Contemporary Childhood
- Sean MacBlain
- Jill Dunn - Stranmillis University College
- Ian Luke - University of St. Mark and St. John, UK
This brand new textbook brings you up to date with all the latest developments and keys issues from around the globe, and helps you understand how these changes are impacting on practice in early years and primary classrooms.
Key issues in contemporary childhood are explored through three sections on The Child, The Family, and Emerging Trends, with topics including:
- the ‘Digital Child’ and the rise of new technologies
- children’s security and the impact of poverty, austerity and conflict
- children’s happiness, mental-health and wellbeing
- the changing nature of families including LGBT homes, refugees, and asylum seekers
- the challenges of multi-agency working
The pace of change in early childhood can be daunting, but this book helps students and practitioners understand the huge variety of issues affecting children in the UK and all over the world.
Sean MacBlain will be discussing key ideas from Contemporary Childhood in the SAGE Early Years Masterclass, a free professional development experience hosted by Kathy Brodie.
Supplements
This important book attempts to place the developing child within the many worlds they exist, to give us a better understanding of both the most obvious influences on them, and also the more subtle. Never shying away from the controversial issues, this book is not about an ideal child development story, it is about how modern children are growing up in a world that is often very alien to the one practitioners grew up in, culminating in the final chapter that explores contemporary issues in our global society, such as poverty, obesity, sexualisation, mental health, media, materialism and more.
This is an excellent book and provides exactly the perspective that our module on contemporary issues is taking. This thought-provoking read provides essential reading for students on Undergraduate and Postgrad programmes, in terms of what it means to grow up in different contexts both nationally and internationally. Showing childhood as a construct of societal influences and factors, and providing some good critique in terms of the impact this has on children and their experience during this stage of life.
Lovely clear accessible text for all students of Childhood.
This book presents clear and accessible discussion around a range of features and theories regarding childhood. It has a useful focus on the UK, with relevant international and global issues. It is encouraging to see resources highlighting the different experiences of children with regard to refugee status, adpotion and LGBT families. The sources referred to in the chapters are useful sources for students, and support greater independence in resource selection.
Encourages critical consideration of key issues and changing discourses relating to childhood. Essential for keeping graduates ahead in their field.
A most valuable and comprehensive coverage of contemporary childhood that also presents as a very accessible read. I will be recommending this book to students across a number of modules within the Child and Family Studies Programme
The text in this book form a great description of modern childhood and its influence on children and how they might see things differently to adults and some of the stressful situations that might entail. The topics make great reading for debate and problem based learning
This is a wide-ranging text which offers a number of different perspectives on current issues in early childhood education and care. The chapters on international perspectives and contemporary issues in a global society were particularly relevant to some of our modules. The broad remit means that the text is a useful and thought-provoking starting-point, but would need to be followed up by more in-depth reading.
