Postgraduate Course: Critical perspectives on Education: international policy discourses (EDUA12001)

Course Outline
School	Moray House School of Education	College	College of Humanities and Social Science
Credit level (Normal year taken)	SCQF Level 12 (Postgraduate)	Availability	Not available to visiting students
SCQF Credits	20	ECTS Credits	10
Summary	A selection of critical theoretical perspectives will be introduced and examined as frameworks for addressing international policy discourses on education. These frameworks will enable students to deepen their knowledge and understanding of theoretical and conceptual resources as well as to identify and critically evaluate the żblind spotsż of dominant policy discourses. The course will draw, for example, from materialist and structural accounts of critical theory, post-structuralism and a selection of identity theories. These theoretical resources will be used to critically analyse key policy trends in the following sectors of education and their relevant discourses: adult education and lifelong learning; schooling; further and higher education and development. UK policy trends will be situated in the context of globalising forces and international policy discourses.
Course description	Not entered

Course Delivery Information

Academic year 2017/18, Not available to visiting students (SS1)		Quota: None
Course Start	Semester 2
Timetable	Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info)	Total Hours: 200 ( Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 196 )
Assessment (Further Info)	Written Exam 100 %, Coursework 0 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment)	Either a 4-5000 word essay on a title to be negotiated with the course team. Alternatively, they can produce the equivalent to this in terms of a conference powerpoint presentation with voiceover.
Feedback	Not entered
No Exam Information

Academic year 2017/18, Not available to visiting students (SS2)		Quota: None
Course Start	Semester 2
Timetable	Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info)	Total Hours: 200 ( Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 196 )
Assessment (Further Info)	Written Exam 100 %, Coursework 0 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment)	Either a 4-5000 word essay on a title to be negotiated with the course team. Alternatively, they can produce the equivalent to this in terms of a conference powerpoint presentation with voiceover.
Feedback	Not entered
No Exam Information

Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to: Demonstrate in-depth knowledge and understanding of a number of critical perspectives and how, in turn, these can provide new insights into policy problems or issues. Apply an analysis of power and its impact on international policy discourse. Critically assess the role of social forces and movements for change and document their impact historically as well as on the contemporary policy context. Communicate at a publishable standard how policy discourses can be addressed, challenged and redefined in more socially just ways. Demonstrate an authoritative understanding of the relationship between global and local policy discourses, and community and institutional practices.

Reading List
Apple, M. W. (2012) Can Education Change Society? London, Routledge. Bacchi, C. (1999) Women, Policy and Politics: The Construction of Policy Problems. London: Sage Ball, S. J. (2012) Education Inc.: New Policy Networks and the Neoliberal Imaginary. London, Routledge. Birkland, T (2010), An Introduction to the Policy Process: Theories, Concepts and Models of Public Policy Making, Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe. [e-book] Brookfield, S. (2005) The Power of Critical Theory for Adult Learning and Teaching, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Craig, G., Burchardt, T. and Gordon, D. (2008) Social justice and public policy: Seeking fairness in diverse societies. Bristol: Policy Press. Hill, M. (2009), The Public Policy Process, London, Longman (4th edition), particularly Chapter 2: żTheories of power and the policy processż. Ringrose, J. (2012) Postfeminist Education? Girls and the Sexual Politics of Schooling. London, Routledge.