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Profile: Forming Society

Childhood Studies and Children's Rights (MA)

Silhouetten von Menschen in bunten Farben
© AdobeStock/melita

Childhood Studies and Children's Rights (MACR) is for anyone who wants to work in the field of children's rights. The program enables you to bring a children's rights approach to the workplace and opens up new ways of working with, for, and about children – theoretically and practically. MACR is offered both fully online and in a blended learning format with face-to-face meetings in Potsdam.

Degree:
Master of Arts
Type:
Full time
Advanced Master's program
Course language:
English
Standard study period:
3 semesters
Start of study:
Winter semester
Application deadline:
Note: This degree programme will no longer be offered from winter semester 2024/25
Admission requirements:
First professional university degree, 12 months of work experience, English language level C1
Credits:
90 ECTS credits
Module Manuals & Regulations
Profile

International and interdisciplinary degree program

Take advantage of this unique opportunity to study childhood and children's rights in an international setting, with students from around the world and from diverse academic backgrounds.

The degree program enables you to bring a child rights approach to the workplace and qualifies you to pursue a doctorate in the field of child rights and childhood studies. All seminars, tutorials and lectures in the childhood studies and children's rights (MACR) program are offered in English.

 Logo des Masterstudiengangs Childhood Studies and Children's Rights

Objectives:

  • Theoretical and methodological examination of childhood studies and children's and adolescents' rights.
  • Acquisition of professional competencies for work in fields relevant to children's rights (e. g. social work, social pedagogy, law, politics, media, art)
  • acquaintance with and application of methods of empirical social research
  • If interested, preparation for a doctorate in the field of children's rights
  • Getting to know child rights organizations on a national and international level. International organizations (NGOs) participate in MACR through guest lectures, seminars and as a member of the advisory board.

You can book modules 1 -6 individually as continuing education. You will find an overview under "Study contents".

Hybrid study with personal atmosphere

All MACR events are implemented in hybrid formats. We enroll a maximum of 30 students each winter semester who meet on-site and online in the seminars. Faculty support through interactive seminars, lively discussions among participants, and contribute their expertise in the field of children's rights and childhood studies, both in teaching and in advising and supervising seminar papers and theses.

Network

Kontakt

Die Kolleg*innen der Zentralen Studienberatung informieren Studieninteressierte, Studienanfänger*innen, Eltern, Lehrer*innen und Studierende zu allen allgemeinen Fragen rund um das Studium. Bei konkreten Fragen und Anliegen zum Masterstudiengang Childhood Studies and Children's Rights kontaktieren Sie gern die Studienfachberatung.

Studienfachberatung & Studiengangskoordination

Academic Coordination M. A. Childhood Studies and Children's Rights (MACR)

These degree programs might also interest you

More courses
Department Degree programme Teaching language Start of study Application deadline
Childhood Studies and Children's Rights (MA) English Winter semester
Note: This degree programme will no longer be offered from winter semester 2024/25
Early Childhood Studies (MA) German Winter semester
15/06 – 15/10 (free of admission)
MA Social Work with a Focus on the Family German Winter semester
15.05. – 22.06. (NC degree program)
Social Management (MA) German Summer semester
01/12 – 31/03 (free of admission)
Career Prospects

Career Prospects

Traditional work areas

  • Child and youth welfare
  • Social services
  • Public services
  • Welfare and youth associations (NGOs)

International organizations

  • UNICEF, UNESCO, UNHCR
  • internationally active development cooperation organizations, especially those working for children, youth and families, e. g. Save the Children, terre des hommes, World Vision, Plan international, etc.

Social work

  • Child and youth welfare institutions
  • Ombudsperson for children
  • Mediation

Procedural counsel

In Germany (and Austria), it is possible to work as a guardian ad litem (child advocate). For law graduates, the MA Childhood Studies and Children's Rights provides qualifications and competencies in the field of juvenile and family justice.

Promotion

  • The MACR qualifies students for a PhD in the field of children's rights and childhood studies. In Module 7, this can be prepared by a research proposal.
  • I am currently a qualitative research consultant at UNICEF Office of Research - Innocenti and I am managing my own company – Articolo12 – providing other organizations with support in Project Cycle Management, training design and delivery, research, etc. focusing on children's rights.

    Graduate
    2018
  • This is a master that I can unreservedly recommend and focus on. It puts the child and their needs and interests at the center (rather than their later usefulness to society). The Master is visionary in many ways and was designed by people who are passionate, inspiring and idealistic about children's rights.

    Graduate
    2016
  • I am PhD researcher at the Migration Law Research Group at Ghent University, Belgium. I study children's rights in appellate asylum proceedings in Belgium, using a multidisciplinary approach of legal ethnography. My research is supervised by Prof. Dr. Ellen Desmet and embedded in the interfaculty Centre for the Social Study of Migration and Refugees(CESSMIR) and the Human Rights Centre(HRC). Before starting my PhD, I worked as a researcher and policy advisor for the Children's Rights Knowledge Centre (KeKi, 2012-2020). In addition, I was involved in several research projects about children's rights and child abduction (University of Antwerp, 2016-2020).

