Master of Arts - Education

This MA is a highly flexible programme of master's study aimed at students and professionals seeking to deepen their knowledge of education and its role in society.

Schooling can be viewed as just one context within which education may take place; there are many other contexts in which educational approaches are used to work with children, young people and adults. Some of these contexts include advisory work, early childhood practice, educational administration and policy, learning support and the third sector to enhance educational provision for children, families and communities. This MA will explore education across these different areas.

The programme will draw on the wider professional experiences that students may have of working in contexts where educational approaches are important. These may include experiences such as employment in youth work, sports’ coaching with young people, working for charities with children and young people to provide learning opportunities in this country or internationally.

This MA will cover critical social and educational theories and perspectives, as well as policy and practice relevant to global and local educational contexts. It will support students to achieve a critical awareness and understanding of education in its broadest sense as a process of human learning and development.

Students will be introduced to the key concepts of race, ethnicity, class and gender in the Power in Education and Society module. Students will be moved beyond theoretical knowledge to reach an informed position in relation to equality, diversity and social justice in education. Awareness will be raised of past and current international discourses in education, critically examining how they impact on children, young people, families and communities.

The compulsory final dissertation module will give students the opportunity to select a topic of their choice and undertake a critical enquiry of the subject. Students must also take a compulsory research module, called Social and Educational Research, which is designed to teach them about social and educational research and to prepare them for the dissertation.

Students will select a further four modules from a range of options, including those from related MA programmes in Early Childhood Studies, SEN Disability & Inclusive Education and Education Leadership and Management. This gives students the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding in an area of education that interests them, or is relevant to their chosen career. A maximum of two from any of these programmes can be taken and decisions about which of these are appropriate for each student are made by the Programme Convenor in consultation with students.

Students will benefit greatly from engaging with the insights, experiences and perspectives of their peers who may come from a diverse range of contexts, backgrounds and experiences. These insights combined with the students' own experiences and the theory gained from the modules will allow them to deepen their understanding of working with children and young people and of education in its broadest sense.

Lecturers leading modules on this programme have specialist qualifications, teaching or leadership experience in the field of education, with relevant research and scholarly backgrounds, which will help shape the content of the programme.

Those with less practical experience will need to have studied a degree programme such as BA Education, BA Children’s Studies, BA Youth Work, BA Early Childhood Studies, BA Social Pedagogy or BA Sports Coaching, all of which emphasise the practices of working with children and young people to enable their participation, development and learning.