Overview
This interdisciplinary Masters applies a comparative, cross-cultural approach to understanding the relationship between childhood, youth and education.
The first of its kind in the UK, the degree draws on insights from anthropology, geography, development studies, education and sociology. This interdisciplinary approach will equip you with the top-notch analytical skills you need in the contemporary world to pursue careers in education and teaching, government and the civil services, international development and aid work, counselling, educational and child psychology, youth services, community and social work, advocacy and policy making, community outreach, healthcare and paediatric specialisms, non-governmental agencies, and much more.
The degree will appeal to those intending to work with or for children and young people, within or outside of educational settings across the globe, as you seek to understand the contemporary issues, debates and challenges that impact upon current and future generations.
Teaching for this degree is research-led and the curriculum is continuously updated in response to contemporary global events that impact on childhood, youth and education. A combination of lectures and interactive seminars, presentations and debates will challenge you to critically address questions about:
- How ideas about ‘childhood’, ‘youth’ and ‘education’ differ across cultures
- Learning, identity and social difference
- The way children’s everyday lives impact on their education
- Child rights and child labour
- Young people and migration
- Class, race and gender
- Youth cultures and subcultures
- Education, inequality and social reproduction
Through cross-cultural comparison, you will interrogate these kinds of issues, along with prevailing assumptions about the relationship between childhood, youth and education.
As well as undertaking rigorous intellectual training, you will have the opportunity to carry out your own ethnographic fieldwork in the UK or overseas. In recent years, Brunel students have carried out fieldwork in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Mexico, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Colombia, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Philippines, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, China, Morocco, and New Zealand, as well as within the UK and the rest of Europe.
A 30-month part-time option of the course is also available. If you wish to be considered for this option, please make your application for the 24 month part-time route and then contact the Admissions team to request the change to the 30 month duration.
"What I learned [at Brunel] helped to build a foundation of knowledge upon which I built my business and charity and will go on to create greater things. " - Seffie Wells
"What I learned [at Brunel] helped to build a foundation of knowledge upon which I built my business and charity and will go on to create greater things. " - Seffie Wells
You can explore our campus and facilities for yourself by taking our virtual tour.
Course content
You will study three compulsory modules related to i) understanding children and youth, ii) critical perspectives on education and learning, and iii) ethnographic research methods, in addition to your dissertation research.
You will also choose from a range of options from across the Division of Anthropology, Development and Geography, which will challenge you further in your critical and comparative understanding of childhood, youth and education.
Brunel is well-known for its focus on ethnographic fieldwork. Your research methods training will provide you with the skills to conduct your own ethnographic research anywhere in the world, according to your own research interests. This fieldwork will form the basis of your MSc dissertation.
Examples of recent dissertations from students on the MSc Childhood, Youth and Education include:
- ‘Being left behind’: Ecuadorian school girls’ experience of international migration
- ‘We don’t matter in school’: an ethnography of adult-youth relations in the UK education system
- Straddling meaningful worlds: youth, rap music and power in Equatorial Guinea
- Children’s agency in a London preschool: an ethnographic exploration
- Beyond sexual exploitation: the complexities of child trafficking in Nepal
- An ethnographic study of how social, cultural and religious identity is constructed in a Muslim faith school in London
- Judas and the Witch: witchcraft, religion and the street-children of Kinshasa
- Children’s understanding of values: the role of the hidden curriculum in primary school
- Informal learning and religion: the spiritual path of Hindu devotees
- ‘I did it my way’: parents of autistic children and their journey through the diagnosis
- ‘Is this play?’: Maltese children’s negotiations of play in a drama classroom
- Re-examining the ‘exiled LGBTQ+ Traveller’ narrative within the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller community
- The role of the school in the (re)production of the Danish welfare citizen
- Taleem and Tarbia: the transmission of education and knowledge by grandmothers in 5 Afghan-Canadian homes
- Children’s foodways in school
- Challenging the category of ‘teenager’: autonomy in a youth-led go-kart club
- Social identity and social reproduction in island Portland
Compulsory
- SA5xxD - Culture, Education and Learning
To provide students with a broad appreciation of the key issues in cross-cultural perspectives on education and learning, an understanding, ethnographically and theoretically, of how culture shapes and informs the educational and learning process and how, in turn, education and learning impact upon social and cultural practices and an understanding of the relevance of cross-cultural studies of education and learning for different theoretical approaches within the social and human sciences in general and professional practice in particular.
- SA5550 - Dissertation in Childhood, Youth and EducationThe opportunity to carry out a major research project in the anthropology of learning, childhood, youth or education based around your own fieldwork experience.
- SA56xB - Ethnographic Research
To introduce students to the methods employed by anthropologists when undertaking ethnographic research and to prepare students for the field research on which their dissertations will be based.
- SA5623 - Understanding Childhood and YouthThis module will introduce you to the study of childhood and youth as they are constructed and practiced in different social, cultural and economic settings. The first section focuses on children, looking first at how ideas of childhood are constructed by adults, the second section is devoted to young people.