    Graduate
    2013
  • In the master's program, I engaged with a variety of international and interdisciplinary perspectives on childhood and children's rights. This has broadened my horizons enormously and helped me to rethink my own concept of dealing with children. In my work, I would now like to incorporate the topics that were discussed and taught in the master's program into the further training of educators with the goal of making educational processes more child-centered.

    Graduate
    2013

These degree programs might also interest you

More courses
Department Degree programme Teaching language Start of study Application deadline
Childhood Studies and Children's Rights (MA) English Winter semester
Note: This degree programme will no longer be offered from winter semester 2024/25
Early Childhood Studies (MA) German Winter semester
15/06 – 15/10 (free of admission)
MA Social Work with a Focus on the Family German Winter semester
15.05. – 22.06. (NC degree program)
Social Management (MA) German Summer semester
01/12 – 31/03 (free of admission)
Study Contents

Course of Studies

The standard period of study for the fee-based master's program childhood studies and children's rights (MACR) is three semesters and concludes with a master's thesis. The exact schedule can be found in the study schedule.

 

Semester 1 – 2 Semester 3
Compulsory modules Elective modules, master thesis, colloquium

Study Contents

Teaching formats

  • Lectures
  • Seminars
  • Tutorials
  • Colloquia
  • Guest lectures

All teaching and learning formats usually take place on Thursdays and Fridays.

Mandatory modules

  • Childhood Studies
  • Understanding Children's Rights
  • Methods and Techniques of Childhood and Children's Rights Research
  • Work and Education of Children in an International and Intercultural Comparison
  • Children Out of Place and Child Rights Oriented Practice
  • Children and Media

Elective modules

  • Internship
  • Research
  • Practical project

Guest lectures

Our seminar program is enriched by expert guest lectures. We regularly invite international researchers and practitioners to give lectures at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam.

Academic writing

To improve academic writing skills, we offer an academic writing course each fall semester.

Practice Day

To open up various opportunities for internships and employment after graduation, we organize an internship day with NGOs in the field of childhood studies and children's rights every spring.

Thesis

  • Master thesis
  • oral presentation on the master thesis

Certification modules

Modules 1 – 6 can also be booked individually as continuing education. At the end you will receive a certificate. Detailed information on the contents of the individual modules can be found in the module handbook for the further education master's degree in childhood studies and children's rights further down on this website.
Interested? Send us an email: macr_application@fh-potsdam.de.

Module 1: Childhood Studies

  • Theories and studies of international social science research on childhood
  • development of childhood images and childhood trajectories
  • social living conditions, power structures and gender aspects

Module 2: Understanding Children's Rights

  • Children's rights are examined from the perspective of various disciplines
  • focus: universal claim of children's rights as human rights, their implementation and further development
  • historical development and current implementation of children's rights including their philosophical, anthropological, sociological and ethical justifications

Module 3: Methods and Techniques of Childhood and Children's Rights Research

  • Basics to be able to conduct own research/scientific work and to critically evaluate existing research results.
  • Methods, especially for qualitative and participatory research projects and the evaluation of practice projects
  • Working on case studies and small research projects

Module 4: Work and Education of Children in an International and Intercultural Comparison

  • Reflection on different forms, reasons and meanings of work, play and education for children and the connections between them in different national and cultural contexts.
  • political concepts to combat child labor and their critical analysis
  • approaches of global and intercultural learning as well as inclusive education

Module 5: Children Out of Place and Child Rights Oriented Practice

  • Life situations of children in socially disadvantaged and culturally marginalized life situations
  • child rights-based and subject-oriented action concepts, self-help initiatives and social movements are analyzed
  • theoretical and methodological basics of planning and evaluating research and practice projects

Module 6: Children and Media

  • theories and research on media use and media socialization of children and adolescents
  • legal, social, psychological and ethical aspects of the representation of children in the media
  • data protection and informational self-determination of children
  • concepts for media work and media
  • human rights education for and with children are developed
Professors

