Education, Power and Social Change (Postgraduate Certificate)

Is education a force for reproduction or transformation in the world? Does education change the world or maintain the current system - for example, can it alleviate the effects of poverty or does it increase existing inequalities?

These are just some of the questions considered by our Postgraduate Certificate in Education, Power and Social Change. This course will deepen your awareness of how education shapes, and is shaped by, our understanding of the world. We explore the links between education (all forms of informal and formal learning, across all age ranges, including adult, higher and professional education), and social and political movements, and develop understandings of how 'education' as a contested field should be viewed within a globalised and postcolonial context.

Taking an interdisciplinary approach to thinking about education, we draw on the arts and humanities as well as the more conventional representations of education in social science. We explore key debates on what is the role of education and how people learn, developed from a range of viewpoints, including critical theory.

The Postgraduate Certificate is one of a suite of postgraduate courses looking at the subject of education, power and social change and is ideal if you are interested in studying this subject at postgraduate level for personal or professional reasons, but you don't want to commit to a full MA. This flexible part-time evening study course allows you to explore your passion for the subject and you can go on to complete our Postgraduate Diploma or MA, if you wish.