MA Childhood Studies and Children's Rights

Take advantage of this unique opportunity to study childhood and children's rights in an international environment with students from all over the world and from different academic backgrounds.
The study program will enable you to bring a children's rights approach to the world of work and open up new ways of working with, for and about children - theoretically and practically. All seminars, tutorials and lectures in the Childhood Studies and Children's Rights (MACR) program are offered in English.

Goals:

• To provide students with the skills necessary for working with children, youth and children's rights.
• Acquisition of competencies in the application of scientific methods and skills as well as professional competencies in numerous fields of work relevant to children's rights (e. g. social work, social pedagogy, law, politics, media).
• Development of good research methods.
• Deepening theoretical foundations for the work of professionals.
• Improving your academic writing skills.
• Promoting the rights of migrant and refugee children and children's rights in medical treatment, which have received only marginal attention in childhood and children's rights studies.
• Close collaboration with the professional community at the national and international levels. International organizations (NGOs) in particular contribute to implementation through guest lectures and seminars. In addition, many representatives of major organizations are members of the MACR Advisory Board.

MACR is offered both fully online and in a blended learning format with face-to-face meetings in Potsdam, Germany. We enroll a maximum of 30 students in total, who can choose to study online or in Potsdam. Students who choose to come to Potsdam have regular face-to-face meetings with our teachers and learn in a group setting in a personal environment. Students who study MACR fully online also meet our instructors, but in virtual classrooms and at shorter intervals. Please make sure your PC has an internet connection with a download speed of at least 50 Mbps and an upload speed of at least 10 Mbps, as well as a microphone and webcam.

Both the online students and the Potsdam students will form a group that will be provided with the same materials and content and will do group work as well as individual instruction. Because students from both tracks form one student group, several sessions of the program will be organized to provide shared group assignments and asynchronous learning for all participants*. There are several benefits to both tracks. From last year's experience, we have learned that online learning and study has become very attractive, especially given the global pandemic situation. In addition, access to MACR is easier when travel is not required.

On the other hand, the traditional form of learning in a face-to-face environment creates an atmosphere of trust and learning much more easily than online. Since we are planning an introductory week in Potsdam for all students at the beginning of the program, there will be a group finding process that can be referred back to during the master's program. We are also planning a face-to-face meeting after the second semester, after all modules have been studied, to reflect on our learning process and to exchange ideas about the planned research for the master's thesis.

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 course schedule.

 

1st – 2nd semester	3rd semester
Compulsory modules	Elective modules, master thesis, colloquium

Please note: The student presentation and active participation throughout the summer school are mandatory to receive a certificate and the 2 ECTS points.