Education

Core modules:

Critical Issues in Education and Educational Research

This module introduces students to key issues in education and educational research that will underpin their studies, regardless of which pathway they take through the full-time masters programme. It outlines current and historical and theoretical approaches to education and introduces the key paradigms of educational research. The module also considers critical issues in education and educational research, drawing on the research strengths of the module team focusing on a range of areas including educational psychology, globalisation, disability and inequalities, enabling the module to provide a foundation for other modules on the programme. The module thus offers students an opportunity to develop a critical stance towards some of the most pressing issues in educational research in contemporary societies.

30 credits

The Practice of Research

This module introduces students to the processes involved in designing an educational research project, conducting the study and completing the research report. The module focuses on research design, identifying and refining a research topic, reflecting on a researcher's philosophical perspective and positionality, formulating research questions and choosing appropriate methods to use in particular instances and settings. It explores the principles of data analysis and outlines issues to be considered in the presentation of findings from a research process. It aims to provide students with the skills and knowledge required to complete a dissertation in an education-related field.

30 credits

Optional modules:

Early Childhood 1: Development, Learning and Curriculum

This module enables students to develop critical understanding of learning, development and curriculum in early childhood education. Students will analyse theory, policy and research to evaluate a range of historical, contemporary, national and global perspectives on young children's learning. The module provides students with opportunities to think critically about the location of early childhood education within the broader contexts of social, cultural and political values and priorities. Students will learn about approaches to early childhood education that draw upon examples from Global South and the Global North contexts.

30 credits

Early Childhood 2: Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood Education

This module introduces learners to recent ideas related to contemporary issues in Early Childhood Education. Sessions to be taught include the following: children's rights; quality in Early Childhood Education and care; creativity in arts and contemporary communication practices; popular culture; digital literacies; gender; traditional and digital play; including children in research. This will be followed by student-led presentations on topics related to the above. It is intended that this will prepare students for their assignment.

30 credits

Developmental Psychology

This module examines the core concepts of Developmental Psychology, including cognition (intelligence, language, learning) and emotional development, behaviour and well-being, social development (including family and attachment, peer relations and trauma) as well as the study of individual differences (with reference to developmental differences such as autism, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and mental health conditions). The increasing digitisation of learning and online media is explored across a range of educational contexts and childcare professions. The ways in which psychological research and theory has affected a range of governmental policies, services and professional practices and wider societal attitudes to young people will be considered within transnational contexts.

30 credits

Critical Psychology and Education

This module introduces different approaches to conceptualising learners and learning which fall within the broad field of critical psychology. The module begins with an introduction to the development of mainstream psychology in Europe and America, and an exploration of the subsequent development of alternative and critical psychological perspectives. Within the broader critical psychology landscape are a number of different threads (such as discursive psychology, indigenous psychology and feminist psychology). This module will examine the key principles of these various critical psychological perspectives with particular attention to their concepts of learning, learners, and learning communities. It will offer a challenge to some of the dominant ideas around learning which have emerged from mainstream fields of psychology since the 19th Century.

30 credits

Language Acquisition, Learning and Pedagogy

This module will explore key theories and approaches in language acquisition, learning and associated pedagogies. Various theoretical and empirical issues will be addressed together with learner-internal and learner-external factors that influence the processes of second language development in education.

The course provides students with an opportunity to consider critically theories of second language acquisition (SLA), motivation, and the role of the self. The theory and application of new technologies in language acquisition, learning and research are addressed. The application of theory and research to aspects of second language teaching and learning is also explored.

30 credits

Language, Society and Education

The Language, Society and Education module provides students with an advanced understanding of the relationship between linguistic structures and social categories. It covers key research methods in the interdisciplinary field of sociolinguistics and their application to a range of areas including language and identity, discourse, performance and social interaction, ideologies and social structure, culture and education. By the end of the module, students will have developed solid theoretical knowledge in a range of research traditions as well as an advanced competence in qualitative research methods for the study of language, society and education. Students have the opportunity to explore topics relating, to the evolution and transmission of culture, intercultural communication, bi/multilingualism, attitudes to language varieties, voice, narrative and inequality in ordinary and institutional settings, media representations of social worlds, global spreads of language and cultural forms with specific reference to English and new media.

30 credits

Dissertation

The dissertation is a major part of the MA in Education and associated programmes. The dissertation topic can develop a theme raised during the taught part of the course, or an issue which relates to the specialised research areas covered by the students' own interests. The Course Team provides guidance on the choice of a suitable topic for investigation and advice and support throughout the study period (December to August). A wide variety of study is possible, including empirical studies, theoretical reviews, historical or philosophical investigations. The dissertation is 12,000-15,000 words in length. Each student is allocated a supervisor - a specialist in the research area. Students and supervisors work together over the four months of the dissertation period before submission of the thesis.

60 credits