Instructor:
Professor Andrew Nestingen
Office Hours: Wed., 2:30-4:30
Course Introduction
The child is an old figure of debate in modernity, now a victim, now a threat, sometimes the subject of uncontrollable wishes, sometimes a mirror onto which adults and society at large project their hopes and anxieties, fantasies and nightmares. The Nordic Countries have been leaders in changing the way we think about children. Sweden, for example, was a key supporter of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, passed in 1989, and one of its first to ratify the convention. Sweden has since made the convention law in Sweden.
In this SCAND 316: Child and School in Scandinavia we identify, compare, and contrast notions and histories of the child as they exist in the Nordic countries and North America and other parts of the world at different times, and also examine notions of parenting and schooling, in particular the Finnish schools.
The class will provide you familiarity with the child as an object of cultural representation, history, and theory. This familiarity will serve you as a student who wants to study, understand, and teach about representations of children, parents, or schools. Cultural-studies research on such representations is important not only because of cultural fascination with the figure of the child, but also because of the importance of such representations in debates about education reform, non-normative gender and familial forms, governmental policy and other discussions.
Key Questions
A number of questions will recur in the course, which you may want to keep in mind in doing the reading and preparing for seminar discussion. Among them are the following:
- What are the recurrent images of the child in a specific time and cultural setting?
- What are they key institutions in childhood (family, school, state) and how do they shape children?
- What are some of the distinct features of Nordic state institutions and private life on children?
- How do childhood, family, and school produce differing experiences and worldviews in the US and Nordic countries?
Course Goals
The course has four chief goals:
- Acquire and use critically the vocabulary, concepts, and arguments of selected theorists and writers to talk about “the figure of the child” in comparative perspective;
- Develop familiarity with a variety of notions of children, parents, and schools in circulation in the post-War and post-Cold War periods, with special focus on the Nordic world;
- Engage in ongoing class discussion;
- Write three papers on one of the class questions or themes, which critically relate to or elaborates on reading and discussion undertaken in the seminar.
Grades
- Participation – 10%
- Paper #1 – 15%
- Paper #2 – 15%
- Paper #3 – 30%
- Study Questions 30%
Assignments
Participation: You should come to class with the reading completed for the day, and ready to discuss them in small groups and with the class. Part of the class will be team-based learning, and you need to be an active participant and a leader in that work to earn a high grade. Peer evaluation of your teamwork will be a part of the assessment.
Papers: You will need to write two 4-page page papers and one final 8-page paper that replies to a prompt distributed by me at least 10 days before the paper is due. The paper’s bibliography should be made up of course material (sources from the syllabus). Your paper may pick up a discussion the course, or you may bring outside interests of yours into conversation with some part of the course. The last paper will be due during finals' week.
Study Questions: You will be responsible for responding to 3 study-question discussions over the course of the quarter, due before class at 12:20PM on the stated due date. The study questions will be about the readings and submitted as a text-box response on Canvas. You will be graded C/NC on your posts (C=10points; NC=5 points).
Criteria for Evaluation for writing: I will evaluate writing assignments according to the following rubric. You can use this as a checklist to guide your drafting, proofreading, and revision. It will also be helpful in guiding your in your team projects.
- Is a clear and original thesis the basis for the paper’s argument?
- Are the different paragraphs organized both internally and in relation to each other?
- Does the paper analyze/explain in detail how specific examples from the readings and/or films to support the thesis/argument of the paper?
- Does the paper use citations from the readings assigned to support and qualify the analysis, and include a bibliography?
- Is the writing clear and error free?
Assigned Texts
Texts are available at the University of Washington Bookstore.
Alexander & Sandahl, The Danish Way of Parenting: What the Happiest People in the World Know about Raising Confident, Capable Kids, 2nd Ed., 2016
Jansson, Tove, Moominpappa at Sea, Farrar, Strauss, Giroux, 1965.
Lindgren, Astrid, Pippi Longstocking, New York: Farrar, Strauss, Giroux, 1945.
McGurk, Linda, There's No Such Thing as Bad Weather: A Scandinavian Mom's Secrets for Raising Healthy, Resilient, and Confident Kids (from Friluftsliv to Hygge), New York: Touchstone, 2018
Sahlberg, Pasi and William Doyle, Let the Children Play: How More Play Will Save Our Schools and Help Children Thrive, New York: Oxford UP, 2019.
POLICIES
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The University of Washington acknowledges the Coast Salish peoples of this land, the land which touches the shared waters of all tribes and bands within the Duwamish, Puyallup, Suquamish, Tulalip and Muckleshoot nations. We seek to reflect on the lands on which we reside and acknowledge all of the ancestral homelands and traditional territories of Indigenous peoples who have been here since time immemorial and who continue to inhabit these lands.
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
The University takes academic integrity very seriously. Behaving with integrity is part of our responsibility to our shared learning community. If you’re uncertain about if something is academic misconduct, ask me or your TA. We are willing to discuss questions you might have.
Acts of academic misconduct may include but are not limited to:
- Plagiarism (representing the work of others as your own without giving appropriate credit to the original author(s))
- Unauthorized collaboration (working with each other on assignments, without stating so, for example submitting the same or highly similar work or portions of work)
Concerns about these or other behaviors prohibited by the Student Conduct Code may be referred for investigation and adjudication. Students found to have engaged in academic misconduct will receive a NC grade for the assignment in which the misconduct occurred as well as possible referral of their misconduct violation to the College of Arts and Sciences designated representative.
RELIGIOUS ACCOMMODATIONS
Washington state law requires that UW develop a policy for accommodation of student absences or significant hardship due to reasons of faith or conscience, or for organized religious activities. The UW’s policy, including more information about how to request an accommodation, is available at Religious Accommodations Policy (https://registrar.washington.edu/staffandfaculty/religious-accommodations-policy/). Accommodations must be requested within the first two weeks of this course using the Religious Accommodations Request form (https://registrar.washington.edu/students/religious-accommodations-request/).
DISABILITY RESOURCES
Your experience in this class is important to me. If you have already established accommodations with Disability Resources for Students (DRS), please communicate your approved accommodations to me at your earliest convenience so we can discuss your needs in this course.
If you have not yet established services through DRS, but have a temporary health condition or permanent disability that requires accommodations (conditions include but not limited to; mental health, attention-related, learning, vision, hearing, physical or health impacts), you are welcome to contact DRS at 206-543-8924 or uwdrs@uw.edu or disability.uw.edu. DRS offers resources and coordinates reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities and/or temporary health conditions. Reasonable accommodations are established through an interactive process between you, your instructor(s) and DRS. It is the policy and practice of the University of Washington to create inclusive and accessible learning environments consistent with federal and state law.
RESPECT
We aspire to create a classroom environment that encourages and welcomes different perspectives. How do we learn anything in the absence of robust engagement with ideas and views that differ from our own? Respect for different views and the people who express them does not necessarily mean agreement with them; at a minimum, it means that we should cultivate gratitude for the opportunity to re-examine our habits of thought. Let’s work together and show mutual respect.
MASKING and COVID prevention.
University policy strongly recommends mask use. Please familiarize yourself with UW Policy on masking and COVID-19 prevention and infection reporting and comply with it. University personnel, students and units are required to report a COVID-19 positive test result to the COVID-19 Response and Prevention Team, regardless of vaccination status. Contact EHS to report or to familiarize yourself with UW COVID-19 policies.