Welcome to the MEDAL project!

MEDAL is short for: Making a difference: Educational Development to enhance Academic Literacy. This project aims to improve learning and teaching in Childhood Studies, through a focus on academic literacy.

What is the MEDAL project?

The MEDAL project, led by staff at NorthumbriaUniversity, brings together a consortium of lecturers who teach about childhood within universities across the UK, namely

  • University of Durham
  • University of York
  • YorkSt JohnCollege
  • RoehamptonUniversity

What are the main issues that MEDAL seeks to address?

What does it mean to study childhood at university?

Childhood Studies is an emergent field of inquiry. Teachers in higher education are responding to

  • The wealth of research literature that takes an interdisciplinary approach to studying the child
  • Calls for a new kind of child professional capable of ‘joined up thinking’

An increasing number of academics are teaching Childhood within a range of disciplines and course contexts. This diversity is represented in our Consortium. For example Children’s Literature is being taught in courses as wide-ranging as English, Education Studies, Childhood, Childhood and Society, Children’s Literature and Childhood, Cultural Studies. Similarly, academics teaching in many of these courses, and others besides, including History, Art History, Sociology, Librarianship and Information Studies, Media Studies, are engaging their students with representations of childhood across a range of media, such as adverts, fine art, sculpture.

This means that more and more students are coming to university to study childhood as a theme, either as part of their degree, or as the whole focus of their course. What does this mean for the student, and what does it mean for teaching staff?

Implications for staff

Before MEDAL there was no existing network for lecturers keen to discuss and think about pedagogic issues in relation to studying childhood. It was part of the MEDAL project’s aims to develop such a network, called the Childhood Studies Pedagogic Network (CSPN). This incorporates a discussion list, information about study days and newsletters. From 2006 we encouraged interested parties outside the Consortium, having joined the CSPN, to submit proposals for developing (or piloting) materials or become MEDAL Contributors through applying for small grants to run a case study or develop learning resources. The MEDAL website has full details.

In addition, the project has run a number of workshops, conferences and other events. Again, full details of past and forthcoming events can be seen on the MEDAL website

Resources for university childhood studies teachers

MEDAL aimed to develop and share ideas to support the development of academic literacy in relation to studying childhood. The MEDAL CaseBook- a compendium of learning resources and case studies from across the sector, can be found on the project website. There include pedagogic resources: case studies and templates of teaching, learning and assessment approaches that have been used to promote academic literacy in CS programmes, and have beenevaluated from staff and students’ perspectives. The purpose of these resources is to enable CS teachers to access new ideas and adapt them to their own teaching. The resources focus on ways in which teachers enable their students to:

  • practice academic literacy activities
  • receive formative guidance and feedback
  • work productively with their peers in order to enhance their academic development

The Learning Resources are intended for lecturers to adapt for their own teaching purposes.

Implications for students

In the first instance the project conducted an in-depth survey of the issues as seen by staff and students within the Consortium. We were keen that students’ views should inform our developments and so MEDAL ran events and produced overview reports which drew attention to our students’ voices, as well as staff views.

In particular, in the last round of subject reviews, QAA identified the issue of improving students’ academic literacy as a generic priority across subject areas. MEDAL sought to build on the wealth of work that has already been undertaken in this area, by exploring what it means to read, write and think critically within an interdisciplinary field like Childhood Studies. MEDAL focused on some key questions. Do students need to adopt different approaches to studying childhood, as opposed to more mainstream subjects? Do teachers find they need to adapt their teaching strategies when introducing childhood as a topic of enquiry? In short, what does it mean to be academically literate in the field of Childhood Studies, and how far does that vary from course to course?

MEDAL’s working definition of academic literacy in Childhood Studies

Academic literacy practice includes activities which assist students to:

  • Understand the expectations and requirements of the study of childhood including the need to recognise and apply different perspectives on childhood
  • Recognise and articulate disciplinary expectations and requirements and apply them to the study of childhood.
  • Develop skills in critical listening, reading and analysis of text and data, the development of argument and the communication of text, data and analysis in written and spoken form.
  • Develop the critical autonomy which enables them to form their own views and locate themselves within the range of perspectives and practices encountered in the study of childhood.

What are the implications for Staff and Educational Developers?

We developed, evaluated and disseminated MEDAL’s learning resources and models in conjunction with staff and educational developers, for use in assisting new and practising teachers of inter-disciplinary courses, within and beyond childhood studies, to support their students’ academic literacy effectively. The input from staff developers within the MEDAL consortiumis available via the project website.

Who can you contact for further information?

Kay Sambell () or Mel Gibson () will be more than happy to talk to anyone with an interest in finding out more about project and how to get involved. We look forward to hearing from you.