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This is a compulsory module in the second year of the BA Education Studies programme. It provides a detailed analysis of education policy and the underlying political trends behind how governments around the world have chosen to organise education. It covers major debates within education policymaking and considers the numerous ways in which politicians have sought to change education systems through policy. This involves an examination of different policy areas and their relationship to their social and economic contexts, using sociological approaches. The module examines a range of case studies looking at the enactment of policy in practice across all areas of education.Ìý

Teaching delivery:ÌýÌýThis module is taught in 10 weekly lectures (1 hour each) and 10 weekly seminars (1.5 hours each).ÌýÌý

Indicative Topics: Topics covered in this module include:Ìý

• What is policy?Ìý
• Education and political ideologiesÌý
• Neoliberalism in education and the Global Education Reform Movement (GERM)Ìý
• Policy enactment, cycles, and windowsÌý
• School choiceÌý
• High-stakes testingÌý
• Neoconservatism and ‘character’ educationÌý
• Policy and changes in the teaching professionÌý
• Privatisation and private sector involvement in educationÌý

Module Aims:ÌýÌý

This module aims to provide students with the following:ÌýÌý

• To develop students' understanding and analysis of key perspectives and current issues in education policy, both in England and globally.Ìý
• To introduce students to the process of making education policy and the range of political views on education.Ìý
• To develop students' ability to explore the complex relationships between developments in policy at global, national, local and institutional levels.Ìý
• To develop students' analytical ability to assess the relationships between policy and wider social, political and economic contexts, including an appreciation of the importance of values and ideology in policy making.ÌýÌýÌý
• To strengthen general academic and intellectual skills in writing, communication and the development of critically informed argumentsÌý
• To apply knowledge and understanding of key concepts from the module to the analysis of actual education policies using a sociological approachÌý

Recommended readings:ÌýÌý

While not a necessary pre-requisite, reading the first two chapters of Adams, P. (2014). Policy and Education. London: Routledge. (pp. 3-38) would be helpful for building familiarity with some of the key concepts in the module and in policy sociology.