SP9260 Children in the Welfare State: Understandings and Research Approaches Course description

This course addresses children's position in a welfare state context, children's everyday life within Childhood institutions like Kindergarten and School, in families and in encounters with welfare services, state professional's and researchers. The course has particular emphasis on academic traditions that contribute to contextualized analyses of the everyday life, upbringing and development; sociocultural theory, intersectional theory and interdisciplinary childhood studies. The rights of children and young people, with particular emphasis on their right to participation, is a topic in the course. Methodological approaches to investigating connections between children's different everyday arenas with their varied relationships, activities and internal connections, are presented. Modes of knowledge compricing children's understanding of themselves and their situation are central in the course. The reading list for the course includes classic and recent texts from Scandinavian and international childhood research.

After completing the course, the candidates are expected to have the following knowledge, skills and general competence:

Knowledge

Candidates have

• thorough knowledge of selected important childhood research traditions and their theoretical and methodological aspects
• balanced knowledge about the rights of children and young people and participation processes in some of the welfare state's professional fields

Skills

Candidates have

• analytic knowledge about differences between children related to gender, social class, ethnicity, age and physical ability/disability, including how differences are created and interact, and how they are assigned general cultural meaning as well as specialised meanings in relation to how professionals understand and with children
• a scholarly and systematic basis for designing and conducting studies about and involving children (aged 0-18) who are directly or indirectly influenced by the welfare state system

General competence

Candidates are capable of

• assessing and identifying new research questions in the field
• taking part in debates in national and international forums

After completing the course, the student is expected to have achieved the following learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills and general competence:

Knowledge

The student:

• is familiar with geographic information, models and analysis methods used in road design
• has basic knowledge of road alignment and geometric design
• is familiar with the impacts of road development
• is familiar with basic traffic engineering

Skills

The student is capable of:

• applying geographic information and planning simple road projects using computer tools
• using the handbook 017 to calculate the road alignment
• using a total station, GNSS equipment and common methods of calculation for surveying and setting out markers in connection with road projects

General competence

The student:

• is capable of choosing the right analysis methods in connection with road design
• understands data flows between different levels in the planning process
• is capable of designing a road and positioning it correctly in the terrain
• can consider the winding down and capacity of the road network.
• is capable of organising, planning and carrying out interdisciplinary studies, analyses and reports based on scientific principles, including using reference handling systems (EndNote, RefMan or similar)

Lectures, project work in groups, laboratory courses in NovaPoint and fieldwork.

The following coursework is compulsory and must be approved before the student can sit the exam:

• 4 of 6 assignments (3 hours each) - individually
• Submission assignment in traffic counts - completed as a group, but delivered individually
• The NovaPoint laboratory course must be approved (20 hours)
• Fieldwork in surveying (16 hours)
• The project assignment must be approved (max. 6,000 words) - group assignment

All examination support material is allowed as long as source reference and quotation technique requirements are applied.

Passed - Failed

Aids enclosed with the exam question paper, printed and written aids and a handheld calculator that cannot be used for wireless communication or to perform symbolic calculations. If the calculator’s internal memory can store data, the memory must be deleted before the exam. Random checks may be carried out.

Grade scale A-F.