Youth, Gender and Identity

By Dr. Naziya Hasan | Department of Teacher Training and Non-Formal Education, Jamia Millia Islamia

Learners enrolled: 326

For prosperity and development of any nation, largest share of investment must be done for its young people. Their social, political, educational and health related aspects must be given utmost care and attention. The young people struggles with problems of self-development, identity crisis, gender related issues such as discrimination and stereotypes that lead to increment of health related problems, imbalance in work-life, risk behaviour and violence. Encouraging positive youth development resultantly improves the quality of young people’s life. India has the largest number of youth population in the world. This population should be channelled in a manner to make them understand their identity and role in society and contribute for social and economic development of the nation. Considering these points, this course is designed for undergraduate students to develop an understanding about the basic concepts regarding youth, gender and identity through various relevant topics such as Introduction of Youth, Gender and Identity, Youth and Identity, Gender and Identity and Issues related to Youth, Gender and Identity.

The main objectives of this course are to enable students to understand the concept of youth, gender and identity; to elaborate the issues concerning youth and sexuality; to explain the relationship between youth, gender and identity in Indian context; to critically analyse the role of culture in identity formation; to discuss the concept of multiple identities; to explain the important role of family, peer group, school and media in identity formation; to develop self-esteem and self-concept; to examine the risk behaviour among youth; to encourage positive youth development; to analyse the influence of globalization on gender and youth identity; and to inculcate sensitivity to issues related to Youth, Gender and Identity within the Indian socio-cultural context.

After successful completion of this course, learners will be able to sensitise themselves regarding the concepts and issues concerning youth, gender and identity along with its intersection with each other.

This whole course is divided into four units comprising 40 modules. Each module will be inclusive of descriptive video, text material, glossary, FAQs, reading references, quizzes and assignments. Total engagement time of the course will be 100 hours in 5 days a week format.

Indicative Industry Sectors :

Education and Training

Note: This is an indicative list based on suggestions provided by course coordinators and should not be treated as final and binding.

Indicative Program Alignments :

B.A.(Hons)

Summary

Course Status :	Ongoing
Course Type :	Core
Language for course content :	English
Duration :	15 weeks
Category :	Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit Points :	5
Level :	Undergraduate
Start Date :	07 Jul 2025
End Date :	31 Oct 2025
Enrollment Ends :	31 Aug 2025
Exam Date :	11 Dec 2025 IST
NCrF Level	5.0
Industry Details :	Teaching
Exam Shift :	I

Note: This exam date is subject to change based on seat availability. You can check final exam date on your hall ticket.

