Education Studies

BA (Hons)

Full-Time

This course is available in Clearing, call us on 0845 271 3333 for more information

Course overview

Join us on a journey starting from your own experience of being educated to a deeper and broader understanding of what education and being educated might mean.

Differences in the experience of and achievement from, education are long standing concerns: why do they occur? Is it because each of us has a natural level of intelligence in the same way that we have a physique natural or (as in the case of this writer) unnatural to the performance of sport? Or is it because of socially constructed perceptions related, for example, to class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, religion, and/or disability?

Founded on the approaches of critical theory and pedagogy, this course invites you to study questions arising from educational difference: why do they occur and what approaches might be taken to resolve them.

Each year you will study with students from Education & Childhood Studies:

  • The deeper meanings of education and society
  • How to develop your own learning in higher education and how to take this learning into becoming a future professional.

Distinctive to your course, however, will be a key strand running through each year in which you will study educational communities and difference in the contexts of technological change and the e-Environments.
Year one core modules:
  • Critical Engagement with Equality and Identity in Education

    The primary aim of this module is to enable students to focus on critical examination of how we understand and engage with the concept of inequality, particularly its hidden nature within the contexts of education and educational achievement.

  • Families, Schools and the Formation of Identity through Education

    In an advanced Western society, we are educated within an organised, complex system of educational institutions from and within which identities are shaped. How are our individualities and identities formed within this system and how can we study the relationships between these institutions to gain understandings of the process and outcomes of identity formation?

  • Human Development

    This module will explore the growth and development of the whole individual in interaction with his / her environment. Students will consider features of different aspects of human development, from birth to death, using a range of theories and perspectives.

  • Research 1: An Introduction

    This introductory module aims to provide students with a basic understanding of the research process. The qualitative and quantitative research paradigms will be discussed as well as a variety of methods used by researchers.

  • Specialist Key Issues: An Introduction to Education and Early Childhood

    This module will introduce core themes relating to the study of young children. Key themes to be investigated and debated will include attachment and independence, implications for daycare, trust, communication skills and friendship and how these link to children's wellbeing.

  • Understanding Learning

    This module will enable you to appreciate how learning has been studied and conceptualised, including an understanding of theories of cognitive development. Secondly it will develop an awareness of how you can develop and manage your own learning and gain confidence in your ability to use appropriate and effective study skills

Year two core modules:
  • A Critical Approach to Information Literacy and Communities of Practice

    What does it mean to learn within a community of practice? What do we mean by the concept information literacy? This module provides students with the opportunity to explore these questions through small groups using a collaborative online learning space, providing access to this space to other students, and then discussing it as an example of a community of practice.

  • An Introduction to Educational Practice

    This module provides students with the opportunity to challenge their existing personal constructs of the teacher, the learner, a lesson, a classroom or an educational setting. They will build on their existing experience and understanding of educational practice by researching, planning and executing several small contrasting observational programmes in a self-selected range of settings, focusing on one or more key educational themes.

  • Education and Society 1: Critical Approaches to Understanding the English Education System

    Using one from a given range of national education systems, students will use a range of theoretical perspectives to analyse the relationships between the system and how and why it brings about different outcomes and destinations.

  • Exploring the Curriculum: Theory and Practice for Education Studies

    This module explores the nature, purposes and functions of a range of curricula within the discipline of education studies.

  • International and Comparative Perspectives in Education

    This module looks at the field of comparative social provision in an increasingly globalised world. This objective is achieved by, primarily, exploring and comparing aspects of appropriate societal systems in our closest continental neighbours, but also further afield.

  • Research 2: Developing Understanding

    This module aims to develop your understanding of the research process and through this, to support you in acquiring the skills and competencies necessary to carry out a major project.

Year three core modules:
  • Critical engagement of the Individual with e-learning

    This module engages the student with the e-learning world from the perspective of critical theory. Dominant paradigms of the internet as an empowering learning tool will be challenged by approaching the internet as the oppressive tool of an 'elite'. This will be done through engaging with ways of understanding how identities are constructed through the concept of e-learning.?

  • Education and the Inclusive Society: Identity and the Later Life Stages

    What is the relationship between the age of an individual and the worth placed in them by society? This is the central question of this module which students address through related explorations of the meanings of inclusion and the construction of the mature and later identity.

