The course will commence by examining images of childhood and exploring the sources of these. It will introduce the idea that historical and cultural contexts influence values, beliefs, and goals of child rearing and the meaning attached to the concepts of the 'child'. It will then introduce a theoretical perspective that emphasizes the cultural context of child development, exploring the work of Trevarthen, and Cole, and will identify the concept of the 'developmental niche' as suggested by Super and Harkness. These ideas will be examined further through a range of illustrations of children developing in cultural contexts, which present a challenge to current western orthodoxies. There will be the opportunity to undertake a review of contrasting studies of children with a view to recognizing that underlying assumptions about childhood inform the ways in which social scientists conduct their research.