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DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2019/2020

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of Social and Political Science : Social Policy

Undergraduate Course: Education Policy in the EU (SCPL10031)

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of Social and Political Science CollegeCollege of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) AvailabilityAvailable to all students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryEducation and social policy more generally have gone through several important transformations in the last half century in Europe. This course aims to discuss some of these changes. It will deal mainly with education policy, examining how, by whom and with what effects policy is made, and also discussing its role in the changing character of democracy. The course will examine education policy as an important, yet peripheral and largely ignored, policy area in the making of Europe. First we will trace it historically during its 40 years of development; second, we will study the more recent emphasis on learning as an economic resource for European societies, a source of social cohesion but also interestingly- as one of the most common modes of policy making in Europe (i.e. policy learning); and finally, the course will discuss the role of education governance in Europe, currently and in the future.
Course description Not entered
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisitesNone
High Demand Course? Yes
Course Delivery Information
Not being delivered
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. develop an advanced understanding of the development of education policy within the European Union
  2. critically assess the impact of globalisation on education policy in Europe
  3. understand and critically debate the transfer of education research and policy between countries
  4. understand the role of the OECD in national and European education policy making
  5. develop research, analytical and presentation skills, through guided research in preparation for assessment and tutorials
Reading List
Byrne, D. and Ozga, J. (2006), BERA Review 2006: Education Research And Policy, British Educational Research Association.
Dale, R. (1999), ¿Specifying globalisation effects on national policy: a focus on the mechanisms¿, Journal of Education Policy, 14 , pp. 1-17.
Davies, P. (2002), ¿The relevance of systematic reviews to educational policy and practice.¿ Oxford Review of Education, 26 (3/4), pp. 365-378.
Desrosières, A. (1998), The Politics of Large Numbers: A History of Statistical Reasoning, Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: Harvard University Press (chapter 8: ¿Classifying and Encoding¿)
Dolowitz, D and Marsh, D (1996) ¿Who Learns What from Whom: a review of the policy transfer literature¿, Political Studies XLIV (2), 343-357
Freeman, R (2006) ¿Learning in public policy¿, in Rein, M, Moran, M and Goodin, R E (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Public Policy, Oxford: Oxford UP
Freeman, R (2007) ¿Epistemological bricolage: how practitioners make sense of learning¿, Administration and Society 39 (4) 476-496
Giddens, A. (1998), ¿Globalisation¿, in The Third Way, Cambridge: Polity, pp. 28-33.
Giddens, A. (1998), ¿Into the global age¿, in The Third Way, Cambridge: Polity, pp. 129-53.
Gray, J. (1998), False Dawn: the Delusions of Global Capitalism, London: Granta.
Held, D and McGrew A (eds) (2002/2007), Globalization/Anti-Gobalization (esp intro and Part 1), Cambridge: Polity,
Hodkinson, P and Smith, J.K. (2004), ¿The relationship between research, policy and practice.¿ In: Thomas, G. and Pring, R., eds. (2004). Evidence-Based Practice in Education. Maidenhead: Open UP/McGraw-Hill. pp. 150-163.
Lawn, M. (2006), ¿Soft Governance and the Learning Spaces of Europe¿, Comparative European Politics, 4, 272-288.
Levitt, B and March, J (1998) ¿Organizational learning¿, Annual Review of Sociology 14, 319-340
Martens, K. (2007), ¿How to become an influential actor ¿the ¿comparative turn¿ in OECD education policy¿, in K. Martens, A. Rusconi and K. Lutz (eds) Transformations of the State and Global Governance, London: Routledge, 40-56.
Novoa, A and Lawn, M. (eds), (2002), Fabricating Europe: the Formation of an Education Space, Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Nutley, S., Walter, I. and Davies, H. (2003), ¿From knowing to doing: a framework for understanding the evidence-into-practice agenda¿, Evaluation, 9, pp. 125-48.
Ozga J and Lingard B. (2007), ¿Globalisation, Education Policy and Politics¿ in Lingard, B and Ozga J (eds) The RoutledgeFalmer Reader in Education Policy and Politics, London, Routledge.
Porter, T. M (1995), Trust in Numbers: The Pursuit of Objectivity in Science and Public Life, Princeton: Princeton University Press (chapter 8: ¿Objectivity and the Politics of Disciplines¿ and chapter 9: ¿Is Science Made by Communities?¿)
Power, M. (2004), ¿Counting, control and calculation: Reflections on measuring and management¿, Human Relations, 57, 765-783.
Rogers, E (2003) The Diffusion of Innovations, fifth edition, New York: Free Press.
Rose, N. (1999), Powers of Freedom: Reframing Political Thought, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (chapter 6: ¿Numbers¿)
Rose, R (1991), ¿What is lesson-drawing?¿, Journal of Public Policy 11(1), 3-30.
Rose, R (2000), ¿What can we learn from abroad?¿, Parliamentary Affairs, 53, 628-43.
Schön, D A (1973) Beyond the Stable State. Public and private learning in a changing society, Harmondsworth: Penguin
Simon, H (1991) ¿Bounded rationality and organizational learning¿, Organization Science 2(1), 125-134
Wenger, E (2000) ¿Communities of practice and learning systems¿, Organization 7(2,) 225-246.
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Not entered
KeywordsEducation policy, European Union, democracy, learning as economice resource for European societies
Contacts
Course organiserDr Sotiria Grek
Tel: (0131 6)51 3180
Email: Sotiria.Grek@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMiss Amy Wilson
Tel: (0131 6)50 8253
Email: Amy.Wilson@ed.ac.uk
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