MA Education

You’ll develop your knowledge of research approaches, methods and techniques for the study of children and childhood, education and language. You’ll explore the interdisciplinary nature of work in and across these areas. After taking this module, you’ll be well prepared for the methodological aspects of your dissertation.

You’ll carry out a sustained piece of educational research. You’ll analyse and report your findings at a high critical level, justifying and supporting them with detailed reference to relevant theories and concepts. This will comprise one third of the work for your degree.

If you have the relevant professional experience and your completed assignments reflect the relevant specific professional knowledge you can choose one of the following named dissertations where you focus on a research problem of particular interest. This will be reflected in your transcript:

• Leadership and Management
• SENDi
• SEMH
• Childhood and Youth
• Children’s Literature in Education
• Education in a Digital World
• Creative Pedagogies
• International Education.

If you’re working on a project, you’ll undertake a shorter piece of independent investigative or literature-based research. You’ll also produce a creative piece or artefact.

Education is a contested and continuously reviewed field. In this module, you'll explore a range of controversial issues and dilemmas that impact the education sector. There'll be opportunities, through group discussion and extended individual research, for you to explore and debate issues in some depth.

Students will also lead some seminars to facilitate a detailed consideration of relevant issues from a range of perspectives. You will be encouraged to evaluate ideas and evidence in different forms, including popular media and policy texts, as well as more traditional academic texts.

You'll explore concepts that inform sustainable learning environments and cultures from a range of perspectives such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals of:

• international development
• well-being
• social justice
• gender equality
• safety
• equitable access to education.

There will be opportunities to explore the role of leadership and management in addition to:

• coaching and mentoring in developing a sustainable workforce
• digital technology to support sustainable pedagogies and working practices
• environmental art practices.

Pedagogies that support sustainable education, curriculum planning will be considered, as well as practices that support sustainable learning environments.

This module offers an opportunity to explore a range of innovative and creative approaches including:

• critical, transformative and compassionate pedagogies
• risk taking and embracing uncertainty within safe environments
• the use of head, heart and hand
• communities of practice and communities of care.

Together we'll evaluate topics like:

• the positioning and value of the arts in the curriculum
• the relevance of the arts in supporting democracy and societies
• the arts as social texts; sense and meaning making through creative practices
• informal learning through creative practices for example, community arts, museums and galleries, the arts in hospitals.

You'll delve into learning theories and pedagogies that inform the effective use of digital technology to support learning. This includes exploring how digital technology can be harnessed to support access to learning for a range of learners, as well as how learning analytics and Learning Management Systems (LMS) can be harnessed to manage and monitor learning to improve achievement.

There'll be opportunites to critically evaluate established and emerging debates about the use of digital technology in education.

You'll explore curriculum theory, policy, and lived experiences to understand how these inform curriculum design and embodiment, as well as the value of representation and diversity in the curriculum. Through this process, students will develop an understanding of the complexities of developing and implementing a range of inclusive learning environments.

You will explore, from national and international viewpoints, both theoretical perspectives and practical concerns about organisational transformation in education. Together we'll consider change at the macro, meso and micro levels and how educational policy impacts change. and, in turn, how leadership impacts improvement, accountability and strategic planning to support effective change.

This module will help you develop a greater understanding of educational leadership, it's impact on individuals and institutions and the role of motivation, resilience and the assurance of equity.

You'll examine inter-disciplinary and critical perspectives on Special Educational Needs/Disabilities and Inclusion (SENDI) through the lenses of history, sociology, philosophy and psychology.

Some of the topics we'll explore together include:

• the impact of national and international policy on the provision for individuals with SEND
• the ethical considerations related to SENDI
• critical perspectives and construction of SENDI including contemporary issues such as social justice and the Neurodiversity movement
• lived experiences of those with SEND, their carers and professionals.

You will draw on the four foundational disciplines of history, sociology, philosophy and psychology to explore the prevalence of Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) and a range of relevant lived experiences.

You'll consider policies that impact the education of those experiencing SEMH concerns and the theories that inform our understanding of these issues. The role of professionals supporting those with SEMH to meet their academic potential and the institutions within which they work will also be examined.

The module will include an overarching consideration of the perspectives of promoting positive mental health and wellbeing.

You'll take a holistic approach to considering the lives of children and young people, considering the context of educational/learning settings within or outside of school and how families, politics, and cultures may impact this.

There will be opportunities to explore a wide range of young people's circumstances, for example:

• hospitalisation and chronic physical and mental conditions
• young carers
• looked after children
• asylum seekers and refugees
• multilingualism
• neurodiversity.

You will have the opportunity to explore a range of approaches and environments that offer and support learning for children and adults such as forest schools, outdoor learning, inclusive provision, community projects and festivals, home-schooling, museums and galleries, and virtual schools.

Students will consider a range of creative pedagogies that can support effective learning in non-traditional learning spaces and the potential impact that these may have on learners.

This module offers you the opportunity to formulate a programme of study with assessment criteria that is based on work experience in the publishing or closely related industries. This enables you to devise, negotiate, organise and carry out reflective analysis of a period of work or a specific project according to a set of learning outcomes and assessment criteria in collaboration with the module leader and a supervisor. The programme of study is aimed at practical industry-based experiences and may include, for example, reporting on practical exploration of an issue of relevance to the publishing industry; or developing a practical project (eg website, newsletter, promotion materials). Critical reflection on your own work and on that of others is an integral aspect of the module.