ALL154 - Critical Issues in Children's Literature
Unit details
| Year | 2025 unit information |
|---|---|
| Enrolment modes: | Trimester 2: Burwood (Melbourne), Waurn Ponds (Geelong), Online, Community Based Delivery (CBD)* |
| Credit point(s): | 1 |
| EFTSL value: | 0.125 |
| Unit Chair: | Trimester 2: Paul Venzo |
| Prerequisite: | Nil |
| Corequisite: | Nil |
| Incompatible with: | ALL254 |
| Educator-facilitated (scheduled) learning activities - on-campus unit enrolment: | 1 x 1-hour online lecture per week 1 x 2-hour on-campus seminar per week |
| Educator-facilitated (scheduled) learning activities - online unit enrolment: | 1 x 1-hour online lecture per week 1 x 2-hour online seminar per week or approximately 2-hours of online learning tasks and discussions per week |
| Typical study commitment: | Students will on average spend 150-hours over the teaching period undertaking the teaching, learning and assessment activities for this unit. This will include educator guided online learning activities within the unit site. |
Note:*Community Based Delivery (CBD): only for students of the National Indigenous Knowledges, Education, Research and Innovation NIKERI Institute (located at the Waurn Ponds campus) | |
Content
Children's literature positions young readers to identify with characters who want certain things and who behave in specific ways that lead them to success. Never innocent of politics, narratives presented to children tell them about the world and their place within broader cultural institutions. This unit looks at the role children's texts play in inducting children into value systems to do with war and conflict, environmentalism, censorship, consumerism and more. Students will learn to interrogate the ideologies at play in picture books, novels and short stories for young people, and will analyse the extent to which children's texts express or contest the critical issues of our time.
Learning Outcomes
| ULO | These are the Unit Learning Outcomes (ULOs) for this unit. At the completion of this unit, successful students can: | Alignment to Deakin Graduate Learning Outcomes (GLOs) |
|---|---|---|
| ULO1 | Demonstrate an understanding of the concepts of ideology, politics, knowledge and power, narrative, visual and screen theory and genre, and the broader research relating to the study of children's texts | GLO1: Discipline-specific knowledge and capabilities |
| ULO2 | Construct clear, logically structured, cogent, relevant, and grammatically correct written work that employs discipline-specific language and which observes the academic conventions of accurate citation and referencing of secondary sources | GLO2: Communication |
| ULO3 | Perform textual analysis across relevant forms and genres, drawing evidence from the set texts and using secondary source material to support interpretation | GLO4: Critical thinking |
| ULO4 | Work independently and take personal responsibility for meeting assessment deadlines, in compliance with Faculty rules applying to extensions, as well as working to improve outcomes through the use of feedback on prior unit assessment | GLO5: Problem solving |
| ULO5 | Think ethically about the various social, cultural and political contexts in which children's texts are produced and consumed | GLO8: Global citizenship |
| ULO6 | Discuss and debate critical responses to politics and ideology in children’s literature with teachers and student peers and use this dialogue to inform individual written assessment | GLO7: Teamwork |
Assessment
| Assessment Description | Student output | Grading and weighting (% total mark for unit) | Indicative due week |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assessment 1: Quiz | 1200 words or equivalent | 30% | Week 5 |
| Assessment 2: Class exercises | 1200 words or equivalent | 30% | Week 8 |
| Assessment 3: Essay | 1600 words or equivalent | 40% | Week 11 |
The assessment due weeks provided may change. The Unit Chair will clarify the exact assessment requirements, including the due date, at the start of the teaching period.
Learning resource
The texts and reading list for ALL154 can be found via the University Library.
Note: Select the relevant trimester reading list. Please note that a future teaching period's reading list may not be available until a month prior to the start of that teaching period so you may wish to use the relevant trimester's prior year reading list as a guide only.
Unit Fee Information
Fees and charges vary depending on the type of fee place you hold, your course, your commencement year, the units you choose to study and their study discipline, and your study load.
Tuition fees increase at the beginning of each calendar year and all fees quoted are in Australian dollars ($AUD). Tuition fees do not include textbooks, computer equipment or software, other equipment or costs such as mandatory checks, travel and stationery.
For further information regarding tuition fees, other fees and charges, invoice due dates, withdrawal dates, payment methods visit our Current Students website.