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Education, Policy & Society - EDU00024I

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  • Department: Education
  • Module co-ordinator: Dr. Chelsea Sellers
  • Credit value: 30 credits
  • Credit level: I
  • Academic year of delivery: 2022-23
    • See module specification for other years: 2021-22

Module summary

Students will apply critical perspectives to analyse current and real issues from the world of education, policy and society.

Module will run

Occurrence Teaching period
A Autumn Term 2022-23 to Summer Term 2022-23

Module aims

Students will apply critical perspectives to analyse current and real issues from the world of education policy. Students will examine the historical emergence and development of contemporary education systems, and consider debates on the place of education in contemporary society. Students will be exposed to historical, philosophical, economic, political and sociological perspectives on education across a number of themes. Through this module, students will significantly develop their critical thinking and analysis skills as applied to education and policy.

Module learning outcomes

Subject content

  • Make connections between educational issues and ideas across different times and places;

  • Understand how historical evidence is constructed and its strengths and weaknesses

  • Develop understanding of the policy process;

  • Become familiar with different concepts of policy and methods of policy analysis, and be able to critically analyse the role of various drivers of policy, including ideology and evidence;

  • Be familiar with instances of policy borrowing and be able to critically examine the utility and effectiveness of such an approach;

  • Be able to critically analyse how and why educational reforms evolve, the use of the crisis account in framing policy, the limitations of educational policies and the role of various policy actors;

  • Recognise social influences on education, educators and learners in different settings and in different historical periods;

  • Be able to make links between broader trends in society and individual lives in the context of education

Academic and graduate skills

Students will develop their critical thinking, critical policy analysis, written and verbal communication, and argumentation skills. Specifically, students will engage in policy analyses, small group work, short presentations to the whole class, class debates, informed discourse with guest speakers, tutors, and other students, and supplement their assigned readings with ones they have found. As an additional skill, students will develop their IT skills by interacting fully with the VLE (Yorkshare).

Module content

The module is structured to have a 2 hour lecture followed by 1 hour seminars which complement and explore the lecture content with a deeper focus.

Autumn term

Week 2: Historiography - How we read and write the history of learning

Week 3: Learning and Social Values

Week 4: Analysing Education - Exploring political, economic and social contexts

Week 5: The Enlightenment: The emergence of modern forms of learning

Week 6: Education in the industrial age - 19th Century

Week 7: Educational policy since WWII

Week 8: Higher policy since WWII

Week 9: Learning society to knowledge economy

Week 10: Focus on assessment

Spring Term

Week 2: What is education policy? - Key processes and debates

Week 3: How is education policy made? - Sources of influence

Week 4: Current policy 1- School diversity

Week 5: Current policy 2- Higher education

Week 6: Policy experts - Guest lecture followed by a guided analysis

Week 7: Policy experts - Guest lecture followed by a guided analysis

Week 8: Policy experts - Guest lecture followed by a guided analysis

Week 9: Reflections on guest lectures and group work presentation

Week 10: Student group presentations of policy solutions

Summer Term

Week 1: Revisiting the relationship between education and society

Week 2: Critical theory and postmodernism

Week 3: Current consensus? Neoliberalism and market forces

Week 4: Critical pedagogy and revision session

Assessment

Task Length % of module mark
Essay/coursework
Essay - 2000 words		 N/A 40
Essay/coursework
Essays 3 x 1000 (3000) words		 N/A 60

Special assessment rules

None

Additional assessment information

There will be a non-anonymous formative assessment in week 10 of Spring term. The assessment is comprised of a 5 minute group policy presentation.

Reassessment

Task Length % of module mark
Essay/coursework
Essay - 2000 words		 N/A 40
Essay/coursework
Essays 3 x 1000 (3000) words		 N/A 60

Module feedback

Written feedback on assignment report sheet and face-to-face feedback in supervisions. The feedback is returned to students in line with university policy. Please check the Guide to Assessment, Standards, Marking and Feedback for more information.

Indicative reading

Ball, S. (2008). The Education Debate. Bristol: Policy Press.

Chitty, C. (2004). Education policy in Britain. Houndmills: Palgrave MacMillan.

Tomlinson, S. (2001). Education in a post-welfare society. Maidenhead: Open University Press.

Additional recommended readings will be set on a week by week basis


The information on this page is indicative of the module that is currently on offer. The University is constantly exploring ways to enhance and improve its degree programmes and therefore reserves the right to make variations to the content and method of delivery of modules, and to discontinue modules, if such action is reasonably considered to be necessary by the University. Where appropriate, the University will notify and consult with affected students in advance about any changes that are required in line with the University's policy on the Approval of Modifications to Existing Taught Programmes of Study.