The Agentic Child (11999.1)

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child states that children have a right to be active participants in all matters affecting their lives. Children's agency is an underlying principle in both the Early Years Learning Framework and National Quality Standard. In this unit, students will explore children's rights and how they are being enacted in Australia. Students will learn how to promote children's agency in early childhood education and care settings and children's home environments. The unit is based on Malaguzzi's image of children being "rich in potential, strong, powerful, competent and most of all connected to adults and other children" (1993, p. 10) who that deserve "full rights of citizenship in life and society" (1994, p. 56).

Learning outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:
1. Explain the UN Conventions of the Rights of the Child and how they are enacted in Australia;
2. Critically reflect on various images of the child and how these image act as barriers or enablers of children's rights and agency; and
3. Communicate, justify and practice strategies that promote children's agency in both early childhood education and care settings and home environments.

Graduate attributes

1. UC graduates are professional - communicate effectively
1. UC graduates are professional - use creativity, critical thinking, analysis and research skills to solve theoretical and real-world problems
2. UC graduates are global citizens - make creative use of technology in their learning and professional lives
3. UC graduates are lifelong learners - adapt to complexity, ambiguity and change by being flexible and keen to engage with new ideas
3. UC graduates are lifelong learners - be self-aware
4. UC graduates are able to demonstrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of knowing, being and doing - apply their knowledge to working with Indigenous Australians in socially just ways

Prerequisites

Students must have passed 24 credit points.

Corequisites

None.

Incompatible units

None.

Equivalent units

None.

Assumed knowledge

None.