Centre for Open Education
MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY
NSW 2109 AUSTRALIA
ASSIGNMENT COVER SHEET
(For Open Universities Australia students)
Office Use Only
**
Unit Code
SGY290
Unit Name
“Generations: Childhood, Adulthood, Old Age’’
COE USE ONLY
Date Received
Assignment No.
3
Assignment Title
Research Essay
Due Date
10/12/2012
Contact Info
Phone: 0447 141 912
Email:lesleyrielly@hotmail.com
Word Count
(If Applicable)
1,500
Turnitin No.
(If Applicable)
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In contemporary research on childhood, children are no longer treated as passive objects of investigation; increasingly their voices and their views are being taken into account. Find two such pieces of research. Summarize them briefly and then state (a) why you found the research interesting and (b) what you have learned about children’s lives in contemporary Australia.
In contemporary Australia it seems that childhood and children are no longer considered or treated as passive objects of investigations as they once were and they are even said to be less dependent upon adults. It has been pointed out that they are in fact competent, social people that attempt to make sense and contribute to their own life and the environment in which they live. But is this the case?
Researchers have revealed that it is vital for children throughout childhood and into adulthood to be allowed to contribute to and have a say in what occurs in their lives. The information and the contemporary research that was examined on childhood for the purpose of this essay is summarized and then what was found to be interesting about the research is explained, as well as, what knowledge was acquired in regards to the lives of children in contemporary Australia.
Overtime, many changes have occurred and new directions have been taken when it comes to the study and research of childhood (Prout & James 2002). For a long time throughout history and until fairly recently in fact, childhood was never considered a primary focus of any academic research (Prout & James 2002). This is noted as far back as medieval times where the idea of childhood, according to Aries (cited in Prout & James 2002, p.16), was simply non-existent. The seventeenth century seen changes and a general shift in attitudes towards
