CYP5192 - Education, Inequality and Social Justice

Objectives:

On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:
Understand the key forms of inequality in education, using UK and international data;
Critically assess competing theories on the extent to which education is implicated in social reproducing or ameliorating social inequality;
Critically analyse policy impacts on inequality;
Understand and be able to apply differing perspectives on social justice and ethics in education.

Content:

The course builds on the L4 course introduction to the sociology of education. It will be structured around key problems – class inequality and forms of capital, critical race theory, gender transformations and the inclusion debate.
Around these key themes the course will explore:
• The empirical reality of forms of educational inequality;
• The key theories which attempt to explain social reproduction and transformation especially around class, ethnicity, gender and disability;
• Social justice and education;
• Policy impacts on patterns of educational inequality and opportunity.

Learning and Teaching Information:

The module will be taught in workshops that utilise a range of pedagogies. This will include case studies, discussion groups, project work and presentations by guest speakers.

Workshops
Contact hours: 30
Intended Group size: 50
Tutorials Contact hours: 1
intended group size: 2
e-Tutoring Contact hours: 2
Intended group size: 1
Guided independent study
Hours: 167

Further details relating to assessment
The case study will take a key problem such as class inequality or the gender gap and
• Outline and explore the empirical evidence for the existence of such a problem
• Outline the key theories which attempt to explain the problem and assess their strengths, weaknesses and usefulness for informing policy and practice.
• Assess whether current policies are likely to exacerbate the problem explored.