Introductory description

This interactive, workshop-based module begins from the perspective that transformations in society, culture, economy, politics, employment and knowledge require us to fundamentally rethink how we perceive and organise education. Building on existing interdisciplinary literature, the module challenges existing modes of delivery and content and explores alternative educational approaches. Through a range of activities and discussions, together we reflect critically on our own educational experiences. We will design and justify new ways of doing education that provide a better fit with our diverse and changing ways of living.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

The module will consist of 9 two hour workshops, and a Contemplation Week in week 6. These sessions will be discursive and exploratory - based on students' prior experiences in various educational settings and on engagement with core readings. Activities will stimulate debate across disciplines. Assessment activities promote further discussion and encourage students to work together to reimagine educational structures and practices. Group presentations, and subsequent reflective and critical discussions, form a major part of the module.

Indicative weekly topics:

Week 1 – The meaning and purpose of education

Week 2 – What’s wrong with schooling

Week 3 – The nature of learning

Week 4 – Learning webs

Week 5 – Education, teaching and subversion

Week 6 – Contemplation week

Week 7 – The role of the university

Week 8 – Assessment reassessed

Week 9 – Technological advances – new threats and opportunities

Week 10 – Educational futures – utopias and dystopias

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Creatively synthesise literature from a range of disciplines to critically assess different approaches to education and their stated and implicit aims.
• Demonstrate confidence and flexibility in recognising ‘education’ as complex, divergent and wide-ranging –taking place in many different formal and informal settings
• Critically consider the main complexities and implications of the questions 'What is learning?' and 'what is teaching?', taking into consideration a wide range of pedagogic practices, theories, experiences and personal reflections.
• Develop a systematic understanding of pedagogic philosophies and practices and how those practices can be adapted for future challenges and settings.
• Critically reflect and analyse their own and others’ experiences as participants in a creative and interdisciplinary learning process
• Make a compelling case for new and innovative educational structures and practices which meet the needs of the twenty-first century

Indicative reading list

Illustrative Bibliography

Abbott, J. & MacTaggart, H. (2010) Over schooled but under educated: How the crisis in education is jeopardizing our adolescents. Continuum

Adey, P and Dillon, J. (2012) Bad Education: Debunking Myths in Education. Open University Press

Anyon, J (2005) Radical Possibilities: Public Policy, Urban Education and a New Social Movement. Routledge

Apple, M. (2004) Ideology and Curriculum (3rd Edition). Routledge

Claxton, G. (2001) Wise Up: Learning to live the learning life. Network Education Press

Fielding, M. & Moss, P. (2011) Radical schooling and the common school: A democratic alternative. Routledge

Fishman, G., McLaren, P., Sunker, H. and Lanksheer, C (2004) Critical Theories, Radical Pedagogies and Global Conflicts. Rowman and Littlefield

Freire, P. (1995) Pedagogy and Hope. Continuum

Freire, P. (2005) Education for Critical Consciousness. Continuum

Gale, T and Denscombe, K. (2003) Engaging Teachers: Towards a Radical Democratic Agenda for Schooling. Open University Press

Giroux, H. (1997) Pedagogy and the Politics of Hope: Theory, Culture and Schooling. Westview Press

Harber, C. and Meighan, R. (ed.) (1989) The Democratic School: Educational Management and the Practice of Democracy. Education Now

Hooks, B. (1994) Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. Routledge

Holzman, L. (1997). Schools for Growth: Radical Alternatives to Current Educational Models. Mahwah, N.J: L. Erlbaum Associates

Illeris, K. (2006) How we learn: Learning and non-learning in school and beyond (2nd edition). Routledge

Jackson, N., Oliver, M., Shaw, M. and Wisdom, J. (2006) Developing Creativity in Higher Education: An Imaginative Curriculum. Routledge

Luckin, R. (2010) Redesigning learning contexts: Technology-rich, learner-centred ecologies. Routledge

Nolan, V. and Darby, G (2005) Reinventing Education: A ‘Thought-Experiment by 21 Authors Synectics. Education Initiative

Rattansi, A. and Reeder, D. (1992) Rethinking Radical Education. Lawrence and Wishart

Semel, S. F. and Sadovnik, A. R. (Eds). (1999). Schools of Tomorrow, Schools of Today: What Happened to Progressive Education. New York: P. Lang

Willingham, D. (2012) When Can You Trust the Experts?: How to Tell Good Science from Bad in Education. Josey
Wrigley, T.,Thomson, P & Lingard, B. (2012) Changing Schools: Alternative ways to make a world of difference. Routledge

Research element

Research is defined by BERA as the development of new knowledge. In this module students will have the opportunity to develop new knowledge in the classroom, through digital technology, through their utopia/dystopia and
through a reflective learning knowledge. Knowledge will be developed independently as well as co-created and different forms of knowledge will be drawn upon.

Interdisciplinary

The module is designed via interdisciplinary study to enable students to make connections between their own discipline/s and the object of study, and so devise original research questions. The module will, therefore, help students to grasp abstract and complex ideas from a range of disciplines (=multidisciplinary), and to synthesize these into thoughtful intellectual responses (=interdisciplinary), that lead students to insights that may lie beyond the scope of a single discipline (=transdisciplinary). The module will help students to develop an interdisciplinary understanding of education drawing on, for example, psychology, economics, philosophy, STEM, neuroscience, sociology, critical pedagogy, and enable them to reflect on their own and others’ experiences as participants in a creative and interdisciplinary learning process .

Subject specific skills

• Decide where and how they might publish their work in academic and journalistic contexts, and present it to a wider audience
• Appreciate the value of understanding different disciplinary approaches and perspectives, especially in relation to their subject specialism
• Leverage a confidence and competence in interdisciplinarity for further study, work and citizenship
• Develop an understanding of their own pedagogic philosophies and practices and how they can adapt those practices for future challenges and settings.

Transferable skills

• Articulate arguments orally and through well-argued writing, supported by wide reading and research
• Collaborative skills (across disciplines) of listening, giving and receiving feedback, and achieving resolution
• Creativity
• Critical reflection
• Interpersonal and communication
• Problem solving
• Research skills
• Time management