Page Visits

Course layout

WEEK 1

1 Concept of Youth: Transition to Adulthood

2 Developmental Aspects of Youth: Adolescence

3 Developmental Aspects of Youth: Early Adulthood

4 Youth across Cultures

WEEK 2

5 5.1 Youth in Indian Context

5.2 Challenges Faced by Youth

6 6.1 Gender: A Social Construct

6.2 Gender as performative

7 7.1 Gender, Sex and Gender Identity

7.2 Sex/Gender system

7.3 Gender, Sex and Sexuality

8 8.1 Gender Roles and Gender Role Attitudes

8.2 Gender Stereotypes and Gender Bias

WEEK 3

9 Factors Affecting Gender Identity and Gender Roles

10 Sexual Orientation

11 Gender Stereotypes

12 12.1 Gender Socialization

12.2. Agents of Gender Socialization

12.3- Agents of Gender Socialization: School and Media

12.4 Agents of gender socialization - Family and Peer Group

WEEK 4

13 Concept of Identity

14 14. 1.Erikson’s Theory of Psycho-Social Development

14.2. Freud’s theory of psycho-social development

15 Multiple Identities

16 Youth and Identity

WEEK 5

17 Formation of Youth Identities

18 Family as a social system, socialization within the family

19 19.1 Family: Parent-Youth Conflict

19.2 Family: Sibling Relationships and Intergenerational Relationship

20 20.1 Family: Intergenerational gap

20.2 Changing Family in Changing Society

WEEK 6

21 21.1 Peer Group Identity: Friendships and Romantic Relationships

21.2 Peers: Importance of peer relations, development of peer sociability

22 Education and Youth Identity

23 Workplace Identity and Relationships

24 Youth Culture

WEEK 7

25 Identity Crisis

26 26.1 Influence of Globalization on Youth identity

26.2 Gender Sensitisation.docx

27 Issues of Sexuality in Youth

28 28.1 Sexuality and Youth Identity

28.2 Sexuality Education and its Importance for Youth

WEEK 8

29 29.1 Gender Discrimination

29.2 Elimination of Gender Discrimination

30 Gender Equality

31 Culture and Gender

WEEK 9

32 Culture and Identity Formation

33 Influence of Globalization on Gender Identity

34 34.1 Media and Development

34.2 Media and Gender Identity

34.3 Social Media and Youth Identity

WEEK 10

35 35.1 Positive Youth Development

35.2 Encouraging Positive Youth development

36 36.1 Life Skills and Youth

36.2 Life Skills Education for Youth

37 Building Resources: Hope, Optimism and Resilience

WEEK 11

38 Youth, Gender and Violence

39 Today’s Youth

40 Youth with Disabilities

WEEK 12

41 41.1 Youth and Risk Behaviour

41.2 Factors Affecting Risk Behaviour among Youth

42 Drug Use among Youth

43 Eating Disorders among Youth

WEEK 13

44 Anxiety and Depression among Youth

45 Suicide and Violence among Youth

46 Youth and Health

WEEK 14

47 47.1 Mental Health Issues among Youth

47.2 Factors affecting Mental Health of Youth

48 Promotion of Youth’s Mental Health and Well-Being

49 Employment and Education of Youth

50 Self-Esteem and Self-Concept

WEEK 15

51 Enhancing Work-life Balance

52 Changing Roles of Women

53 53.1 Women Empowerment

53.2 Ways to Promote Women Empowerment

54 Encouraging Non-gender Stereotyped Attitudes in Youth

Books and references

Bansal, P. (2020). Youth in contemporary India. Springer. https:10.1007/978-81-322-0715-3
Berk, L. E. (2018). Development through the lifespan (7th ed.). Pearson.
Berzin, S. C. (2008). Difficulties in the transition to adulthood: Using propensity scoring to understand what makes foster youth vulnerable. Social Service Review, 82(2), 171-196. https://doi.org/10.1086/588417
Government of India (2014). National youth policy-2014. Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India.
Hornby, A. S. (2020). Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of current English (10th ed.). Oxford University Press.
NCERT (2021). Human ecology and family science: Part I. NCERT.
O’Higgins, N. (n.d.). Young people not in employment, education or training [Technical brief]. International Labour Organization. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/26634NEET_Sida_brief.pdf
Santrock, J. W. (2019). Adolescence. (17th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education.
Shanahan, M. J. (2000). Pathways to adulthood in changing societies: Variability and mechanisms in life course perspective. Annual Review of Sociology, 26, 667-692.
Sharad, S. (2021). Youth: Concept and Identity. Youth, Gender and Identity. IGNOU. https://egyankosh.ac.in/handle/123456789/80847
The United Nations (n.d.). Definition of youth. https://www.un.org/esa/socdev/documents/youth/fact-sheets/youth-definition.pdf
UNESCO (n.d.). By youth, with youth, for youth. https://en.unesco.org/youth
UNICEF & J-PAL (2017). Supporting adolescent transition to adulthood: What works and what doesn’t. UNICEF & J-PAL.
Wyn, J., & White, R. (1997). Rethinking Youth. Sage.

Instructor bio

Dr. Naziya Hasan

Department of Teacher Training and Non-Formal Education, Jamia Millia Islamia

Dr Naziya Hasan is working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Teacher Training & Non-Formal Education (IASE), Faculty of Education, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. She has also worked as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Teacher Education, Manipur University, Imphal for more than 8 years. She completed her B.Ed. and M.Ed. From Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. She received her PhD degree from IASE, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi in the area of English Language Teaching (ELT). Her areas of interest are English Language Teaching (ELT), Gender Issues in Education, Teacher Education, Language Education, Educational Technology and Curriculum Development.

She is an active contributor in the development and preparation of MOOCs. She has prepared more than 70 e-contents, modules and video lectures for different MOOCs. She is the course coordinator of three MOOCs namely; Education in Contemporary India, Educational Technology and Youth, Gender and Identity. In the past cycles, these courses were joined by more than 25000 students worldwide.

To her credit, she has many articles and research papers published in national and international journals of repute. She has contributed many chapters in different books on education and ELT. She has presented a good number of papers in national and international conferences and seminars. In addition to these, she has attended and delivered lectures in workshops sponsored by UGC, NCERT and RCI. Dr Hasan has keen interest in writing on the issues concerning education.

Course certificate

- Internal Assessment- Weekly assessments released in the course shall be considered for Internal Marks and will carry 30 percent for the Overall Result. Out of all weekly assignments, the best/top five scores will be considered for the final Internal Assessment marks.

- End-term Assessment - The final exam shall be conducted by NTA, and will carry 70 percent for the overall Result.

- All students who obtain 40% marks in the internal assessment and 40% marks in the end-term proctored exam separately will be eligible for the SWAYAM Credit Certificate.

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