Childhood Youth and Family Studies MA

University of Bedfordshire

This course is aimed at those interested in working with children and families, equipping you with the skills and knowledge to pursue or develop your career across a range of work settings. It runs alongside our MA Childhood Youth and Family Studies: Youth Work Pathway

You explore the theory, practice, research and policy that underpins childrens, youth and family services while developing your understanding of childrens rights welfare responsibilities and how they are applied.

What will you study?

Studying our Childhood, Youth and Family Studies MA course will provide you with the knowledge and skills to pursue a career working with children, young people and families. As an important part of your work, our unit in Effective and Ethical Practice when Working with Children, Young People and Families, you will learn to build relationships and engage with children, young people and their families within social care, youth work, health, criminal justice and educational settings. Furthermore, you will be introduced to theories of working with people, methods of intervention and practical communication which you will also place in the context of tensions and challenges when it comes to working with those who do not welcome the intervention of professionals. You will also learn of techniques to handle conflict, ambivalence and reluctance while adopting an anti-oppressive and ethical practice when engaging with children, young people and their families. To develop your practice, you will be exposed to contemporary theories around childhood, youth and families while also learning to apply them to relevant scenarios in our Dimensions of Childhood, Youth and Families unit.

More importantly, you will be equipped with the tools to safeguard children and young people, manage risk, and develop as a dynamic professional to work towards the best interests of children, young people and families. In addition, this course allows you to partake in a range of optional units that will give you the opportunity to specialise in your relevant areas of interest. Our unit in Young People, Group Offending and Violent Crime will allow you to analyse research from European and North American settings alongside sociological and criminological theory to explore the nature, extent and impact of violent group offending by young people and how to respond or intervene effectively based on current policy and practice. In doing so, you will also consider the social, economic, political and cultural factors that shape violent group offending. You can also develop key skills in Coaching and Mentoring Practice and understand how this can be applied to a range of professional and private settings. Furthermore, you may also analyse the nature and contextual dynamics of abuse in adolescence in our Contextual Safeguarding: Theoretical Foundations and Practical Implications unit.

Here, you will explore contemporary research to develop your understanding of contextual safeguarding frameworks and its applications in response to extra-familial harm. Similarly, our unit called The Conceptual Framework: Theories Shaping Public Policy for Children and Young Peoples Services, will allow you to critically analyse theories and ideas that inform public policy relating to children, young people, their families and communities while also considering structural inequality and disadvantage.

Careers

This course is designed to enable you to enhance your career prospects across professional boundaries by broadening and deepening your knowledge and understanding of lives of children and young people and the services available to them. Students often go on to work in areas such as youth work social welfare and education specialising either in children young people or family work. This course also helps students to progress into more senior positions further develop their practice or go on to become policy-makers.