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Semester 2

Educational Politics and Policy (SCPL10005)

Subject

Social Policy

College

CAHSS

Credits

20

Normal Year Taken

3

Delivery Session Year

2023/2024

Pre-requisites

Although this course does not have any pre-requisites, it is designed for students who have studied two full years of Social Policy beforehand. If you have not studied this subject area to that level, it is your responsibility to ensure the course is an appropriate level for you during the first week of teaching, and you must drop this course (before the Course Change Deadline) if you do not have the required background knowledge/skills.

Course 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: What is education for?; Education and equality of opportunity: moral and philosophical perspectives; Education and intersectional inequalities; Education and social mobility: international comparative perspectives; Globalisation and education policy; Education governance and the OECD - Curriculum debates; Professionals and policy making in education; Education, democracy and populism; Reflections: education policy during a pandemic. Student Learning: each of the topics is dealt with through a lecture and a seminar discussion.

Assessment Information

Written Exam 0%, Coursework 100%, Practical Exam 0%

view the timetable and further details for this course