CHILDREN

Educational Partnerships and the State is a compelling collection of essays by an international group of scholars that provides a critical exploration of the role of partnerships in contemporary educational reform. Their focus is on the expanding role that collaboration between the public and private sector has come to play in the governing of schools, children, and families in response to an array of worldwide economic and social changes. The contributors to this volume highlight the new relationship between civil society and the state through partnerships and what that linkage has come to mean for an array of educational issues including academic achievement, school governance, school parent-relationships, teacher education, the construction of family and community involvement, and the discourses of reform as practices that order participation and action.

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Educational Partnerships and the State is a compelling collection of essays by an international group of scholars that provides a critical exploration of the role of partnerships in contemporary educational reform. Their focus is on the expanding role that collaboration between the public and private sector has come to play in the governing of schools, children, and families in response to an array of worldwide economic and social changes. The contributors to this volume highlight the new relationship between civil society and the state through partnerships and what that linkage has come to mean for an array of educational issues including academic achievement, school governance, school parent-relationships, teacher education, the construction of family and community involvement, and the discourses of reform as practices that order participation and action.

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Children, Film and Literacy explores the role of film in children's lives. The films children engage in provide them with imaginative spaces in which they create, play and perform familiar and unfamiliar, fantasy and everyday narratives and this narrative play is closely connected to identity, literacy and textual practices. Family is key to the encouragement of this social play and, at school, the playground is also an important site for this activity. However, in the literacy classroom, some children encounter a discontinuity between their experiences of narrative at home and those that are valued in school. Through film children develop understandings of the common characteristics of narrative and the particular 'language' of film. This book demonstrates the ways in which children are able to express and develop distinct and complex understandings of narrative, that is to say, where they can draw on their own experiences (including those in a moving image form). Children whose primary experiences of narrative are moving images face particular challenges when their experiences are not given opportunities for expression in the classroom, and this has urgent implications for the teaching of literacy.

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A troubling development of the brutal century recently passed has been the growing use of children for war. World War I became the first "total war" of modern times. To engage in war on immense scale authorities believed everyone must participate. That included children. Relentless campaigns of propaganda in both world wars focused special attention on kids. The immense scope of total war grew to dominate children’s lives, their daily existence militarized by a world preoccupied by conflict.But we have often ignored wartime contributions of children. What were they expected to do? How were they persuaded to do it? How did it contribute to the war? In what ways did it affect their lives? What did they think about that? This history attempts to respond by examining activities of home-front children in the United States during both world wars.The revised edition considers recent research to extend a discussion of children’s experiences in war. It includes an examination of comic books, considers fitness standards, and expands a discussion of Boy Scouts and other groups for children. It also moves the work beyond the United States to consider activities of children in twenty-first century wars, as observers and, tragically, as participants.The fully referenced text should be of interest to students of war and childhood. But it is also written for a general audience interested in how children respond to war. Many Americans experienced war as children, and many others have parents who did. This book is also for them.

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A troubling development of the brutal century recently passed has been the growing use of children for war. World War I became the first "total war" of modern times. To engage in war on immense scale authorities believed everyone must participate. That included children. Relentless campaigns of propaganda in both world wars focused special attention on kids. The immense scope of total war grew to dominate children’s lives, their daily existence militarized by a world preoccupied by conflict.But we have often ignored wartime contributions of children. What were they expected to do? How were they persuaded to do it? How did it contribute to the war? In what ways did it affect their lives? What did they think about that? This history attempts to respond by examining activities of home-front children in the United States during both world wars.The revised edition considers recent research to extend a discussion of children’s experiences in war. It includes an examination of comic books, considers fitness standards, and expands a discussion of Boy Scouts and other groups for children. It also moves the work beyond the United States to consider activities of children in twenty-first century wars, as observers and, tragically, as participants.The fully referenced text should be of interest to students of war and childhood. But it is also written for a general audience interested in how children respond to war. Many Americans experienced war as children, and many others have parents who did. This book is also for them.

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This revised text provides updates that reflect new findings in the field of media violence research during childhood and adolescence. Throughout the book, special attention is paid to evaluating the role of developmental processes and to stressing the importance of methodology in understanding media violence research. Findings have been divided into two main areas: aggressive behavior and aggression-related constructs (e.g., emotions, cognitions, arousal) to help clarify media violence-related effects on youth.

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This revised text provides updates that reflect new findings in the field of media violence research during childhood and adolescence. Throughout the book, special attention is paid to evaluating the role of developmental processes and to stressing the importance of methodology in understanding media violence research. Findings have been divided into two main areas: aggressive behavior and aggression-related constructs (e.g., emotions, cognitions, arousal) to help clarify media violence-related effects on youth.