  • Special Study

    This module is designed to enable students to deepen their knowledge of one of the key themes in Education Studies. Lectures and workshops will address a selection of these themes. Guided by discussion with the module tutors, students will choose and research a focus of individual study and write an essay which explores and analyses conflicting evidence, approaches and theoretical viewpoints in the chosen area. They will also prepare and deliver a short oral presentation in their chosen area of study.

  • Undergraduate Major Project

    The Undergraduate Major Project serves to demonstrate the student's acquisition of the discipline-related knowledge and skills that have formed the content of all preceding modules and to show that our University's expectations of all its graduates have been met.

  • Using Critical Theory and Pedagogy to Investigate Educational Text

    Students begin by engaging with what is meant by an educational text and artefact. Choosing an appropriate example, they use critical theory to understand how the text can be understood in terms of producing citizens unquestioning of the social status quo and critical pedagogy to show how the text can be used to challenge this status quo.

Assessment

Assessment will take various forms including essays and extended prose, presentations, placement proposals, placement reports, portfolios of evidence and reflective journals, patchwork texts, and participation in web-discourse.

Facilities

Our University offers well-equipped lecture theatres and seminar rooms. Our Faculty has a number of specialist rooms including: two dedicated art rooms, one equipped for design and technology; and two collaborative ICT learning suites.

Associated careers

Our degree can enable entry into a range of fields, though it will be of particular value to individuals wishing to pursue a career in teaching, educational administration and welfare, learning support, youth work, and management of early education provision. Many possible careers will require some further postgraduate training.

Links with industry/professional recognition

The design of our course has been informed by the national Qualified Teacher Standards.
UCAS Tariff points: 200
Additional Requirements: Non-Academic Conditions: CRB Checks required GCSE(s) Required: 5 GCSEs at grade C or above including English
Entry requirements listed are for September 2013 entry. Entry requirements for other intakes may differ.

Please note all tariff points must come from A levels. Points from AS levels cannot be counted towards the total tariff points required for entry to this course.

Our published entry requirements are a guide only and our decision will be based on your overall suitability for the course as well as whether you meet the minimum entry requirements.

Other acceptable qualifications
  • BTEC National Diploma in a related subject with 200 UCAS points (MMP grade)
  • 14-19 Diploma in a related subject with 200 UCAS points (MMP grade)
  • 30 level 3 credits at merit level from an Access to Higher Education Diploma available from colleges of further education. Please ensure that Level 2 in Numeracy is included if you do not have GCSE Mathematics or Science at grade C or above. This will cover all the entry requirements, provided the full course is successfully passed
  • Advanced GNVQ/AVCE in a related subject with merit grade
  • OU Credits will also be accepted in lieu of A Levels (60 credits would be expected in related subjects)
  • National Literacy and numeracy tests at Level 2 or 3 will be accepted in lieu of GCSE Maths and English (but not instead of a GCSE)

Please be advised that if you wish to apply for a PGCE course on completion of this course a minimum of a C grade in English (B grade recommend) is required.

From the above information we will calculate requirements for Scottish/Irish Highers, International, European and Welsh Baccalaureate equivalents so that they are all equitable. We will also accept tariff points from other qualifications on the UCAS tariff such as the Cambridge Pre-U (subject requirements will be assumed to be the same as for A Level).

If you do not meet the entry requirements, we would recommend you contact your local further education colleges, to ascertain which suitable courses they offer.

Applying

All applications must go via UCAS. We only accept applications between September and 15 January for the following intake year. Late applications will only be considered if places are available.

International applicants

International students are welcome to apply, but should allow extra time for visa applications to be processed, and for the International Office assessments. Students may like to consider an online option if travel to the UK presents problems. Please see below for details on equivalent qualifications.

The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) formerly Criminal Records Bureau (CRB)

An enhanced level Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) disclosure is a check with police forces and local authorities in the UK to ascertain whether or not you are suitable to work with certain groups of vulnerable people. These checks are required to be carried out on all prospective students to ensure the safety of our client group.

Further information on DBS disclosure will be sent at a later date if you are successful and firmly accept your place at Anglia Ruskin University.

We welcome applications from International and EU students. Please select one of the links below for English language and country-specific entry requirement information.

How to apply

UCAS code

X302

Location

Duration

3 years

Available starts

September

Student finance

Open Day

Saturday 22 June
Undergraduate Open Day

Advice & support

Employability

Faculty

Health, Social Care & Education

Department

Education

Contact us

UK and EU applicants:International applicants:
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