Education Studies BA Honours

Course content

What will you study on the BA Education Studies?

You will examine both historical and contemporary approaches to education policy development in the UK and study an introduction to philosophy in relation to education. Alongside this, you will explore the psychological approaches to learning and the study of childhood (which includes the social construct of childhood and child development). You will be continually building on your learning and also studying the National Curriculum Key Stage 2 and beyond alongside comparative education, equality issues and research methods. You will also have the opportunity to conduct an independent research project, gain practical experience on placement and have a choice of modules to complement your learning including disaffection and counselling in education, children's rights, education and the law, and children's literature.

Modules

subject to validation

This module is an overview of education policy from the beginning of universal state education until the present. The philosophical ideologies that have underpinned policy and a more detailed examination of some current education issues will be explored.

This module is a study of a selection of learning theories and their relation to the learning of children and adults including learning styles and how this affects you as a learner. It also includes an exploration of the historical approach to the concept of childhood and how children develop physically, socially emotionally and creatively.

An introduction to the history and the concept of childhood; theoretical perspectives of factors influencing development and an in-depth study of the child’s holistic development will be explored. You come to know and recognise the key stages in child development and their theorists associated with these developmental areas.

This module allows you to explore the philosophical underpinnings of state education by reference to key texts and sources such as Plato, Dewey, and others. This module will help you begin to develop a critical analytical approach to education, raising questions such as: Why have compulsory education? Who is education for? Who decides the curriculum and what should its aims be? You will also develop a basic knowledge of the nature and methods of philosophical study.

The driving force behind this module is the idea that knowledge and skills of social research are today of fundamental importance in virtually all professions, but especially within the fields of education and early childhood. Therefore, the module encourages and trains you to go beyond the simply learning research skills and to engage with research critically and reflectively in your daily life.

This module will discuss definitions of the key concepts (race, class, sex. disability) and the statistical evidence for underachievement in education. Sociological and psychological explanations that have been advanced to account for patterns of underachievement as well as central and local government policies and legislation that have sought to address inequality in educational provision and attainment will be explored.

This module examines education systems across a range of cultures and countries and compares them with the English system. Issues such as teacher training, gender, access to free education and the impact of globalisation will be considered. The value of comparing and classifying education systems in diverse settings will also be discussed.

This module aims to provide a critical exploration of the National Curriculum from its inception to present day issues in the primary and secondary phases such as vocational education, pedagogy in relation to the needs of the child, assessment and quality assurance.

This module is aimed at those who want to engage with issues of education in a deep, serious and theoretically rich way. It challenges some of the ways education is usually approached and asks how we can change education for the better. You will be actively involved in designing and proposing changes and new models. It provides you with a range of theoretical frameworks –among them postmodern theory, theory of social reproduction and critical pedagogy – which are extremely important for better understanding and engaging with education. Uniquely, the module offers a weekly book club and a monthly film club.

The aims of this module are to engage you in an understanding of the value of play for children’s learning and well-being. It will support you to explore the role of the adult in children’s play, and enable you to take a socio-cultural approach in your understanding of play, so that you understand the importance of social and cultural factors when exploring how and why children play.

This module aims to give you the ability to consider crucial aspects for those who work or undertake research in educational contexts, such as decisional processes, creating and managing work team, hierarchy, rules and procedures, leadership style, risk management, micro-management, allocation of resources. You will enabled to assess how these aspects impact on professional practices within educational organisations. You will gain a thorough understanding of educational organisations, in particular schools, and a critical understanding of the relationship between educational organisations and the families, the local and national government, the economy. The mutual influence between these social actors and educational organisation will be critically discussed.

This module will allow you to complete a small piece of detailed research of an existing field within early childhood, organise and manage a small scale research investigation with insight, demonstrate skillful use of research tools and responsibility, and display critical judgement in relating these to the wider educational and social context. You will present a research report following generic academic conventions, research of relevance to early childhood in an appropriate setting - it can be general research or Practitioner Research. Practitioner Research is suitable for those who are in an appropriate placement where you hold a fairly stable role within the organisation. This pathway to include both the research report and a self-reflective report.

This module looks at special educational needs, disability and inclusion in education and concentrates on the definitions of learning difficulty and disability and the extent to which parents, pupils and students with Special Needs and Disabilities have access to the same educational opportunities as others.

From fairy tales and the picture book to books for older readers, this module is an analysis of some key concepts in Children’s Literature. It examines the historical framework in which literature for children emerged and includes opportunities for theoretical analysis of individual authors’ works as well as studies of different genres. In addition, the important role of literature for engaging children in the written word and their role in the early classroom experience will be explored.

This module aims to explore the effects of social and emotional factors in influencing young people’s learning. The key underlying theoretical approaches are examined as are the effects of individual differences in emotional resilience as well as an evaluation of the strategies that are put in place to support young people.

This module aims to give you a strong grounding in the field of Youth Studies such as the academic study of the social, political and cultural aspects and contexts of youth in the West and around the globe. Given recent world events, Youth Studies has become even more important as a field of research and study, considered by governments to have a direct impact on youth well-being and policy-making. Today’s graduates of Education Studies must have a solid understanding of the complex and shifting notions and practices of ‘youth’ in the West and the wider world. The module offers a range of innovative assessment methods including analysis of films and music.

The module uses Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems model as a vehicle through which to explore a range of issues from a local, social, cultural and global perspective. These will include a number of the following: socio-cultural constructions of parenting and childhood; the ways in which geography, community and neighbourhoods influence developmental outcomes; cultural variances in family types and child rearing practices and the impact of these on children’s outcomes; an exploration of the issues surrounding day-care and the effect of day-care practices on the child; cultural influences on play, migration; and childhood, theories of moral development. The module takes an international focus on the wide ranging factors influencing childhood health and well-being looking at child development research beyond the home and family.

This module is a study of the concept of children’s rights in law and policy and how these apply in a variety of settings. Legal and policy documents such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and the Children Act, aimed at promoting children’s rights are debated. Philosophical issues around ‘rights talk’; ‘can children have rights’ are discussed in the context of young citizens, best interest, paramountcy and childhood as social construct.

Through this module, you will engage with the value of creativity and the arts in the learning and well-being of children and adults. You will explore how creative and artistic skills develop and what can be done to promote the development and use of these skills among all individuals. You will consider the role of creativity and the arts in various educational philosophies and approaches, as well as critically examine the place of creativity and the arts in current mainstream education in the UK.

You can find more information about this course in the programme specification. Optional modules are usually available at levels 5 and 6, although optional modules are not offered on every course. Where optional modules are available, you will be asked to make your choice during the previous academic year. If we have insufficient numbers of students interested in an optional module, or there are staffing changes which affect the teaching, it may not be offered. If an optional module will not run, we will advise you after the module selection period when numbers are confirmed, or at the earliest time that the programme team make the decision not to run the module, and help you choose an alternative module.