BA Education, Leadership and Culture

Education is one of the most important institutions in modern life. Social factors, including differences of class, gender, ethnicity, and region, regularly influence educational attainment, which in turn influences students’ access to occupational positions, income and status. Equally, the expansion of education has resulted in tremendous changes to contemporary ‘post-industrial’ societies. This module will consider the social dynamics of schooling from primary to secondary to higher education, comparing these across national contexts. You will learn a range of classical and contemporary social theories to analyse empirical material in relation to broad themes including the globalization of education, cultural capital, professionalization and the history of organized knowledge. 

The aims of this module are:
a.) To provide students with an introduction to the study of education from a social scientific perspective. 
b.) To allow students to apply acquired social scientific skills to the topic of education 
c.) To introduce a a range of classic and contemporary debates on education, highlighting the significance of these debates to social science in general. 
d.) To allow students to explore a range of empirical case material from several national contexts, providing an opportunity to understand education and society from many perspectives

I. Primary and Secondary Education
II. Sociology of Higher Education

III. Education and the State
IV. Classical debates in the sociology of education

V. Professions, Vocations and Post-Industrial Society
VI. Social Class and Social Mobility
VII. Ideology and the Curriculum: Critical Sociologies of Education
VIII. Contemporary Perspectives on Education

IX. Gender, Ethnicity and Multiculturalism in Education
X. Globalization of Education

Lecture-seminars – 20 1.5 hour lectures going in depth into the material.

Will use the VLE to coordinate coursework on a weekly basis

• Identify central concerns in the field of the sociology of education
• Analyse empirical case studies in education drawn from a broad survey of literature
• Critically evaluate classical and contemporary debates in the sociology of education, including gaps within the literature.

• Demonstrate an analytical understanding of the significance and contradictions of education in sociological understandings of modern society 
• Assess different educational systems across contexts 
• evaluate empirical material and develop arguments in the light of theoretical bodies of knowledge.

• Engage with empirical material and analysis informed by bodies of literature in the field of the sociology of education.
• Reflect on your role in education including the relationships between educational attainment, employment and citizenship
   

• Preparation, organization for final essay
• Demonstrate you can work independently. 
   

Abbott, Andrew. 1988. The System of Professions: Essay on the Division of Expert Labour. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Ball, Stephen J. 2007. Education Plc: Understanding Private Sector Participation in Public Sector Education. Routledge.
Berman, Elizabeth Popp. 2011. Creating the Market University: How Academic Science Became an Economic Engine. Princeton University Press.
Bourdieu, Pierre and Jean-Claude Passeron. 1990. Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture. SAGE.
Dyhouse, Carol. 2006. Students: A Gendered History. Routledge.
Erikson, Robert and John H. Goldthorpe. 1992. The Constant Flux: A Study of Class Mobility in Industrial Societies. Clarendon Press.
Etzkowitz, Henry and Loet Leydesdorff, eds. 2005. Universities and Global Knowledge Economy: A Triple Helix of University-Industry-Government. illustrated edition. Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd.
Reay, Diane, Miriam E. David, and Stephen Ball. 2005. Degrees of Choice: Social Class,Race and Gender in Higher Education. Stoke on Trent, UK�; Sterling, USA: Trentham Books Ltd.
Weber, Max. 2008. Max Weber’s Complete Writings On Academic and Political Vocations. edited by J. Dreijmanis. Algora Publishing.
Young, Michael. 2007. Bringing Knowledge Back In: From Social Constructivism to Social Realism in the Sociology of Education. Routledge.