Graduate Diploma of Children's Literature
2025 Deakin University Handbook
| Year | 2025 course information |
|---|---|
| Award granted | Graduate Diploma of Children's Literature |
| Deakin course code | A641 |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts and Education |
| Online | Yes |
| Duration | 1 years full-time or part-time equivalent. |
| Course Map - enrolment planning tool | This course map is for new students commencing from Trimester 1 2025. Course maps for commencement in previous years are available on the Course Maps webpage or please contact a Student Adviser in Student Central. |
| Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) recognition | The award conferred upon completion is recognised in the Australian Qualifications Framework at Level 8 |
Course sub-headings
- Course overview
- Career opportunities
- Participation requirements
- Mandatory student checks
- Course Learning Outcomes
- Course rules
- Course structure
- Work experience
- Other learning experiences
- Fees and charges
Course overview
Gain a deeper understanding of the stories we choose to tell future generations, and why and how we tell them. Study our Graduate Diploma of Children’s Literature to explore key literary genres, while analysing storytelling methods and formats and developing critical thinking skills. Deakin is the only university in Australia to offer a graduate diploma in this field.
Interested in developing a unique understanding of one of the world’s most important literary genres?
Begin your course by exploring the fundamentals of narrative theory and how they apply to children’s literature. Then choose a specialisation from six options, such as graphic narratives, where you will focus your knowledge and creative practice.
You’ll also benefit from the chance to master complementary abilities, such as the ability to pitch or market a book, in electives selected from the Master of Arts (Writing and Literature), Master of Creative Arts, or Master of Communication.
This course draws a wide range of students from a wide range of backgrounds, from English teachers looking to understand their curriculum better to working writers looking to better explore their genre of choice. The intersection of new voices, ideas, and experience offered in your course will in turn help you discover your views as a reader, strengthen your voice as a writer, and help you broaden your understanding of what children’s literature can do and be. We encourage you to seize every opportunity to collaborate with your classmates and debate new and old ideas with them.
To further your ability to create and critique texts, we also offer publication opportunities and editorial experience in our student-run journal Verandah, where you will get the chance to share your work or gain practical experience in shaping texts for publication. Many students additionally take advantage of our strong partnerships to secure industry internships, while other writing and literature alumni have gone on to win such awards as the Queensland Premier’s Literary Award and the Melbourne Prize for Literature.
Importantly, this course will provide you with more than expertise in one genre. The projects you will work on will train equip you with transferable skills such as critical analysis, communication, problem solving and research – incredibly valuable in every field of work.
Career opportunities
Graduates understand the importance of children’s writing in how we understand children and childhood. They expand their knowledge of a wide variety of text types for children and young adults to develop their understanding of how language and narrative shape the way we understand the world, and how literature can simultaneously reflect and provide insights into aspects of culture, place, and history. Studying children’s literature develops high-level writing skills, critical analysis, and the capacity to undertake independent and collaborative research. Writing and literature graduates have gone on to win awards like the Queensland Premier’s Literary Award Melbourne Prize for Literature for their published works.
For more information go to DeakinTALENT.
Participation requirements
Reasonable adjustments to participation and other course requirements will be made for students with a disability. More information available at Disability support services.
Mandatory student checks
Any unit which contains work integrated learning, a community placement or interaction with the community may require a police check, Working with Children Check or other check.
Course Learning Outcomes
| Deakin Graduate Learning Outcomes | Course Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|
| Discipline-specific knowledge and capabilities | Articulate specialist knowledge of a range of literary theories, concepts, and approaches, and apply them to works of literature for children and young adults. |
| Communication | Communicate through writing that employs advanced command of the critical and theoretical vocabularies and language required to interpret, argue and fluently and persuasively transmit ideas about writing and literature for children and young adults. |
| Digital literacy | Employ a range of technologies and make evaluative judgments in the use of research databases, bibliographic and digital communication technologies to research, produce and present scholarly work in writing and literature for children and young adults. |
| Critical thinking | Utilise theory and research to critically analyse and evaluate the influence of narrative strategies, genre conventions and cultural assumptions and apply to the examination of literature for children and young adults. |
| Problem solving | Apply theoretical, historical and contemporary critical and analytical approaches to the sophisticated design and execution of solutions to a range of scholarly, aesthetic and ideological problems that emerge from the analysis of literature for children and young adults. |
| Self-management | Act with autonomy and initiative while being accountable for working effectively, efficiently and to a high standard in order to achieve goals in writing and literature. |
| Teamwork | Actively contribute to peer feedback activities and make constructive, respectful and informed contributions to creative and critical collaboration in writing and literature. |
| Global citizenship | Identify, select, and critically analyse culturally relevant literary theories, concepts, and approaches to interpreting works of literature for children and young adults. |
Approved at Faculty Board September 2021
Course rules
To complete the Graduate Diploma of Children's Literature students must pass 8 credit points and meet the following course rules to be eligible to graduate:
- DAI001 Academic Integrity and Respect at Deakin (0-credit-point compulsory unit) in their first study period
- 1 credit point core unit
- 4 credit points of course electives
- 3 credit points of electives chosen from units within the specialisations of the Master of Communication or Master of Arts (Writing and Literature) or the core or electives of the Master of Creative Arts including ACC700 Communication and Creative Arts Internship
Students are required to meet the University's academic progress and conduct requirements. See the enrolment codes and terminology to help make sense of the University’s vocabulary.
Course structure
Core unit
| ALL743 | Foundations in Narrative Theory |
Course Electives List A
Complete four 1-credit point units chosen from the following course electives list A below:
| ALL706 | Fantasy and Historical Fictions |
| ALL708 | Graphic Narratives |
| ALL721 | Writing for Children |
| ALL722 | Texts for Young Adults |
| ALL784 | Life Writing Now |
Students may choose to include the 5th unit listed above as one of the 3 electives
Elective units
3 credit points of electives chosen from units within the specialisations of the Master of Arts (Writing and Literature) or the Master of Communication or the core or electives of the Master of Creative Arts including ACC700 Communication and Creative Arts Internship.
Work experience
Elective units may provide the opportunity for Work Integrated Learning experiences.
Course duration
Course duration may be affected by delays in completing course requirements, such as failing of units or accessing or completing placements.
Further information
Student Central can help you with course planning, choosing the right units and explaining course rules and requirements.
- Contact Student Central
Other learning experiences
There will be opportunities throughout the course for students to engage with industry professionals. These experiences will be integrated into units where students will have external clients or industry representatives provide content to more closely connect the learning experience with industry practices.
Fees and charges
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 or 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.