Optional
- SA5614 - Applied Learning for Children, Youth and International DevelopmentExamine the relevance and responsibility of your academic studies in children, youth and international development to community, voluntary action as you consider how you might utilise your subject knowledge and transferrable skills when you graduate.
- SA5638 - Global Development: Critical Perspectives
To acquire a theoretical and historical overview of the changing relationship between the critical social sciences and global development, to understand the multiple ways in which social science research can enhance our understanding of contemporary policies and practices in global development and to critically evaluate, from a social science perspective, various theoretical approaches to global development.
- SA56xD - Kinship, Sex and Gender
This course introduces students to some of the key social anthropological literature on kinship, gender and sexuality. These include general themes such as universalities and particularities in the construction of gender roles and different theoretical paradigms on gender and sexuality; central concepts and methods that have been developed for the description and analysis of kinship relations; as well as more specific themes such as masculine domination, gay kinship, abortion debates and new reproductive technologies. The course will critically review a range of new directions in these fields while exploring theoretical and ethnographic issues.
- SA5639 - Migration, Citizenship and Identity
This module introduces students to a range of key concepts and theories in the anthropology of ethnicity, culture, nationhood and identity. These classical anthropological themes will be examined through the lens of high-profile contemporary social issues, including migration, citizenship, transnationalism and globalisation, xenophobia and deportation. Drawing on ethnographic case studies from settings across the world, we will explore how categories of identity and belonging are constructed, deployed and contested, and the ways in which they are embedded in broader social, political, legal and economic contexts.
- SA5624 - War and Humanitarian AssistanceIn this subject you will analyse the social and economic consequences of contemporary warfare and the rebuilding war-torn societies from an anthropological perspective and by doing so, understand the different ways anthropological research can enhance the understanding of contemporary warfare.
- SA5601 - Ethnicity, Identity and CultureLearn about the range of key concepts, theories and controversies in the anthropology of ethnicity, culture, nationhood and identity. Drawing on case studies from within and beyond Britain, it will encourage you to consider how identities are created, deployed and contested.
This course can be studied undefined undefined, starting in undefined.
Please note that all modules are subject to change.
Read more about the structure of postgraduate degrees at Brunel
Careers and your future
This degree will prepare you for a range of challenging careers in many fields and organisations, including: education and teaching, government and the civil services, international development and aid work, counselling, educational and child psychology, youth services, social work, advocacy and policy making, community outreach, healthcare and paediatric specialisms, non-governmental agencies, and much more.
It will also provide you with a firm grounding for doctoral research on childhood, youth and education if you choose to undertake a PhD.
UK entry requirements
A 2:2 (or above) UK Honours degree or an equivalent internationally recognised qualification with personal statement demonstrating knowledge of interest in subject area.
Applicants with other degrees along with relevant experience will be considered on an individual basis.
EU and International entry requirements
If you require a Tier 4 visa to study in the UK, you must prove knowledge of the English language so that we can issue you a Certificate of Acceptance for Study (CAS). To do this, you will need an IELTS for UKVI or Trinity SELT test pass gained from a test centre approved by UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) and on the Secure English Language Testing (SELT) list. This must have been taken and passed within two years from the date the CAS is made.
English language requirements
- IELTS: 6.5 (min 6 in all areas)
- Pearson: 59 (59 in all subscores)
- BrunELT: 63% (min 58% in all areas)
- TOEFL: 90 (min 20 in all)
You can find out more about the qualifications we accept on our English Language Requirements page.
Should you wish to take a pre-sessional English course to improve your English prior to starting your degree course, you must sit the test at an approved SELT provider for the same reason. We offer our own BrunELT English test and have pre-sessional English language courses for students who do not meet requirements or who wish to improve their English. You can find out more information on English courses and test options through our Brunel Language Centre.
Please check our Admissions pages for more information on other factors we use to assess applicants. This information is for guidance only and each application is assessed on a case-by-case basis. Entry requirements are subject to review, and may change.
Fees and funding
2026/27 entry
UK
£12,125 full-time
£6,060 part-time
International
£20,400 full-time
£10,200 part-time
N.B. UK and EU applicants: the 30 month part-time course will not be eligible for a Postgraduate Loan. If you wish to be considered for the part-time 30 month version, please make your application for the 24 month part-time route and then contact the Admissions team to request the change to the 30 month duration.
More information on any additional course-related costs.
Fees quoted are per year and are subject to an annual increase.
See our fees and funding page for full details of postgraduate scholarships available to Brunel applicants.
Scholarships and bursaries
Teaching and learning
Assessment and feedback
Assessment is typically by essay or practical assignments (for example, analysis of a short field exercise), and a dissertation of approximately 15,000 words based upon your own fieldwork experience. There are no examinations.
Read our guide on how to avoid plagiarism in your assessments at Brunel.