EDUC45730: Critical Perspectives in Education

• None

• None

• None

• To introduce students to key theoretical concepts and their relevance to current educational debates.
• To encourage students to read and reflect critically on educational issues.
• To present students with a range of perspectives to better understand the social, cultural and political relations prevalent in educational settings at a macro and micro level.
• To help students reflect critically on these issues from an international and comparative perspective: how can these key theoretical concepts help understand educational issues in different educational and national contexts? What does this mean for thinking about education internationally?

• The course will be divided in three sections
• Accountability, surveillance and performativity
• Market models in education
• Education and the surveillance society
• Performativity, audit and accountability
• Curriculum and ideologies
• Curriculum theory
• Total curriculum/hidden curriculum
• Curriculum as a vehicle for cultural, social and political reproduction
• Diversity and Othering
• Postcolonial interpretations and discourses
• Feminist and gender theories of education
• Multiculturalism, superdiversity, critical race theory

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• Knowledge and understanding of key social and critical theories
• Knowledge and understanding of key sociological concepts
• Knowledge and understanding of the specific contributions of these theories and concepts to the study of education locally and internationally
• Knowledge and understanding of key interpretations of education as a site of social, cultural and political reproduction

Subject-specific Skills:

• To reflect critically on concepts and theories encountered in the module
• To build on these concepts and theories to analyse educational issues and current debates, locally and internationally
• To read and analyse seminal theoretical texts and critically navigate different interpretations and commentaries

Key Skills:

• To read and think critically and independently
• To develop critical inquiry
• To analyse, synthesise, evaluate, identify and deconstruct issues, norms and practices
• To construct and sustain a reasoned argument
• To develop study and research skills, information retrieval, and the capacity to plan and manage learning, and to reflect on own learning
• To use written and spoken communication skills

• An intensive programme of lectures, seminars (including group work) and, self-guided learning. Lectures will give up-to-date knowledge of social and critical theory and help structure students own study and learning towards the learning objectives. Seminars will facilitate a more in-depth student engagement with themes and issues raised in the lectures. The format of lectures and in particular seminar exercises will enable students to critically discuss key module concepts and engage with seminal texts, interpretations and commentaries. Assessment will take the form of one essay. This will provide the opportunity for students to demonstrate the extent to which they have understood and are able to engage critically with the theories and concepts covered under the learning outcomes.

If you have a question about Durham's modular degree programmes, please visit our Help page. If you have a question about modular programmes that is not covered by the Help page, or a query about the on-line Postgraduate Module Handbook, please contact us.

Prospective Students: If you have a query about a specific module or degree programme, please Ask Us.

Current Students: Please contact your department.