There are four study blocks in the taught component of the programme spread across the first two years (6 weekend study schools per year) with end of year papers as follows:

 

Year 1

ED6700: Improving education and enhancing educational professionalism

• The (recent) history of educational improvement in the UK and abroad, particularly from the perspective of policy (including standards-based improvement; inspection and improvement; measurement, curriculum reform, learning outcomes; league tables)
• The possible contributions of research to educational improvement (including action research; school effectiveness and improvement; teacher judgement; teacher activism)
• The literature on professions, professionalism and professionality, and its relevance for education (including conceptions and definitions of professions, professionalism and professionality; teacher professionalism; teacher agency; teacher autonomy). Enhancing professionalism (including the role of teachers, of research, of policy; the role of accountability)

 

ED6701: Making sense of education: Theory, history and policy

• Theories of education (with a particular focus on how educational theories and forms of theorising differ from theories and theorising in other practical fields and academic disciplines)
• The history and development of education as a scholarly and academic endeavour, in the UK and elsewhere. The history of education (with a particular focus on the history of school education and educational reform)
• Trends in education policy in the UK and elsewhere (including critical analysis of political dimensions of education policy and how such policy helps or hinders educational practice and educational professionalism)