MLA Seminar: Children and Identity: Understanding Self and Others

How do children come to understand themselves and other people? This course explores young children’s social cognition and the factors that influence this development. We will begin the course with an introduction to how children think and learn before moving to topics such as self-awareness, gender identity, and the moral self. We will examine young children’s perception of constructs such as gender, race, and social class in others, with an emphasis on the sociocultural factors that contribute to their developing knowledge. As a class we will explore the research evidence together through small group discussion and activities.