develop an awareness of the ways in which the notion of crisis may have practical consequences for children’s lives, identities and experiences.