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

One internal and one external.

• Innovation theories and related analytical approaches to innovation.
• Diffusion of innovations and various diffusion dynamics.
• Product development processes, management and organization.
• Alternative approaches and strategies in product development.
• How to anticipate and predict technology trends and future market demand.
• Innovation and commercialisation.
• Funding innovations and company start-ups, and intellectual property rights.

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

Teaching is organised as a combination of lectures, group work and presentations of the participants' own projects. 

Participation is mandatory, and candidates are expected to attend all days of teaching. A minor absence  may only be accepted under certain circumstances and upon application. In the event of absences that are not approved, candidates will lose their right to have their essays assessed.   

An essay of 8-10 pages must be written in connection with the course. The essay shall take the candidate's project as its point of departure and be related to the course content. The essay must be handed in for assessment by the teacher responsible for the course no later than two months after the end of the course. A passed essay is a precondition for being awarded the 5 ECTS credits. If the essay is awarded a fail grade, the candidate can submit a revised essay once, by a specified deadline.

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

Passed - Failed

The essay will be graded by the course lectures.

Oddbjørg Skjær Ulvik