Kari Vikhammermo

Childhood Studies (Master's Programme)

Tatek Abebe

The program provides students with relevant knowledge regarding the state of childhoods in different societal, institutional, cultural, economic, and political contexts. The program draws on current research and debates regarding the experiences of childhood and what it means to be young in the world today. There is a good balance of theoretical, methodological, and practical skills that students develop through the different courses. The methods of teaching and learning involve different strategies (lectures, workshops, seminars, individual and group assignments, etc.) in ways that engage students and foster collaborative, intercultural learning. There is documented connection between theoretical debates and perspectives (BARN 3101), different types of qualitative, ethnographic, and participatory methodologies (BARN 3202 and BARN 3201 and substantive courses that draw on literature and research findings regarding children’s rights and wellbeing from different world regions (BARN 3102 and BARN 3300). Students can also take elective courses from other relevant international programs. The synergy among the courses is reflected in the diversity of the topics and quality of the research work students undertake for their master's thesis.The learning environment for students is good. The 2019/20 academic year has been unique in that the program has 24 students enrolled from 18 different countries. These classes were multi-cultural and interdisciplinary and offered an engaging atmosphere both for students and lecturers. This was a considerable boost to the program compared to its previous year's intake of (international) students which was small.The student representatives are active and engaged. They took the initiative to organize a day-long conference on internationalization at the Department of Education and Lifelong Learning in October 2019. This student-led conference brought together invited speakers, lecturers, and students of childhood studies, programs leaders from the Faculty of Social and Educational Sciences that convene international master programs as well as students of IPL who are enrolled in other programs. The conference generated some interesting debates and insights on the meanings and practices of internationalization, and its significance to enhancing the learning environment of students, including Norwegian students at NTNU.At the same time, the 2019/20 academic year was rather challenging to both the course lecturers and students as the process of teaching and learning is affected due to the COVID pandemic. There are some challenges linked to the disruption in the in-person lectures and switching to online modes of education. International students who have limited social networks in Trondheim found it hard to revert to online existence. Moreover, the fact that students could not conduct in-person fieldwork meant they have to rethink their initial plan for MA research and learn new ways of conducting fieldwork/research. Course coordinators were proactive in dealing with these challenges. Students were offered different online platforms for socializing, activities, and lectures. They are provided with extra lessons, supervision, and online supplementary lectures that enable them to develop skills for conducting alternative research for master thesis (online interviews, systematic literature review, literature-based thesis, etc.). The department has also allocated extra resources to employ student assistants that helped with offering online meetings for students.&nbsp;&nbsp;

The quality of the program is high. Students are enrolled in the program on a competitive basis. The quality of the lectures and the learning environment are high, as they are demonstrated in the student evaluations (reference group reports and student barometer). The learning objectives of the different courses and the overall learning outcomes of the study program reflect current and ongoing debates on the theories, ethics, and politics of knowledge production in childhood studies internationally. The students appreciate that the lecturers are engaged in and draw on examples of their research to exemplify concrete fieldwork contexts and generate interdisciplinary insights on childhoods in both majority world and minority world contexts. There are some topics that the students identified that they would like to learn a bit more about (e.g., interface between childhood, digital media, and popular culture) as a growing number of them have an interest in researching related topics. The students have also suggested the opportunity of having an elective course in education taught in the English language from the department’s other programs. As noted above, there are some challenges linked to the disruption caused by COVID that the program is trying to deal with. &nbsp;

Opptakskravene er endret tidligere men endringen gjenspeiles ikke på studieprogramsidene. EST&#58; Har oppdatert tekst om opptakskrav i FS. Kommentar&#58; Teksten som instituttet har meldt inn i ephorte er lik teksten på nettsida&#58; https&#58;//www.ntnu.edu/studies/mpchild/admissionJamfør teksten om opptakskrav som instituttet har sendt i ePhorte og lagt i KASPER&#58; Har tatt ut første avsnittene, frem til overskrifta &quot;Admission&quot;, fordi opplysningene under overskrifta &quot;Specific programme requirements&quot; er gjentatt under overskrifta &quot;Admission&quot; , &quot;C requirement&quot; og den videre teksten. Har konkret tatt ut dette&#58;&quot;Specific programme requirementsThe programme is open to both international and Norwegian students. Admittance to the programme requires a bachelor's degree in the social sciences or in combination with a humanities discipline, or other equivalent education, see the list in the section 'admission' on this page.Possible admission to the study programme requires a minimum of an average grade of C or the equivalent. C is, however, not a guarantee for admission. We aim to establish an interdisciplinary student body, with students representing several different academic backgrounds.&quot;

