Undergraduate Course: Educational Politics and Policy (SCPL10005)
Course Outline
| School | School of Social and Political Science |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | The course considers the purposes of education, the social distribution of education, and the consequences of education for individuals and for society. It asks what policy can do to modify or sustain existing purposes, distributions and effects, and the controversies which result as part of the debates around policy. It considers how the answers to these questions have changed over time, and have varied across countries |
| Course description |
Education has gone through several enormous transformations in the last half century, in common with public services more generally. This course investigates key trends in education policy within the UK and from a comparative perspective; the political debates which have accompanied them and the impact educational policy has had on individuals and society. We will engage with perennial questions in education policy debates: the interplay between education, the economy and democracy; the relationship between educational opportunity, social diversity and inequality; the role of the state, the market and the individual within new forms of public sector governance; and the future of national education policy within an increasingly global policy context.
Lecture topics
- Introduction: what is education for?
- Education and equality: philosophical perspectives
- Equality, opportunity and mobility: sociological perspectives
- Education and intersectional inequalities
- Selection and differentiation
- The curriculum: debates about culture, knowledge and power
- Education governance and the predominance of the OECD: numbers, discourses, learning
- Education, skills and the economy
- Diversity, choice and competition: education and the market
- The politics of education policy
Student Learning: each of the topics is dealt with through a lecture and a seminar discussion.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2019/20, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 31 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 10,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 10,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
176 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
There are two components to the assessment:
(1) 1,000-word policy brief (worth 25% of final marks), due by about the middle of the semester. The policy brief should be based on one of several research reports which will be provided to you by the end of the second week of the semester.
(2) 3,000-word essay (worth 75% of final marks), due by about three weeks after the end of the semester. The essay topics will be provided to you by the end of the sixth week of the semester.
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| Feedback |
Feedback is provided on the first item of assessment noted below, well before the deadline for the second assessment. The main form of feedback is through the discussion that takes place at the seminars noted in Student Learning. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- critically evaluate the nature of education as a social institution
- critically assess the importance of power in the governance of and practice of education
- seek systematically to understand the relationship between education and social diversity
- analyse the deeply controversial issues that provoke debates about educational policy by engaging with different points of view and empirical evidence
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Additional Information
| Course URL |
http://www.ed.ac.uk/social_policy/ |
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Additional Class Delivery Information |
Class will take place on Thursdays from 11-1 in Semester 2 |
| Keywords | Education Policy,UK,Devolution,Europe |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Anna Pultar
Tel: (0131 6)51 1478
Email: Anna.Pultar@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mr Colin Arthur
Tel: (01316)51 3162
Email: carthur@ed.ac.uk |
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