Children's Literature, Media & Culture (Erasmus Mundus International Master)

The International Master in Children’s Literature, Media and Culture (CLMC) is an Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters Degree programme. It is a 24 month full-time programme with three mandatory mobility periods and an optional summer school. CLMC has been designed to maximise the learning outcomes through both student and staff mobility and is innovative in the interconnectedness of the curriculum. 

Aims

The aim of the programme is to build on students’ interests and experiences related to children’s and young adult (YA) literature, media and culture in order to deepen their knowledge of the expanding intersection of the fields of literature studies, media studies, childhood studies and education within an international perspective. It will provide opportunities for students to consider how this understanding can be applied to different and (often rapidly) changing contexts of practice. CLMC will bring together scholars and practitioners who are motivated by the need to understand and improve the ways in which children interact with literature and other texts and who will provide a theoretical grounding in children’s literature that includes historical, literary, educational and media-related frameworks. The programme will also offer opportunities to students to acquire and develop practical skills for professional application, in Semester 3, through placements in libraries, archives, museums, the film industry, broadcasters, publishers and book/reading promotion organizations.
The aims of the programme are to

• Offer an integrated, international and coherent programme of study of the history, literary and media theory for children’s and YA literature as well as critical methodologies through which to evaluate and critique the corpus of the children’s and YA literature and media texts, including visual and digital formats, which form part of the culture of childhood.
• Examine the interaction between children, young adults and adults in the production and consumption of multimodal texts, promoting this interaction by combining culture and creativity and, through rigorous research, consider the challenges of integrating multiliteracy into diverse educational contexts and policies.
• Promote and develop profound cultural sensitivity, through the analysis of multicultural texts, media and artefacts (including cultural heritage) as well as through academic dialogue among the broad international cohort of students. 
• Deepen students’ critical understanding of contested concepts, theories and debates about the promotion, role and users of literary, media and digital texts in professional and community contexts, including understanding the global market of books, media and related artefacts for children.
• Broaden perspectives on how texts and media for children reflect contested constructions of childhood and how they have the potential to raise critical awareness of social and cultural issues such as discrimination or social injustice and become vehicles for social change through addressing current global themes.
• Contribute to the development of intercultural communication, cooperation skills and active citizenship within a European and global framework, including a greater awareness of the European project and EU values.

Intended learning outcomes and skills

The programme provides opportunities for students to develop and demonstrate knowledge and understanding, skills, qualities and other attributes designed to prepare them for future academic and/or professional careers. 

Knowledge and understanding

On completion of the programme, students will be able to:

• Assess critically the ideas of leading children’s literature theorists and develop an awareness of enquiry methodologies and research literacies in order to apply their thinking and undertake their own enquiries in relation to textual analysis, empirical research and professional practice in the EU and globally; 
• Analyse/evaluate current trends and developments across the range and diversity of contexts for promoting books, reading, film and literacy/media practices, as well as translation/multilingual learning in the EU and international contexts in order to contribute to planning, implementing, evaluating and forming policy around book/reading promotion and literacy projects and projects concerning children’s and young adult’s uses of media in Europe and globally; 
• Expand values and attitudes towards texts intended for children and think critically about challenging issues regarding theory, policy and practice in the fields of children’s literature, culture and media, in ways that enable new and alternative approaches to these issues that draw on key employability skills developed through work placements;
• Consider theory and practice in different contexts in a way that increases responsiveness to social, linguistic and cultural diversity and use critical enquiry to demonstrate an understanding of and concern for the potential of children’s literature and media to address social and cultural issues impacting on 21st century life in a transnational perspective; 
• Employ creative approaches to facilitate and enrich learning, aesthetic and cultural experiences, entertainment and ‘Bildung’, using a wide range of literature and media texts in traditional, digital and transmedial formats, that students are likely to encounter in their practice within different contexts in Europe and globally.

Skills and other attributes

Students will also develop skills that can be applied to other areas, and will be able to

• work independently as well as within an international team;
• collate and analyse information from a range of sources relevant to specific issue; 
• prepare and conduct oral presentations effectively;
• write clear, accurate and insightful critical analytical texts, using references appropriately and consistently;
• debate issues verbally in international and cross-disciplinary tutorial situations and in seminars (often improving English speaking abilities); 
• demonstrate competent IT skills (information retrieval, document preparation, communication via new media);
• demonstrate ability to conduct applied research (textual analysis, quantitative and qualitative methodologies) within a specific context;
• develop foreign language competencies including:
  • gain awareness of a range of other languages through mobilities and also through fellow students 
  • increase awareness of the potential of the increasing production of multilingual children’s and young adult texts which can be used to teach language and to communicate in multilingual contexts, including indigenous minority languages 
• obtain a basic level of literacy in at least one new language

In year 1 you will take 60 ECTS of taught courses.

