| CODE | RSE5013 | ||||||
| TITLE | Contexts of Childhood, the Family, the School and the Community | ||||||
| UM LEVEL | 05 - Postgraduate Modular Diploma or Degree Course | ||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 7 | ||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 5 | ||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Centre for Resilience and Socio-Emotional Health | ||||||
| DESCRIPTION | Taking a systems/ecological theory framework, this study unit will focus on understanding the wellbeing of children in the context of their immediate environment such as their families, the school and the larger community, including wider contexts such as the socio-historical and socio-economic contexts. It will be informed by research that privileges children’s voices, and research taking a strength- based approach and how optimal contexts in families, schools and the community may be created to promote children's wellbeing. It will also consider risk and vulnerability in children together with protective factors that exist in the different systems that children interact with, over the life course. Study-Unit Aims: This study-unit aims to engage students into looking at children’s wellbeing and the influence of the context in the promotion of wellbeing. The study unit aims at helping students identify evidence-based practices and policies conducive to creating contexts (home, school, community) that support the wellbeing of children. The study-unit is also sensitive to adverse risks in the different contexts that the children interact with such as violence, substance abuse, poverty, mental illness and social exclusion. It also aims to focus on how resilience can be fostered in children by identifying key protective factors for the social and emotional wellbeing of children, as reported by the children themselves but also by parents, and their teachers. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Critically engage with the concept of children’s development not only as a psychological issue but as one that is affected and is the result of a complex interplay of factors at the different levels of the systems that the child is part of; - Discuss the benefits of working with families in the service of promoting the wellbeing of children; - Describe how collaboration between the family, the school and the wider community contribute to the child’s overall wellbeing; - Recognise and understand in depth the relationship between adverse childhood experiences, family functioning and mental health problems and wellbeing among children; - Identify key factors in the different childhood contexts that support the emotional and social wellbeing of children. 2. Skills By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Reflect and recognise the need to support families, schools and other systems and the involvement of the parents/ caregivers/teachers and other significant adults in the different systems that the child forms part of; - Challenge simplistic and reductionist views of child development; - Evaluate how different policy practices prioritise children’s voices and children’s wellbeing in the different contexts that they interact with and are part of. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Main texts: - Cefai, C., & Camilleri, L. (2011). Building Resilience in School Children. Risk and Promotive Factors amongst Maltese Primary School Pupils. European Centre for Educational Resilience and Socio-Emotional Health: University of Malta. - Vetere, A., & Dowling, E. (2017). Narrative therapies with children and their families. A practitioner’s guide to concepts and approaches. (2nd ed). London: Routledge. - Abela, A., & Grech Lanfranco, I. (2016) Positive parenting. National Strategic Policy 2016 – 2024. Retrieved from https://family.gov.mt/en/Documents/National%20Parenting%20Policy%20English%208.02.17.pdf Supplementary texts: - Abela,A & Renoux (2014) Families Living on the Margin in Affluent Societies in A. Abela & J. Walker Contemporary Issues in Family Studies.:Global perspectives on partnerships, parenting and support in a changing world. Wiley Blackwell. - Abela, A., Abdilla, N., Abela, C., Camilleri, J., Mercieca, D. & Mercieca, G. 2012, Children in out-of-home care in Malta: Key findings from a series of three studies commissioned by the Office of the Commissioner for Children, Office of the Commissioner for Children, Malta. - Ben-Tov, S., & Romi, S. (2018). An Interactive model of parents’ involvement and their children’s functioning in school, Education 3-13. doi:10.1080/03004279.2018.1428650. - Cefai, C., & Askell-Williams, H. (2017). School Staff Perspectives on Mental Health Promotion and Wellbeing in School. In C. Cefai & P. Cooper (Eds). Mental Health Promotion in Schools: Cross- Cultural Narrative and Perspectives (pp. 99-120). Rotterdam/Boston/Taipei: Sense Publishers. - Cefai, C., & Cavioni, V. (2016). Parents as active partners in social and emotional learning at school. In B. Kirkcaldy (Ed). Psychotherapy in parenthood and beyond. Personal enrichment in our lives. Turin, Italy: Edizioni Minerva Medical. - Cefai, C., & Galea, N. (2020) International Survey of Children’s Subjective wellbeing. L- Universita ta’ Malta: Centre for Resilience & Socio- Emotional Health. - Gorell Barnes, G. (2017) Staying attached: Fathers and children in troubled times. London: Karnac. - Poppe, K. D. (2020). The Family-School Connection: Perspectives of young children who attend the Learning Support Centre, and their families’. Unpublished Master dissertation. University of Malta. - Scully, C., McLaughlin, J., & Fitzgerald, A. (2020). The relationship between adverse childhood experiences, family functioning, and mental health problems among children and adolescents: a systematic review. Journal of Family therapy, 42, 291- 316 doi: 10.1111/1467-6472.12263. - UNICEF Innocenti, ‘Worlds of Influence: Understanding what shapes child well-being in rich countries’, Innocenti Report Card 16, UNICEF office of Research – Innocenti, Florence, 2020. |
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| ADDITIONAL NOTES | Pre-Requisite qualifications: First degree in a related area (education, psychology, social work, youth studies, criminology, sociology, anthropology, communication, health sciences, law, and medicine). | ||||||
| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture | ||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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| LECTURER/S | Angela Abela (Co-ord.) Paul A. Bartolo Carmel P. Borg Ingrid Grech Lanfranco |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2023/4. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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