Keele University Prospectus Undergraduate | 2016 | Page 88

PUBLIC POLICY AND PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE

Education and Sociology
Overview

A combined study of Education with that of Sociology
to honours degree level means you will exit with a BA
(Hons) in Education and Sociology. In so doing you
will gain a comprehensive knowledge of both of these
disciplines and the ways in which they overlap and
work together.
The Education strand of your degree gives you an
opportunity to explore in some detail the policy and
practice of schooling and education of the British
education system. From exploring how children learn,
the development of the modern education system
across time, how recent policy has affected teaching
practice and the impact factors such as class, race and
gender have on educational success we aim to give
you a comprehensive understanding of the world of
schooling and education. Throughout the program
there is a strong focus upon career development and
there are a range of opportunities for you to enhance
your professional and personal experiences. For
example, there is the chance for you to carry out a
placem ent in a local school and to conduct your own
research project in an area of your own interest. You
can also partake in an overseas exchange visit for a
semester with one of our many partner universities or
else carry out your own independent research project.
In the Sociology strand of your degree, you will cover
a range of topics which seek to explain different
aspects of society and how social changes take
place. Sociology investigates social interactions and
experiences at different scales: from the personal
and individual, to social groups, neighbourhoods,
communities, regions, nations and the global. We
live in a rapidly changing technological, social and
political world and the discipline of sociology helps
us try and explain and understand what impact they
may have on different groups of people. In exploring
topics as diverse as the family, globalisation, the city,
consumption and the media you will see how human
behaviours can be explained by processes, patterns
and trends that exist beyond the individual and what
we can do to challenge and change them.
In both the Education and Sociology aspects of your
degree you will be taught by academic staff all of
whom are at the forefront of research and publication.
You will be joining two highly successful departments
within a major British university and will have the
opportunity to apply your understanding of key
issues that face our contemporary societies including
the changing nature of work and family life, shifting
patterns of inequality, changing political ideologies as
well as the study of educational policy, process and
practice across a range of settings from elementary to
higher education.

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Course content

First year
Core modules in Education:
• Understanding Learning
• Education in Britain
Core modules in Sociology:
• Social Inequalities in the Contemporary World
• Classical Sociology
Elective modules in Education:
• Back to the Future: Issues in the History
of Schooling
• Childhood Policy and Education
• Digital Technologies
• Too poor to learn? Poverty, Education
and Social Policy
Elective modules in Sociology:
• Researching British Society
• Modernity and its Darkside
• Self and Society
• Global Sociology
• Mediated World
Second year
Core modules in Education:
• Education Matters: Contemporary issues and
debates in education
• Research Strategies and Methods in Education
Core modules in Sociology:
• Contemporary Sociological Theory
• Sociological Research Methods
Elective modules in Education:
• Comparative Education
• Education Placement
• Issues in Public Education
• Play, Power and Pedagogy
• Reflective Teaching
• Special Education
Elective modules in Sociology:
• Race, Racism and Resistance
• Globalisation and its Discontents
• City, Culture, Society
• Witchcraft, Zombies and Social Anxiety
• Cultures of Consumption
• Families and Households: Diversity and Change
Third year
You will complete a dissertation on a topic of your
choice in either Education or Sociology.
Elective modules in Education:
• Education, Work and Identity

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