BA Education, Leadership and Culture

The unit introduces students to the ideas of Capitals as presented by Pierre Bourdieu, and how we can use these ideas as a framework of understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of educational heritage projects.  We will specifically consider several different heritage experiences in Manchester and consider how these projects link to the social, economic, and symbolic capitals of the local population and the wider city.  By considering different aspects of the history of Manchester, such as it’s place within the Industrial Revolution, how it dealt with the slum clearances, how it became a centre for music, and how it become known worldwide for sports, we will see how the culture of the city has changed but how key aspects have remained the same.  We will also consider why some heritage locations became successful whereas others have closed.  The course will be a mixture of on-campus lectures, workshops, and off-campus visits to key locations within the city.  The ultimate goal of the module is to give students a toolkit of skills that can be applied to any town or city to help them understand the unique social, culture, and economic backgrounds that construct a place.

• The unit aims to: 
  Introduce students to Bourdieu’s concepts of Cultural, Social, Economic, and Symbolic Capitals
• Explain how these ideas can help us to understand the Field in which heritage education exists
• Explore practical ways to use Bourdieu’s Capitals as a toolbox to aid understanding of the cultural  environment in which a heritage educational experience will occur

Bourdieu’s capitals will be used to help students gain an understanding of an environment in which an educational heritage experience will occur and how, if the positionally of this experience is not matched to the requirements of the target engagement group, then the experience gained may be limited leading to cultural inequalities

Using SWOT Analysis informed by Bourdieu’s ideas, students will consider how incorrect positioning within the educational field may result in poor engagement with the project meaning that available resources are not exploited to the full thereby having potential impacts on both long-term educational paths and social educational paths.

Consider what has made some heritage sites successful whereas others have failed.  This will be done through the comparison of Setantii Museum and Portland Basin Museum, both based in Tameside in the East of Manchester. 

How can we use Bourdieu’s frameworks to help identify how we can engage with disadvantaged young people and families within a given educational heritage example.

Consider how organisations can use both government and lottery funding to structure educational heritage experiences.

Students will be exposed to several different educational heritage experiences and will then use the Bourdieu’s frameworks to gain an understanding of how these projects are positioned within the community

Students will critical analysis this positionality and then consider how these examples could be developed further to provide more educational value to the community through engagement with people operating educational heritage experiences. 

Constructivist – Workshop sessions will take a constructivist approach as students will be asked to consider various problems related to incorrect application or understanding of Capitals, identify the inconsistencies, and then propose solutions.

Collaborative – This will be in the workshops and the lecture theatre spaces and will require students to consider a particular issue and discuss this within their groups.  I propose to initially use Menti for feedback rather than asking people to verbally contribute, thereby allowing for the students to build confidence in their own answers, and then introduce more verbal interaction as the sessions move throughout the semester.

Inquiry-based – Part of the workshops constructivist approach will require the students to undertake some case-study based problems and then work on the solutions with their peers  As well as giving the students the opportunity to work with one another, it will also give them the opportunity to consider what makes a good team and to reflect on the success or failure of their working together.  

Integrative – Cross-fertilisation of ideas and concepts through discussion and action allow the students to achieve some applied value to the learning.  It also allows me to evaluate how the students are engaging with the course materials.  This will allow me to target support to specific students where necessary.

Reflective – Throughout the course there will be space for students to engage with both reflective thinking and reflective practice.  This will allow students to critically appraise their actions and decisions against those of other groups and consider how their own performance could have been enhanced.  This will also allow me to reflect on the progress of both the course and the students and give me space to develop the module in future years.

What teaching modes will be most effective to achieve this?
I think it is important to consider the synchronicity and the location of learning opportunities.  As such I will approach the course in the following manner:

In-person On-campus – This will be mainly facilitated through lecturers and some workshops where students will attend a physical space to engage with some formal learning.

In-Person Off-Campus – This will require students to attend off-campus learning activities, such as a field trip to Anita Street in Manchester or the Portland Basin Museum in Ashton-Under-Lyne.  The idea here is for students to experience teaching within an environment more akin to educational heritage spaces and see how different techniques need to be developed to deliver educational experiences.

