ED7145 - Social Justice Education (2024/25)
| Module specification | Module approved to run in 2024/25 | ||||||||||
| Module title | Social Justice Education | ||||||||||
| Module level | Masters (07) | ||||||||||
| Credit rating for module | 20 | ||||||||||
| School | School of Social Sciences and Professions | ||||||||||
| Total study hours | 200 | ||||||||||
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| Assessment components |
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| Running in 2024/25(Please note that module timeslots are subject to change) |
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Module summary
This module introduces students to multiple perspectives and ideas about social justice and inequalities in education, including knowledges with which students can consider various socio-political and professional contexts for social justice in education. It explores research evidence, discourses, tensions and complexities within educational policies and practices, with respect to concerns for education (in)justices, designed to develop critical awareness and thinking around values, assumptions, agency and educational change. Students are supported to engage in critical analysis with a view to articulating and applying a position in relation to models and theories of social justice education
The module will aim to:-
• introduce students to multiple perspectives and theories of social justice;
• critically examine key aspects (social class, gender, ethnicity/race, send) of educational injustice, their intersections and relationships
• provide knowledges with which students can consider socio-political and professional contexts for educational social justice within national settings
• explore tensions within education policies and practices - structures, social relations, curricula - with respect to concerns for educational (in)equalities
• encourage students to develop and articulate a standpoint with respect to models and theories for social justice education change
Syllabus
The module discusses notions and discourses of social justice in education from philosophical, sociological and political perspectives and explores how they shape and influence education policy and practice responses. (LO1,2)
Focus is on key approaches to the idea of Social Justice, developed by Rawls, Fraser and others theorists subsequently - based on redistribution of resources, goods, services, and capabilities; relational justices such as recognition, cultural respect and valuing differences; also representation and inclusion within education practices and policies. Necessarily it involves critical exploration of research evidence of experiences and effects - also interplay - of social class, race/ethnicity, gender, send, on actors in formal education. (LO1.2.3.4 )
It explores theories that conceive education as a key variable in the creation of fairer societies and an implication that these necessitate commitment of all actors involved – educators, learners, parents/carers, communities, policymakers. With respect to this, students are encouraged to articulate a vision of a socially justice education future in a context, critically reflecting on how this may lead to contestation within the education system. (LO 3,4)
Balance of independent study and scheduled teaching activity
The module will be delivered weekly as three-hour evening sessions, combining lecture input, seminar activities and informal student led discussion. This will include use of reading materials, interactive exercises and case studies to deepen understanding and support a reflexive and critically informed approach to issues, ideas and research evidence for session topics, drawing upon students’ own experiences and identities, thus enabling students to explore values and critically reflect on their own. The virtual learning platform will complement and reinforce core face to face engagement, such as opportunities for virtual tutorials for assessment, use of varied media resources.
The assessment, giving students choice of selected module themes, will directly facilitate development of student critical awareness, understanding and voice in relation to learning outcomes. Preparation will be supported via written one to one feedback on essay plans in addition to class discussion.
Learning outcomes
On completing this module, the students will be able to:
1. identify and understand key theories, perspectives and discourses concerning social justice education;
2. critically analyse multiple dimensions and intersections of educational inequality
3. demonstrate understanding of how the concept of educational social justice may be applied in different contexts
4. articulate a reflexive standpoint with regard to social justice education ideas and use this to model future education policy and practic