Course content

This course will provide students with knowledge about and experience with how practitioners work to ensure children’s rights. Students will have an internship in an organisation or institution that directly or indirectly works with children’s rights, either in Norway or abroad (e.g. NGOs, public services, kindergartens, schools). Through the internship, students gain practical experience with rights-based work with children and strengthen their ability to assess and critically analyze how children's rights are and can be realised in various contexts.

The course will strengthen students’ abilities to make connections between academic knowledge in childhood studies and children’s rights and its potential for practical application. It will increase students’ awareness and ability to articulate the relevance of their own competence, thus contributing to professional development and skills to pursue relevant work. The course is tightly connected with other courses in the master’s programme in Childhood Studies at NTNU, in particular BARN3102 Children’s Rights. The course is only open to master’s students in MPCHILD who have completed or are enrolled in BARN3102.

To gain admittance to the course, students must secure an internship with a relevant organisation or institution by 15. January/15. August. The internship must be approved by the course coordinator. Students must apply for a police certificate if the internship involves working directly with children or youth.

Learning outcome

Knowledge

The student has:

• in-depth knowledge about and experience with how an organisation/institution works directly or indirectly with child rights issues.

Skills

The student can:

• assess and reflect on whether/how children’s rights are realised in an organisation/institution.
• critically analyse and reflect on real-life challenges and opportunities for ensuring children’s rights
• make connections between practical work with/about children and perspectives acquired in other courses in the Childhood Studies master’s program.
• work independently and collaboratively with child rights issues in an ethically sound and contextually sensitive manner.

General competence

The student can:

• apply research-based knowledge in practice
• identify and address ethical challenges in practical work
• participate in practical work and implementation of children’s rights
• independently analyse and report on practical work addressing children’s rights

Learning methods and activities

Practice studies (approx. 100 hours), three seminars and submission of two small assignments. Three seminars will be held before, during and after practice placement. Students must submit two small assignments, which will be adapted to students’ practice placement and serve as preparation for the final practice report. At the end of the semester, after the practice placement is completed, students must submit a practice report that relates to perspectives acquired in other courses in the Childhood Studies master’s programme.

Compulsory assignments

• Internship (minimum 80% attendance)
• Attendance in three seminars
• Two assignments

Specific conditions

Required previous knowledge

Students must be enrolled in the master’s programme in Childhood Studies at NTNU and must have approved obligatory activities in BARN3102 before submitting the report in BARN3501.

Course materials

Information will be given at the beginning of the semester.