Lecturers

  • Dr. Rebecca Budde - Module: Understanding Children's Rights & Work and Education of Children (University of Applied Sciences Potsdam)
  • Judit Costa - Module: Understanding Children's Rights (Children's Rights Network)
  • Jonas Deitert - Modules: Understanding Children's Rights; Tutorial: Children's Rights in Practice, Work and Education of Children; Right to Education
  • M. A. Elena Frense - Module: Children and Media (Research Assistant, Digital Opportunities Foundation)
  • Prof. Dr. Beatrice Hungerland - Module: Childhood Studies (University of Applied Sciences Magdeburg-Stendal)
  • Mohammed Jouni - Module: Children Out of Place (Youth without Borders)
  • Prof. Dr. Manfred Liebel - Modules: Childhood Studies & Understanding Children's Rights (Founder and Director of the M.A. Childhood Studies and Children's Rights; Professor of Sociology, TU Berlin em.; Chairman MACR)
  • Prof. Dr. Claudia Maier-Höfer - Module: Work and Education of Children (University of Applied Sciences Darmstadt)
  • Dr. Urszula Markowska-Manista - Modules: Childhood Studies, Understanding Children's Rights, Research with Children and Young People (University of Warsaw; University of Applied Sciences Potsdam)
  • Prof. Dr. Jörg Maywald - Module: Understanding Children's Rights (German League for the Child; Potsdam University of Applied Sciences; Spokesperson of the National Coalition for the Implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in Germany)
  • M. A. Philip Meade - Modules: Understanding Children's Rights, Work and Education of Children & Children Out of Place (Dipl. Soz.-Päd, M.A.; EMCR; Child Rights Officer at Kompaxx e.V.; Director ProNats)
  • Karina Piersig - Modules: Research with Children and Young People, Children and Media (Head of Digital Learning, Technical University Munich)
  • Pauline Richter - Module: Understanding Children's Rights; Tutorial: Children's Rights in Practice
  • Iven Saadi - Module: Work and Education of Children (Political Scientist, M.A.)
  • Sabina Salimovska (MACR; School Mediator/RAA)
  • Prof. Dr. Anne Wihstutz - Modules: Childhood Studies (Protestant University of Applied Sciences Berlin, Chair of Sociology, Elementary Education Program)

  • Katerina Varella, EMCR
  • Anne Sophie Winkelmann (Anti Bias Workshop)

  • Prof. Dr. Erica Burman (School of Environment, Education and Development, University of Manchester, UK)
  • Nigel Cantwell (independent researcher on children's rights, UK/Switzerland)
  • Dr. Reinald Eichholz (former Commissioner for Children's Rights, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany)
  • Dr. Natália Fernandes (Universidade do Minho, Portugal)
  • Prof. Dr. Anna Holzscheiter (Freie Universität Berlin, Otto-Suhr Institute)
  • Prof. Dr. Maureen Maisha Auma (Diversity Studies, Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences)
  • Prof. Dr. Jens Qvortrup (Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology)
  • MACR Graduates
Summer School

General information about the Summer School

We will inform you here once we know the date and program of the next Summer School in 2023.

Target groups

BA and MA students who would like to expand their knowledge of childhood studies and children's rights. This includes all BA and MA students of the social and educational sciences department at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam, including current MACR students, as some of the summer school seminars also form part of the program's seminars. In addition, students from Romania and Poland will participate together with our invited professors.

Goals

The aim of the summer school is to offer seminars to our students, to give prospective students the opportunity to get an idea of MACR's work, and to inform interested people about childhood studies and children's rights in the context of scholarship and practice.

Format

The summer school is free of charge and open to all BA and MA students interested in childhood studies and children's rights. It takes place over 12 days and follows a hybrid model of on-site and online teaching. Classes are composed of interactive workshops, participatory seminars, and face-to-face tutorials. Students have the opportunity to actively engage through discussions, group work, and presentations.

Testimonials

Read the field report from Summer School 2022 here.

Contact

Program Coordinator

Academic Coordination M. A. Childhood Studies and Children's Rights (MACR)
Application & Contact

Dates & Requirements for your application

The last enrolment for this degree programme was possible in the winter semester 2023/2024. This degree programme is currently no longer offered.

Further information

The following links provide you, and especially international applicants, with further information on the topics of application and enrolment at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam.

International applicants

You would like to apply for studies from the first or a higher semester and have acquired your school-leaving qualification and/or university degree abroad? Then you can have degrees and achievements acquired abroad recognised and study with us.

Application info for internationals

Application & Enrolment procedure

The application and study service provides information and advice on general questions regarding the application process, admission and enrolment at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam, application for a higher semester, but also on topics such as compensation for disadvantages, part-time studies, waiting semesters and hardship applications.

Application & Enrolment University of Applied Sciences Potsdam

Contact & service

The student counselling service provides information and advice on general questions about studying as well as on topics such as choosing a degree programme, application, enrolment and study organisation.

For subject-specific questions on module contents, credit transfer, examinations or specialisations in the master's programme childhood studies and children's rights, the subject counselling service is the right place to go.

Subject Counselling Service

Academic Coordination M. A. Childhood Studies and Children's Rights (MACR)

Student Financing

Room 3.02a

Family Affairs Commissioner

Room 026

Office hours

Tue and Thu 9.30 am – 1.30 pm

Commissioner for University Employees with Impairment

Room 201

Office hours

by arrangement

MACR-Team

Questions about the application: macr_application@fh-potsdam.de

Social Media

Programme management

Professorship for Methods of Social Work and Social Work Research

Subject counselling service & Study programme coordination

Academic Coordination M. A. Childhood Studies and Children's Rights (MACR)

Student Assistant

Founder & patron

Contact persons department of student affairs