- 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
Students will apply critical perspectives to analyse current and real issues from the world of education, policy and society.
Occurrence | Teaching period |
---|---|
A | Autumn Term 2022-23 to Summer Term 2022-23 |
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.
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).
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
Task | Length | % of module mark |
---|---|---|
Essay/coursework Essay - 2000 words |
N/A | 40 |
Essay/coursework Essays 3 x 1000 (3000) words |
N/A | 60 |
None
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.
Task | Length | % of module mark |
---|---|---|
Essay/coursework Essay - 2000 words |
N/A | 40 |
Essay/coursework Essays 3 x 1000 (3000) words |
N/A | 60 |
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.
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