THE UNIVERSITY of EDINBURGH

DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2020/2021

Information in the Degree Programme Tables may still be subject to change in response to Covid-19

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : Moray House School of Education and Sport : Education

Postgraduate Course: Ethics, Epistemology and Education (EDUA11355)

Course Outline
SchoolMoray House School of Education and Sport CollegeCollege of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) AvailabilityAvailable to all students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryThe course examines fundamental ethical and epistemological issues in education. The starting point for the course is that education is a relational endeavour involving interpersonal interactions that promote learning and growth. On this basis, education necessarily relates to ethical issues concerning human interaction, and to epistemological issues concerning how human beings come to learn and what it means to know.
Course description The course will closely consider key ethical and epistemological questions in education such as, what makes teacher-learner interactions ethical? How can educators support learners to consider others in their decision-making processes? How can educators support students to think critically and gain valuable, as opposed to just examinable, knowledge? In this course, students will be encouraged to strengthen their understanding of different ethical and epistemological ideas and relate these to contemporary educational research, policy and practice.
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. Critically consider the nature of ethical and epistemological issues in education
  2. Discuss how key ethical and epistemological ideas relate to contemporary educational research, policy and practice
  3. Formulate their own reflective views of educational theory and practice on the basis of theoretical understandings of ethical and epistemological challenges in education
  4. Think critically about how different philosophical perspectives might inform a variety of education research projects
Reading List
Readings from classical theorists relating to issues of ethics, epistemology and education, e.g.,
-Plato. 'Republic', in Plato Complete Works. Edited by John Cooper and D. S. Hutchinson, 97-1223. (Cambridge, MA: Hackett Publishing Company)
-Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1772/1979) Emile or On Education. Edited and Translated by Allan Bloom. (New York: Basic Books).
-John Dewey (1933) How We Think (Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP)

Readings from contemporary theorists relating to issues of ethics, epistemology and education, e.g:
-Nel Noddings (2014) Caring: A Relational Approach to Ethics and Moral
Education (Berkeley, University of California Press).
-Aaron Stoller (2014): Knowing and Learning as Creative Action: A Reexamination of the Epistemological Foundations of Education (New York: Palgrave MacMillan)
-Fritz Oser & Wiel Veugelers (2003). Teaching in Moral and Democratic Education. (Frankfurt, Peter Lang)
-Andrea R. English (2013) Discontinuity in Learning: Dewey, Herbart and
Education as Transformation (New York: Cambridge UP)
- Lisa Delpit (2006). Other People¿s Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom. (New York: The New Press)
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills The course will consist of interactive lectures, large and small group discussions, individual and group presentations, research, writing, guest lectures, as well as other activities that promote active and creative learning. Students will be asked to prepare critical and creative input for in-class group activities (e.g. preparing questions or artistic responses to readings to share in small group discussions). Students will also be expected to collaborate with other classmates for a short interactive presentation.


Students will be expected to participate in all aspects of the course through active listening, discussion, collaboration and critical and creative thinking. Students are not required to have a background in philosophy to take the course.
KeywordsNot entered
Contacts
Course organiserDr Andrea English
Tel: (0131 6)51 6172
Email: Andrea.English@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMiss Neringa Narkute
Tel:
Email: nnarkute@ed.ac.uk
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