Module SOCI44715: Education and Social Inequality

Department: Sociology

SOCI44715: Education and Social Inequality

Prerequisites

• None.

Corequisites

• Should your personal timetable allow, students wishing to specialise in the sociology of education could take the School of Education Critical Perspectives in Education EDUC45730 which runs in term 2.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• To give students theoretical and empirical tools for understanding educational inequality.
• To understand how education can play a role in either reproducing or transforming existing social structures and inequalities.
• To understand how education policy is shaped by particular ideologies.
• To develop practical and critical analytical tools for understanding educational change.

Content

• The following topics related to the sociological understanding of educational inequality will be explored over the ten week period:
• Race, class, gender and disability in education
• Schools and school policy
• Universities and higher education policy
• Critical pedagogies and alternative models and institutions of education
• Ideology, policy, markets and the state in education.

Learning Outcomes

• Upon successful completion of this module, students will have demonstrated:
• An understanding of key educational theories of reproduction and transformation.
• Knowledge of key contemporary and classic research within the field of the sociology of education.
• Understanding of key contemporary debates among education policy-makers and practitioners about the role of education in social reproduction and transformation.

• Upon successful completion of this module, students will have demonstrated:
• Analysis and selection of critical texts and research in the sociology of education.
• Ability to map and understand the field of research in the sociology of education.

• Upon successful completion of this module, students will have demonstrated:
• Critical analysis of academic research and theory.
• Ability to discuss key debates.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• 10 weekly two-hour sessions combining lecture and seminar style teaching, including the opportunity to discuss key debates with peers.
• Formative essay: you will be asked to submit a 750 word essay plan which will be due in the second half of the term.
• Summative essay: this module will be summatively assessed by a 3,000 word essay.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

A 750 word essay plan to be submitted in the second half of the term.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University