Semester 1 at the University of Glasgow: Historical and Critical Perspectives on Children’s Literature

• Children’s literature from the printing press to virtual reality (delivered by University of Glasgow)
• Children’s literature: Critical enquiry (delivered by University of Glasgow)
• Cross boundaries: Children’s literature and other media (online, delivered by Tilburg University)
• Literature and picturebooks for the early years (0-8) (delivered by Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)

Semester 2 at Aarhus University: Children’s literature in a mediatized world

• Children’s literature and childhood (delivered by Aarhus University)
• Children’s literature texts and media (delivered by Aarhus University and UW)
• New media for children and young adults (online, delivered by University of British Columbia) 
• Placement (Optional)

Aarhus University’s participation requires approval from the Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science” (confirmation in November 2018)

Summer

Optional courses delivered by University of British Columbia:

• Writing, publishing and the book trade for children
• Historical collections and archives
• Illustrated literature and other materials for children
• Creative writing for children

In year 2 you will take 30 ECTS of taught courses and a 30 ECTS dissertation.

Semester 1 either at Tilburg University or the University of Wroclaw: 

Tilburg University: Transcultural Trajectories

• Canon formation 
• Children’s literature in translation 
• Reviewing children’s and YA books
• Children’s literature for a diverse world (delivered by University of Glasgow and UAB)
• Placement

University of Wroclaw: Film and Participatory Culture

• Children and Childhood in Film
• Children's Film
• Conceptualizations of Childhood in Participatory Culture 
• Children’s literature for a diverse world (delivered by University of Glasgow and UAB)
• Placement

Semester 2 dissertation

In semester 2 you will complete a research dissertation. The dissertation will be supported by all institutions throughout your two years of study and in semester 2 of year 2 you will progress to writing up your dissertation.

The language of instruction is English. However, students are strongly encouraged to undertake second language training (English, Spanish, Catalan, Dutch, Danish or Polish) in all mobility periods and relevant classes will be highlighted to students by each partner institution. Students will also have the opportunity to study a third language, such as French, German, Italian or Portuguese, to develop or maintain their language skills in general.

Mobility refers to periods of study or research undertaken during the two years of the programme and can be broken down as follows:

1st mobility 

Year 1, semester 1 at the University of Glasgow

2nd mobility

Year 1, semester 2 at Aarhus University

3rd mobility

Year 2, semester 1 either at Tilburg University, Autonomous University of Barcelona or the University of Wroclaw. 

4th mobility

Students choose the location where they wish to complete their research.

Additional

Students may choose to attend the summer school between year 1 and year 2 at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. This will not count as official degree mobility but will be recorded on students' transcripts as an activity undertaken during the programme.

Please note: CLMC mobility Study Track options, for Partner Country** Scholarship students, may experience some restrictions in relation to mobility periods outside the Programme Country* group, pending the outcome of the EU - UK EXIT negotiations”.

* Programme Country group = EU countries, Iceland, Norway, FYR Macedonia, Lichtenstein, Turkey, Serbia

** Partner Country group = rest of the world

The Consortium Management Board will have overall responsibility for safeguarding the common standards and mechanisms for the examination of students (European and Third Country).

Each of the course components of the International Master programme has its own form of assessment. These are outlined in the individual course handbooks. In order to calculate the final mark achieved the marks for each component are weighted according to their credit rating. 

In year 1 a candidate will be permitted to progress to Dissertation only if s/he has obtained an average aggregation score of 12 (equivalent to Grade C3) or above in the taught courses described above, with at least 75% of the credits at a score of 9 or better (Grade D3 or better) and all credits at a score of 3 or above (Grade F or above). 

Each joint partner university will take responsibility for marking according to its own criteria. Each partner university will provide assessment marks as they stand to the Consortium’s Board of Examiners, along with detailed additional descriptors, for the Board of Examiners to translate to University of Glasgow, the given partner university and the ECTS grading systems to facilitate the production of the joint degree transcript and diploma supplement issued by the consortium.

All examination results will be discussed and finalised by the Board of Examiners and formally approved by the Consortium Management Board. The marking systems for each partner university and how these relate the University of Glasgow and ECTS systems will be made clear to students in advance.

The joint degree will have its own external examiner who will be represented on the Board of Examiners.

Erasmus Mundus Students and Alumni Association (EMA)