ECP703 - Child Protection
Unit details
| Year | 2025 unit information |
|---|---|
| Enrolment modes: | Trimester 1: Burwood (Melbourne), Online, Community Based Delivery (CBD)* |
| Credit point(s): | 1 |
| EFTSL value: | 0.125 |
| Unit Chair: | Trimester 1: Nicole Downes |
| Cohort rule: | Nil |
| Prerequisite: | Nil |
| Corequisite: | Nil |
| Incompatible with: | ECP303 |
| Educator-facilitated (scheduled) learning activities - on-campus unit enrolment: | 1 x 3 hour on-campus seminar per non placement weeks |
| Educator-facilitated (scheduled) learning activities - online unit enrolment: | 1 x 1.5-hour online seminar per non placement weeks |
| Typical study commitment: | Students will on average spend 150-hours over the teaching period undertaking the teaching, learning and assessment activities for this unit. This will include educator guided online learning activities within the unit site. |
Content
In this unit, students will be introduced to relevant legislation, policies and practices essential to securing children's safety and wellbeing, with children's rights and professional ethics forming a conceptual framework. This unit prepares teachers (and allied professionals) for their statutory obligations in preventing, identifying, responding to and notifying suspected child abuse. Knowledge and skills in recognising all forms of child abuse and understanding the contexts in which it occurs will be developed throughout the unit. Trauma-responsive education will be examined for its relevance in supporting children who have experienced child maltreatment and adversity.
Students will be encouraged to apply their research and analysis skills in a variety of ways, for example, designing a child safe policy, incorporating personal safety education in the curriculum, forging community links and responding to a child maltreatment scenario. Child maltreatment and child protection will provide a major focus together with appropriate responses via policies, ethical practices, statutory requirements and preventive curriculum work. Attendant professional roles, collaborative partnerships and obligations will be considered.
Topics to be addressed in this unit include:
- understanding and upholding children’s rights (UN CRC)
- mandatory reporting/notification of child abuse
- child safe standards, legislation and ethical practice
- diversity and heightened vulnerability (e.g. children with disability, children in out-of-home care and cultural factors)
- researching and analysing child maltreatment (causes and effects)
- understanding trauma and trauma-responsive education
- appropriately responding to disclosures of abuse
- curriculum in prevention and personal safety education
- community support services and policy (school/departmental/system), and
- child protection resources
Learning Outcomes
ULOs
| ULO | These are the Unit Learning Outcomes (ULOs) for this unit. At the completion of this unit, successful students can: | Alignment to Deakin Graduate Learning Outcomes (GLOs) |
|---|---|---|
| ULO1 | Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of issues of heightened vulnerability for their impact on indigenous children and families and families from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, and ability to plan and implement inclusive teaching practices and experiences that aim to reduce vulnerability, promote child safety and strengthen learning outcomes. | GLO1: Discipline-specific knowledge and capabilities GLO4: Critical thinking GLO8: Global citizenship |
| ULO2 | Identify and analyse the causes of and contexts (including factors which contribute to issues of heightened vulnerability) in which child maltreatment occurs, and the short- and long-term effects of child maltreatment on children, including advanced knowledge of the nature of trauma. | GLO1: Discipline-specific knowledge and capabilities GLO4: Critical thinking |
| ULO3 | Use advanced discipline specific knowledge in the accurate identification of child maltreatment, creation of appropriate responses to disclosures of child maltreatment and appropriate choice of reporting pathways, using a case study scenario. | GLO1: Discipline-specific knowledge and capabilities GLO4: Critical thinking GLO5: Problem solving |
| ULO4 | Critical discussions demonstrate a specialised understanding of impact of generational trauma on indigenous children, historic trauma and displacement on refugee children and complex trauma on children who have experienced child maltreatment and/or neglect. | GLO1: Discipline-specific knowledge and capabilities GLO4: Critical thinking GLO5: Problem solving GLO8: Global citizenship |
| ULO5 | Analyse and evaluate child protection literature to devise appropriate responses to a range of contemporary child safety issues, including personal safety and prevention education and professional development. | GLO1: Discipline-specific knowledge and capabilities GLO4: Critical thinking GLO5: Problem solving |
| ULO6 | Apply a range of digital literacy skills to engage with and respond to online discussions and activities within a specified time-frame. | GLO3: Digital literacy GLO6: Self-management |
Assessment
| Assessment Description | Student output | Grading and weighting (% total mark for unit) | Indicative due week |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assessment 1 - Child Safe Policy | 2000 words | 40% | Week 5 |
| Assessment 2 - Report: Response to Case Study Scenario | 2000 words | 40% | Week 10 |
| Assessment 3 - Online Response to Readings | 1000 words | 20% | Week 11 |
The assessment due weeks provided may change. The Unit Chair will clarify the exact assessment requirements, including the due date, at the start of the teaching period.
Learning resource
The texts and reading list for ECP703 can be found via the University Library.
Note: Select the relevant trimester reading list.
Please note that a future teaching period's reading list may not be available until a month prior to the start of that teaching period so you may wish to use the relevant trimester's prior year reading list as a guide only.
Unit Fee Information
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