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In Children, Religion and the Ethics of Influence, John Tillson develops a theory concerning which kinds of formative influence are morally permissible, impermissible or obligatory. Applying this theory to the case of religion, he argues that religious initiation in childhood is morally impermissible whether conducted by parents, teachers or others. Tillson addresses questions such as: how we come to have the ethical responsibilities we do, how we understand religion, how ethical and religious commitments can be justified, and what makes children ethically special.

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In Children, Religion and the Ethics of Influence, John Tillson develops a theory concerning which kinds of formative influence are morally permissible, impermissible or obligatory. Applying this theory to the case of religion, he argues that religious initiation in childhood is morally impermissible whether conducted by parents, teachers or others. Tillson addresses questions such as: how we come to have the ethical responsibilities we do, how we understand religion, how ethical and religious commitments can be justified, and what makes children ethically special.

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Class-based self-perception is a rising issue worldwide. Through observation in kindergartens in Fiji, Brison examines how schools instil these ideas in Suva children. Teachers have different goals depending on the social background of the families while students create friendships through shared experience of toys, gender roles, and mass media.

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This book assesses the implications of how children and young people are represented in print media in Northern Ireland – a post-conflict transitioning society. Gordon analyses how children and young people’s perceived involvement in anti-social and criminal behaviour is constructed and amplified in media, as well as in popular and political discourses. Drawing on deviancy amplification, folk devils and moral panics, this original study specifically addresses the labelling perspective and confirms that young people are convenient scapegoats – where their negative reputation diverts attention from the structural and institutional issues that are inevitable in a post-conflict society. Alongside content analysis from six months of print media and a case study on the representation of youth involvement in ‘sectarian’ rioting, this book also analyses interviews with editors, journalists, politicians, policy makers and a spokesperson for the Police Service of Northern Ireland. Noting the importance of prioritising the experiences of children, young people and their advocates, this timely and engaging research will be of specific interest to scholars and students of criminal justice, criminology, socio-legal studies, sociology, social policy, media studies, politics and law, as well as media professionals and policy makers. 

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This book is an original, ethnographic study of the emergence of a new type of thinking about children and their rights in urban China. It brings together evidence from a variety of Chinese government, academic, pedagogic and media publications, and from interviews and participant observations conducted in schools and homes in Shanghai, China.

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This study of children's participation in decisions about their care draws on recent work in sociology and anthropology, psychology and legal philosophy in order to understand this challenging area of social life. It also reports on original and groundbreaking research into children's views of decision-making processes. The book has important theoretical implications and important lessons for social welfare policy and practice. It will be of interest to those involved in childhood studies or in qualitative research methods, as well as in social welfare provision.

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Drawing on ethnographic accounts of children's media-referenced play, this book explores children's engagement with media cultures and playground experiences, analyzing a range of issues such as learning, fantasy, communication and identity.

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This book explores the extent to which children engage with questions of morality, arguing that they are active members of society who have both the capacity and understanding to engage with discourses of morality.

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The very notions of childhood and youth are intimately connected to contemporary norms, practices and spaces of care, caring and care-giving. The provision of care is widely figured as both the primary responsibility of parents, carers and practitioners who work with children and young people, and the primary factor in shaping children and young people’s development, education, socialisation, wellbeing and contentment. However, children and young people themselves are rarely figured as key actors in the provision of care. An overwhelming presumption that children and young people are to be cared for has effectively marginalised their agency and responsibilities as carers, or in relation to practices and spaces of care.Bringing together a significant array of multidisciplinary work on children, young people and families, this collection draws together new research on the diverse lives and experiences of children and young people as carers, as cared for, and in relation to spaces and institutions of care. It is the first collection specifically devoted to the subject of care in relation to childhood and youth. As such, the book will be a key resource for academics, practitioners and students seeking leading-edge empirical and conceptual material on this topic.

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Printed poison. Pernicious stuff. Since the nineteenth century, these are some of the many concerned comments critics have made about media for children. From dime novels to comic books to digital media, Cassidy illustrates the ways children have used "old media" when they were first introduced as "new media." Further, she interrogates the extent to which different conceptions of childhood have influenced adults’ reactions to children’s use of media. Exploring the history of American children and media, this text presents a portrait of the way in which children and adults adapt to a constantly changing media environment.

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Printed poison. Pernicious stuff. Since the nineteenth century, these are some of the many concerned comments critics have made about media for children. From dime novels to comic books to digital media, Cassidy illustrates the ways children have used "old media" when they were first introduced as "new media." Further, she interrogates the extent to which different conceptions of childhood have influenced adults’ reactions to children’s use of media. Exploring the history of American children and media, this text presents a portrait of the way in which children and adults adapt to a constantly changing media environment.

