Courses
Why study children’s literature?
Courses in children’s literature can be a valuable part of many different programs of study. Teachers and students of education will learn much about literature that can provide a basis for classroom practices and activities. Students of literature and culture will be interested in learning about the constraints and characteristics of writing designed specifically for an audience of children.
For students of history, studying children’s literature offers useful insights into particular ideas about children – and their implications for the present. Considering the ideological content of children’s literature provides another perspective for students of developmental psychology and sociology on knowledge about childhood. Students of the visual arts might be specifically interested in courses involving picture books.
About Studying Children’s Literature at the University of Winnipeg
The University of Winnipeg’s Department of English has been offering undergraduate courses in young people’s texts and cultures for over 30 years, attracting many teachers in training and other interested students from the fields of English studies, History, and Developmental Studies, among others. The English Department includes a number of instructors who include interests in various aspects of young people’s texts and cultures among their specializations.
Close to 20% of upper-level courses offered by the department focus on young people’s texts and cultures in some form. Thus, while there is no specialist degree offered in the field at this point—rather one must take courses in the field as part of a more general English degree—the value placed on studying young people’s texts and cultures is at the centre of the culture and concerns of the University of Winnipeg’s Department of English.