Children's Understanding of Violence and Culture

SW843, Section 001

This course examines children's and adolescent's understanding of violence within the contexts of peer groups, families, schools, communities, regions, and globally. Traditionally, violence in these diverse contexts have been studied in separate literatures. Researchers and practitioners have rarely explored how children make sense of violence at different levels. From an ecological developmental perspective, children may develop different views about a multiplicity of different kinds of violence. In this course we will explore the theoretical, empirical and practice-based literatures pertaining to different forms of violence as they relate to children's emerging cognition's. We will explore how violence affects students' physical well being, academic functioning, social relations, and emotional and cognitive development. The theoretical assumptions of the various interventions designed to help students cope with violence or avoid violent situations will be discussed as well as their applicability to the concepts of promotion, prevention, treatment, and social rehabilitation. Special emphasis will be given to the impact of violence on oppressed groups and how social contextual variables (such as poverty or urban settings) influence children's understandings of violent behavior and victimization. The course will explore data from an international and cross cultural perspective.