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This book aims to further academic debate within the leisure and tourism studies community about the role of ‘families’ in contemporary life and the experiences of families and their children in the leisure environment. It is based on the recognition of the diverse nature of the family in the contemporary era and the position of children in families and society in general as active and knowing social agents rather than as passive objects. The family is on the one hand our first community with its own special kind of human attachment and on the other a little world on which the larger society is modelled. Families form the closest and most important emotional bond in humans. This relationship is what drives humanity and society, and positions families at the centre of leisure activities. This international and multi-disciplinary compilation of recent research into children and families examines progress made and challenges ahead for leisure studies. It extends the academic discourse to a wider understanding of what families, children and their leisure behaviour mean in today’s societies. This book was originally published as a special issue of Annals of Leisure Research.

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This volume explores how television has been a significant conduit for the changing ideas about children and childhood in the United States. Each chapter connects relevant events, attitudes, or anxieties in American culture to an analysis of children or childhood in select American television programs. The essays in this collection explore historical intersections of the family with expectations of childhood, particularly innocence, economic and material conditions, and emerging political and social realities that, at times, present unique challenges to America’s children and the collective expectation of what childhood should be.

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Why does the way we think about urban children and urban nature matter? This volume explores how dichotomies between nature/culture, rural/urban, and child/adult have structured our understandings about the place of children and nature in the city. By placing children and youth at the center of re-theorising the city as a socio-natural space, the book illustrates how children and youth's relations to and with nature can change adultist perspectives and help create more ecologically and socially just cities. As a key contribution to children's studies, the book engages and enlivens debates in urban political ecology and urban theory, which have not yet treated age as an important axis of difference. With examples from ten localities, the chapters in this volume ask how we can subvert both romanticized and modernist conceptualizations of nature and childhood that conflate innocence and purity with children and nature; the volume asks what happens when we re-invent urban natures with children's needs and perspectives in mind.

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This book aims to further academic debate within the leisure and tourism studies community about the role of ‘families’ in contemporary life and the experiences of families and their children in the leisure environment. It is based on the recognition of the diverse nature of the family in the contemporary era and the position of children in families and society in general as active and knowing social agents rather than as passive objects. The family is on the one hand our first community with its own special kind of human attachment and on the other a little world on which the larger society is modelled. Families form the closest and most important emotional bond in humans. This relationship is what drives humanity and society, and positions families at the centre of leisure activities. This international and multi-disciplinary compilation of recent research into children and families examines progress made and challenges ahead for leisure studies. It extends the academic discourse to a wider understanding of what families, children and their leisure behaviour mean in today’s societies. This book was originally published as a special issue of Annals of Leisure Research.

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In the past 20 years, the progressive uncovering of child sexual abuse in institutional settings has reverberated across the globe with simultaneous investigations across Europe and the English-speaking world. However, most books on child sexual abuse are narrowly focused and do not situate this most distressing of human behaviours within a social or historical context. Children, Sexuality, and Child Sexual Abuse examines child sexual abuse from a broader perspective in order to understand how and why child sexual abuse is perpetrated, by whom, under what circumstances, and with what societal consequences for victims and perpetrators. This book will be an essential reference for all those working in the field of child sexual abuse.Beginning with histories of childhood and sex, and their intersections, the book goes on to analyze sexual development, sexuality, and sexualized behaviour in children and adolescents. This is followed by an examination of the extent of child sexual abuse in the English-speaking world, including its prevalence in the Indigenous communities of Australia, New Zealand and Canada, and in once-trusted societal institutions including the Church, orphanages, and schools. The book focuses on issues of concern to all those who encounter the problem of child sexual abuse and addresses questions such as: How and when do children disclose child sexual abuse? What are the characteristics of memory that affect reporting? How are disclosure claims assessed? What are the effects of having experienced child sexual abuse? Finally, there is an examination of young people who offend sexually.

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In the past 20 years, the progressive uncovering of child sexual abuse in institutional settings has reverberated across the globe with simultaneous investigations across Europe and the English-speaking world. However, most books on child sexual abuse are narrowly focused and do not situate this most distressing of human behaviours within a social or historical context. Children, Sexuality, and Child Sexual Abuse examines child sexual abuse from a broader perspective in order to understand how and why child sexual abuse is perpetrated, by whom, under what circumstances, and with what societal consequences for victims and perpetrators. This book will be an essential reference for all those working in the field of child sexual abuse.Beginning with histories of childhood and sex, and their intersections, the book goes on to analyze sexual development, sexuality, and sexualized behaviour in children and adolescents. This is followed by an examination of the extent of child sexual abuse in the English-speaking world, including its prevalence in the Indigenous communities of Australia, New Zealand and Canada, and in once-trusted societal institutions including the Church, orphanages, and schools. The book focuses on issues of concern to all those who encounter the problem of child sexual abuse and addresses questions such as: How and when do children disclose child sexual abuse? What are the characteristics of memory that affect reporting? How are disclosure claims assessed? What are the effects of having experienced child sexual abuse? Finally, there is an examination of young people who offend sexually.