Tiltak

Endring i opptaksravene

Vedlagt ny tekst i 2022/31075-1&#160;&#160;Forslag til studieplanvedtak i master i Childhood Studies - MPCHILD&#160; Endring i opptakskravEndringer i opptakskravene i tidligere år har ikke blitt overført til studiesideneSe vedlegg «Opptakskrav – MPCHILD» Tekst om opptakskrav er oppdatert i FS; Infofelt 2023 Høst Engelsk Opptak. EST

Endring i opptakskrav

NTNU:TIA:REST

Fakultet for samfunns- og utdanningsvitenskap

Faculty of Social and Educational Sciences

MPhil in Childhood Studies is an interdisciplinary program that provides students with knowledge on the interplay between childhood, culture, and social change in an increasingly globalizing world. Different courses locate children and childhood in spatial, temporal, social, institutional, political, and economic contexts. The learning outcomes are fresh and relevant. The program builds on recent theories, research methodologies, and ethics of researching childhood and children’s lives across majority world and minority worlds contexts in ways that are interdisciplinary and critical. There is excellent connection between the learning outcomes and activities of different courses. The program also draws complementary insights from and contributes to other international programs at NTNU through collaboration in elective courses.There was a total of 13 students from eight countries enrolled in the program in 2020/21. Some of these students participated in the program online in Autumn 2020 whereby lectures were made available to them via recorded Panopto as they could not travel to Norway due to border closure following COVID. Moreover, although the program has an excellent completion rate (both program and course completion rate), the 2020/21 academic year has been affected due to the COVID pandemic. NORPART students that were supposed to begin their studies at NTNU from Ethiopia as part of the AAU-NTNU partnership to promote knowledge on children and sustainable development could not be admitted because of closed borders at the time (the scholarships were therefore postponed to the coming academic year). Second-year students were also unable to conduct in-person fieldwork and had learn new ways of writing a thesis which meant that some of them were not able to finish their research in time. The process of completing a master’s thesis was delayed for some students by a semester. However, a considerable percentage of the students are defending their thesis and acquiring their degrees. In Spring 2021, one student from MPhil in childhood studies was enrolled and completed a semester as part of the exchange program on Children, Youth, and International Development at Brunel University, UK. A great deal of the lectures in Spring 2021 was also held in-person due to the small cohort of students. This has helped students and lecturers positively as it enabled them to develop a sense of cohort formation. The autumn semester of 2021 kicked off with a normalized teaching and learning process. Fourteen students are inducted from nine countries (including NORPART students from Ethiopia). The opportunities that were created at the introductory week in August and the memories of the childhood seminar enabled lecturers and students to get to know each other and learn from one another in ways that are more social and fun.&nbsp;

Overall, the program has a high standard and quality both in terms of its content and delivery of learning outcomes. The program is finding new strategies of undertaking teaching and engaging students in research projects in post-COVID contexts in ways that its integrity and quality are maintained. There are some challenges linked to teaching resources that put a strain on the workload of teaching staff, including added responsibilities and extended supervision commitment. The student committee is active and engaged in arranging several social activities that promote the social life of students. Learning assistants play a valuable role in facilitating colloquiums and seminars. Students have provided positive and constructive feedback to the course lecturers, student advisors and the program leader via reference group reports and/or their representative in the program council. The program has succeeded in securing funding to internationalize its student composition through a project funded by the Norwegian Agency for International Cooperation and Quality Enhancement in Higher Education (2019-2024): AAU-NTNU partnership to facilitate&nbsp;research, teaching, and capacity-building activities on the connections between childhood, culture, and sustainable development. Five Ethiopian students per year will receive scholarship to pursue MPhil in childhood students at NTNU until 2023/24. NTNU students will also get the chance for undertaking fieldwork in Ethiopia. This will strengthen the international profile of the program.

Childhood Studies (Master's Programme) - MPCHILD