The childhood and society special interest group and network (SIGN) aims to promote the debate on all aspects of educational practices and theories, embracing academic research in relation to education and welfare of children across a broad spectrum of topics, including theories of childhood; children's everyday lives at home, school and in the community; children's culture, rights and participation; children's health and well-being; child protection, early intervention and prevention.
A qualifying aspect of the childhood and society SIGN is an interest on critical research, in order to keep educational theories, methods and practices in line with the challenges that globally-connected societies pose to them. Topics of interest in this regard include the reproduction of education, culture and society within a genealogical approach to the relationship between power and knowledge, the evaluation of curricula vis-รก-vis citizenship education in light of global(ised) trends and practices, the relationship between 'diasporicity' and ethnography of educational in school and non-school settings and the role of cultural organisations in developing more dynamic, inclusive approaches to citizenship education.
The childhood and society SIGN aims to develop key links between the study of education, childhood and social theory, exposing its historical, political and cultural dimensions, inviting valuable new insights into the study of childhood, in light of its centrality in sociological theory and contemporary debates concerning the state, welfare and morality.
The SIGN pro-actively sustains practitioners' and academics engagement in research, supporting innovative ways of providing children and young people with the means to think about, interact with and question ideas of self/identity/citizenship critically, creatively and independently.
For more information, including workshop times and dates, please contact Jayne Osgood.
