Before officially registering our social start-up, we worked together on the conception and delivery of the university course “Introduction to Sociology of Childhood(s) and Child Rights International Instruments” to undergraduate social work students at the University of Applied Sciences in Potsdam. We taught the course during two weekends, for a total of 28 hours. Our teaching method is mixed: we interact with students through group work, lectures, readings, using multimedia and more traditional materials.

The students who participated to our course explored with us the content of the most important sociological debates regarding the categories of “childhood” and “adolescence”, learning to de-construct ideas and ideals in relation to these particular phases of life. Furthermore, we discussed together about the legislative and political instruments on children’s rights, elaborated in particular within the United Nations system. The sociological concepts discussed and the international instruments presented were then used to analyse and to navigate important contemporary topics such as: (i) migrant and refugee children; (ii) children and sexuality; (iii) children in the digital environment. The seminar ended with the exploration of the world of children’s rights in international cooperation and with some exercises on how to develop a project in the fields of development cooperation/humanitarian emergency.