Digital On-Campus – This will tend to be in the workshops where students will be given a series of problems that they need to resolve within the time of the workshop and will be digitally constructed.  These may be the consideration of how a funding bid could be done or searching for data on the university systems for specific articles or structuring a short presentation to solve a problem.

Digital Off-Campus – One of the tasks that the students will have to undertake will require them to meet outside of structured hours and prepare a short digital presentation (format for them to decide on) to answer a particular problem.  This will require the students to consider things like leadership of the group and time management as well as the academic elements of the problem.

• Document the different aspects of Bourdieu’s Capitals and how these are related to the Field
• Use this understanding of Capitals and Fields to construct a SWOT analysis of a heritage educational experience.
• Through the use of infographics students will demonstrate an understanding of summarising and explaining the complexities of a selected educational heritage organisation and how its Capitals interact with its target group.
   

• Through the use of infographics students will demonstrate an understanding of summarising and explaining the complexities of a selected educational heritage organisation and how its Capitals interact with its target group.
• Critically evaluate present government funding routes that are available to organisations seeking funding to set up educational heritage experiences.
  Critically evaluate the impact of cultural misalignment of a educational heritage experience
• Use reflective practice to consider the strengths and weaknesses of their group and personal tasks and if any personal bias or experiences impacted upon these interactions.
  
   

• Demonstrate academic techniques including citation and paraphrasing.
• Analyse and evaluate a educational heritage organisation and understand their positionality to their target communities
• Analyse how Capitals can help and/or hinder an educational heritage experience of engaging with its target audience and, summarise the key outcomes, and recommend potential areas of improvement in this strategy.
   

• Reflect on your own personal values and dispositions and consider how these may impact upon the way we engage with different perspective and viewpoints
• Engage in and demonstrate IT skills through the preparation of assessment tasks
  Teamworking and Time Management
• Independent working skills
• Discovery of Manchester and its social and cultural history 
   

30 % Weighting

Group Presentation – You have been asked to support a charity to develop its educational heritage offer.  Consider the provided case study and then suggest how the charity should develop its educational heritage offer.Student groups can choose their mode of delivery (e.g. PowerPoint presentation, video submission)

30% Weighting

Poster 
Select a real-life educational heritage organisation and consider (a.) how it interacts with its target communities? (b.) what potential cultural misalignments do you feel exist within the educational heritage organisations offer? 
(c.) what could you recommend the organisation could do to widen its impact? 
As this work is based on infographics, it should provide information in a clear, easy to comprehend manner and should minimise academic language

40% Weighting

Reflective Writing – Using a Reflective Model consider your experiences and identify ways in which you could improve your performance in future tasks

Feedback via VLE 15 days after submission

Bourdieu, P. (1993). The Field of Cultural Production (1st ed.). Cambridge: Policy Press.
Bourdieu, P. (2010). Distinction (1st ed.). London: Routledge Classics.
Foster, E., & Sanders, S. (1996). Comparable but different: Cultural differences in Work based learning. ECRE, Seville: University of Leeds.
Grenfell, M. (2008). Pierre Bourdieu: Key Concepts. Durham: Acumen Publishing.
Mountford-Zimdars, A., Sabri, D., Moore, J., Sanders, J., Jones, S., & Higham, L. (2015). Causes of differences in student outcomes. London: HEFCE.
Swartz, D. (1997). Culture and Power: The Sociology of Pierre Bourdieu (1st ed.). London: The University of Chicago Press.
Walther, M. (2014). Repatriation to France and Germany: A Comparatibe Study Based on Bourdieu Theory of Practice. Wiesbaden: Springer.

Journal articles

Bourdieu, P. (1986). The Forms of Capital. In J. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of Theory and Research for the Society of Education (pp. 46-58). New York: Greenwood.
Bourdieu, P. (1987). What Makes a Social Class? On The Theoretical and Practical Existance of Groups. Gender, Age, Ethnicity and Class: Analytical Constructs or Folk Categories? (pp. 1 - 17). Chicago: The University of Chicago.