Read more less

This book assesses the implications of how children and young people are represented in print media in Northern Ireland – a post-conflict transitioning society. Gordon analyses how children and young people’s perceived involvement in anti-social and criminal behaviour is constructed and amplified in media, as well as in popular and political discourses. Drawing on deviancy amplification, folk devils and moral panics, this original study specifically addresses the labelling perspective and confirms that young people are convenient scapegoats – where their negative reputation diverts attention from the structural and institutional issues that are inevitable in a post-conflict society. Alongside content analysis from six months of print media and a case study on the representation of youth involvement in ‘sectarian’ rioting, this book also analyses interviews with editors, journalists, politicians, policy makers and a spokesperson for the Police Service of Northern Ireland. Noting the importance of prioritising the experiences of children, young people and their advocates, this timely and engaging research will be of specific interest to scholars and students of criminal justice, criminology, socio-legal studies, sociology, social policy, media studies, politics and law, as well as media professionals and policy makers. 

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This book explores children's meaning making of the books they learn to read with, especially relating to the intersections of race, gender and class. Based on research using a participative, innovative design with young children, issues of identity, belonging and classroom hierarchies are explored in complex and poignant ways by the children.

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Age was a critical factor in shaping imperial experience, yet it has not received any sustained scholarly attention. This pioneering interdisciplinary collection is the first to investigate the lives of children and young people and the construction of modes of childhood and youth within the British world.

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Class-based self-perception is a rising issue worldwide. Through observation in kindergartens in Fiji, Brison examines how schools instil these ideas in Suva children. Teachers have different goals depending on the social background of the families while students create friendships through shared experience of toys, gender roles, and mass media.

Read more less

Through focusing on children's sustainability learning this book examines how school education can address the current environmental problems. It explores children's responses in literacy and language, arts-based approaches, and indigenous studies as well as scientific pedagogies to provide a unique insight into how children learn.

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This volume presents a ground-breaking collection of interdisciplinary chapters from international scholars which complicate, and offers new ways to make sense of, children's sexual cultures across complex political, social and cultural terrains.

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This book is an original, ethnographic study of the emergence of a new type of thinking about children and their rights in urban China. It brings together evidence from a variety of Chinese government, academic, pedagogic and media publications, and from interviews and participant observations conducted in schools and homes in Shanghai, China.

Read more less

Children, Film and Literacy explores the role of film in children's lives. The films children engage in provide them with imaginative spaces in which they create, play and perform familiar and unfamiliar, fantasy and everyday narratives and this narrative play is closely connected to identity, literacy and textual practices. Family is key to the encouragement of this social play and, at school, the playground is also an important site for this activity. However, in the literacy classroom, some children encounter a discontinuity between their experiences of narrative at home and those that are valued in school. Through film children develop understandings of the common characteristics of narrative and the particular 'language' of film. This book demonstrates the ways in which children are able to express and develop distinct and complex understandings of narrative, that is to say, where they can draw on their own experiences (including those in a moving image form). Children whose primary experiences of narrative are moving images face particular challenges when their experiences are not given opportunities for expression in the classroom, and this has urgent implications for the teaching of literacy.

Read more less

This book brings together new and leading scholars, who demonstrate the importance of research with children and from a child perspective, allowing for a fuller understanding of the meaning and impact of health and illness in children’s lives. Demonstrates the importance of research with children and research from a child perspective, in order to fully understand the meaning and impact of health and illness in children’s livesEncourages critical reflection on contemporary health policy and its relationships to culturally specific ways of knowing and understanding children’s healthBrings together new and leading scholars in the field of children’s health and illnessMoves the highly important issue of children’s health into the mainstream sociology of health and illness

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This collection of essays by Jewish, Christian, and Muslim scholars underscores the significance of sustained and serious ethical, inter-religious, and interdisciplinary reflection on children. Essays in the first half of the volume discuss fundamental beliefs and practices within the religious traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam regarding children, adult obligations to them, and a child's own obligations to others. The second half of the volume focuses on selected contemporary challenges regarding children and faithful responses to them. Marcia J. Bunge brings together scholars from various disciplines and diverse strands within these three religious traditions, representing several views on essential questions about the nature and status of children and adult-child relationships and responsibilities. The volume not only contributes to intellectual inquiry regarding children in the specific areas of ethics, religious studies, children's rights, and childhood studies, but also provides resources for child advocates, religious leaders, educators, and those engaged in inter-religious dialogue.

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