Class sections will be divided between lectures and seminar discussions. The seminar discussion sessions will serve as a forum for the analysis and discussion of scholarly literature and as a testing ground for student hypotheses. The instructor will encourage students to elaborate, refine and revise ideas. Discussion sessions will also include tutorials in conducting historical research, the exploration of primary source documents, and practice in oral presentations. Participation in both lectures and seminar discussions is required for the successful completion of the course.
A sample course outline would include the following topics.
Note: Content may vary according to the instructor’s selection of topics.
- Introduction – Encountering the Histories of Childhood
- Children and Families in Pre-Industrial Societies
- Innocents and Savages: Children in the Age of Enlightenment
- The Age of the Nursery: Middle Class Families, Middle-Class Childhood
- Labouring Children, Working Families and Apprenticeships
- “Street Arabs” and Orphans: Children without Families
- Imperialism, Colonialism and the Cultures of Childhood
- Children and the City: The Age of Reform
- Flappers and Flaming Youth: The “Girl Problem” and The “Boy Problem”
- Suburbs and the Postwar Reconstruction of the Family
- Advising Parents: Experts and the Care of Children
- Never Trust Anyone Over Thirty: The Postwar World and Challenges to Authority
- The Cute and the Cool: Children’s Popular Culture in North America
- Children and Families in a Global World
At the conclusion of the course the successful student will be able to:
- Examine historical sources critically and analytically (reading history). These sources include not only survey texts and scholarly articles, but also short monographs and extended primary sources.
- Create and communicate personal interpretations of historical problems (writing history). Forms for communication of personal interpretations include medium-length essays (from 1500-3000 words), comparative book reviews, short interpretive essays, primary source studies, and final examinations.
- Analyze the ideas of other students and the instructor in both tutorials and seminars both independently and in cooperation with other students (discussing history).
Assessment will be in accord with the Douglas College student evaluation policy. Specific components of evaluation will include some of the following: mid-term and final exams consisting of short answer questions and essay questions; in-class written work, quizzes, research paper; seminar presentations; short debate/position papers; participation in class discussions.
Specific evaluation criteria will be provided by the instructor at the beginning of the semester and will vary according to the instructor’s assessment of appropriate evaluation methods.
An example of one evaluation scheme:
Any combination of the following totalling 100%
|
Primary document analyses |
15% |
|
Historiographic paper |
15% |
|
Seminar presentation x2 (10% each) |
20% |
|
Attendance, participation, in-class work |
15% |
|
Research proposal and annotated bibliography |
15% |
|
Final summative assignment and presentation |
20% |
Texts will be chosen from the following list, to be updated periodically:
An instructor’s Course Reader may be required.
- Chambers, Lori, and Edgar-Andre Montigny, eds. Family Matters: Papers in Post-Confederation Canadian Family History. Toronto:; Canadian Scholar's Press, 1998.
- Christie, Nancy, and Michael Gauvreau. Mapping the Margins: The Family and Social Discipline in Canada, 1700-1975. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2004.
- Comacchio, Cynthia R. The Infinite Bonds of Family: Domesticity in Canada, 1850-1940. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999.
- Cunningham, Hugh. Children and Childhood in Western Society Since 1500. 2nd ed. New York: Longman, 2005.
- Heywood, Colin. A History of Childhood. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2001.
- Illick, Joseph E. American Childhoods. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002.
- Jabour, Anya, ed. Major Problems in the History of American Families and Children. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2005.
- Janovicek, Nancy, and Joy Parr, eds. Histories of Canadian Children and Youth. Don Mills: Oxford University Press Canada, 2003.
- Jenkins, Henry, ed. The Children’s Culture Reader. New York: New York University Press, 1998.
- Mintz, Steven. Huck’s Raft: A History of American Childhood. New York: Belknap Press, 2004.
- Sterns, Peter N. Childhood in World History. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 2010.
- Sutherland, Neil. Children in English-Canadian Society: Framing the Twentieth-Century Consensus. New ed. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2012.
One 1000-Level History Course or the permission of the instructor