Welcome to Introduction to Childhood Studies

Greetings, I’m Dr. Susan Eliason.  I teach Early Childhood Education courses full-time at Bridgewater State University (BSU).   I enjoy teaching Introduction to Childhood Studies.  The other courses I regularly teach are Language Development and Early Literacy, Infant and Toddler Education and Care, Documenting Competencies and Program Quality in Early Childhood Education and Childcare Administration as well as supervising students in their Early Education and Care field placements.   Teaching is my passion!  I look forward to our learning adventure.

Purpose and structure of course: This book supports your learning in Blackboard (a learning management system) where we interact and explore. The book supports a speaking-intensive course that introduces you to key concepts in the study of childhood from multidisciplinary perspectives.  Your reading and listening will allow you to examine the historical and socio-cultural constructions of “the child” and childhood, exploring topics such as child development, cultural notions of adolescence, children as social agents, children’s rights, and challenges facing children in both local and global contexts.  To challenge you to apply the new information, the book outlines a project where you use an interdisciplinary framework to analyze a question about children’s well-being and potential.  The book will also highlights the relevance of Childhood Studies to areas of professional practice, including teaching, social services, healthcare, law, public policy, and advocacy.