Program Overview

MA Children’s Literature and Literacies

Overview

The MA in Children's Literature and Literacies gives you an opportunity to deepen your passion for literature written for children through research-led modules that engage with emerging frameworks and debates. Supported by a team of academic specialists, you will investigate theories of literacy development, and the learning and reading experiences of children and young people through interdisciplinary, inclusive, and current approaches.

Why Study This Course

• Current, interdisciplinary, and research-led modules.
• The ability to pursue your interests throughout your assignments not just your MA dissertation.
• An innovative course with a dedicated Teaching Team that ensure individualised support and personalised feedback.
• A vibrant academic community led by research specialists.

Course Summary

The MA in Children's Literature and Literacies is a vibrant, wide-ranging degree course that offers professional development and academic progression by enhancing subject and research expertise in these interdisciplinary fields of study. Informed by current scholarship, research, and practice, it provides you an opportunity to develop in-depth and advanced knowledge and understanding of children’s literature and literacy through both wide-ranging and diverse specialist modules, culminating in an independent research project (MA dissertation) that reflects your individual ambition and aspirations.

Key Facts

• Award: MA
• Duration: 1 or 2 years
• Mode of study: Full time, Part time
• Start date: September 2025
• Award: Bishop Grosseteste University
• Institution code: B38

What You Will Study

• Children’s Literate Lives: This module studies current discourses and debates surrounding children’s and young people’s encounters with literature from the foundation of their ‘literate lives’ at home and at school.
• Children’s Literature: Words, Pictures, Voices: The module examines the history of literature written for children as well as critical debates in children’s literature.
• Researching Children’s Literature and Literacies: This module explores a range of research methodologies and methods appropriate for researching children’s literature and literacies.
• Children’s Literacies: Now, New, Next: This module engages with key trends, issues and genres connected to children’s literacies and literature to consider their current existence and future directions.
• Poetics and Politics of Identity: This module investigates the complexities of the poetics and politics of representing identity in English Studies through current and up-and-coming theories and critical perspectives.
• Critiquing and Theorising Literature: This module investigates how integrating interdisciplinary research methods and digital Humanities have challenged, changed and stretched English Studies.
• Dissertation: This module represents the culmination of the MA degree programme, giving students the opportunity to undertake an extensive piece of independent research based upon a topic of their own choosing.

Entry Requirements

• Students looking to study this course will need to have obtained or be predicted to obtain an undergraduate honours degree with a minimum of lower second class honours (or equivalent).
• Prospective students may be required to attend a consultation with the programme leader or a member of the academic team before commencing the course.

How You Will Be Taught

• Students will be taught by a variety of experienced researchers and practitioners who are active in the field to enhance your learning experience.
• The course provides diversity in both content and structure, with longer modules offering breadth and scope, complemented by specialist modules providing depth and focus.

Assessment

• Here at BGU we aim to make assessment an integral part of your learning, with each assignment outline developed to reflect your own working reality and the precise format negotiated with a tutor.
• Students looking to study the MA Children’s Literature and Literacies course can expect to undertake a range of assessment which include written essays, presentations, portfolios and reports, as well as practical tasks.

Careers & Further Study

• This course, which is specialised and interdisciplinary, has a strong professional and research development component and has been designed to meet the needs of a wide variety of learners, including Primary and Secondary school teachers, librarians and other professionals as well as enthusiasts to develop their knowledge and skills in relation to children’s literature and literacies.

Support

• Studying at BGU is a student-centred experience. Staff and students work together in a friendly and supportive atmosphere as part of an intimate campus community.
• You will know every member of staff personally and feel confident approaching them for help and advice, and staff members will recognise you, not just by sight, but as an individual with unique talents and interests.

Fees & Funding

• A lot of student finance information is available from numerous sources, but it is sometimes confusing and contradictory. That’s why at BGU we try to give you all the information and support we can to help to throughout the process.
• Our Student Advice team are experts in helping you sort out the funding arrangements for your studies, offering a range of services to guide you through all aspects of student finance step by step.