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Education Policy

Module description

The purpose of this module is to explore key issues and debates in the field of education. The module will introduce you to the ideas, theories and concepts underpinning education policy debates and to contemporary developments in this field. It seeks to enable you to critically examine education policy developments both within and between national contexts and travelling policy as it moves between different international settings. As such you will be asked to critically examine policy developments in a range of local, national and international contexts and to undertake a study of an education policy development in a setting with which you are familiar.   

Module aims - intentions of the module

The principal aim of this module is to facilitate critical examination of education policy in global, national and local contexts. It will seek to develop the following:

• Knowledge and understanding of education policy and its relationship to wider changes at  local, national and international levels 
• Knowledge and understanding of key ideas underpinning education policy changes, policy processes and developments
• A more developed knowledge and understanding of educational practices and institutional arrangements as they have developed in the context of policy change
• Critical thinking in relation to theoretical perspectives on education policy as a field of contest
• The capacity to effectively contribute to debates about education policy development and change
• The capacity to examine the implications of policy frameworks and discourses for educational institutions and teaching and learning practices

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Demonstrate a critical understanding of education policy in different settings
• 2. Critically evaluate different theoretical perspectives on education policy
• 3. Demonstrate a critical understanding of key global, national and local issues in education policy

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 4. Critically reflect upon and evaluate your own understanding of education policy and its application to contexts with which you are familiar
• 5. Critically examine theoretical perspectives on education policy as a field of contest

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 6. Synthesise and organise ideas to present a convincing argument
• 7. Engage in critical, reflective debate
• 8. Undertake both directed and independent study to recognise, justify and analyse key ideas in education policy literature and relate these to research, theory, policy and practice

Syllabus plan

The content of the module may change to reflect emerging and developing theory, research and practices in the field of education policy. Nevertheless it will consider key questions and perspectives on education policy including:

• Characterising education policy
• Localised and elite policy making
• Frameworks and models of policy development
• Educational centralisation and decentralisation
• Education policy transfer, travel and re-contextualisation
• Reforming teacher professionalism and teacher identities
• Conceptions of children and young people in education policy
• Education policy and social justice
• Large scale educational reforms including state intervention, New Public Management and privatisation
• Choice, markets and competition in education
• Educational policy and students, teachers/lecturers and education institutions

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Ball, S.  (2007) Education PLC, London: Routledge.
• Ball, S. (1998) Big Policies/Small World: An Introduction to International Perspectives in Education Policy, Comparative Education, 34: 2, Special Number (20): Comparative Perspective in Education Policy, pp. 119-130.
• Burch, P. (2009) Hidden Markets, New York, NY: Routledge.
• Clarke, J. and Newman, J. (1997) The Managerial State, Power, Politics and Ideology in the Remaking of Social Welfare, London: Sage.
• Hall, D. Grimaldi, E., Gunter, H., Moller, J., Serpieri, R., and Skedsmo, G. (2016) Educational Reform and Modernisation in Europe: The Role of National Contexts in Mediating the New Public Management. European Educational Research Journal, 14 (16), pp. 487-507
• Hall, D. and Gunter, H. (2016) England: the European Educational NPM Laboratory in Gunter, H., Grimaldi, E., Hall, D., and Serpieri, R. (Eds) New Public Management and the Reform of Education: European Lessons for Policy and Practice. London: Routledge
• Hall, D. and McGinity, R. (2015) Conceptualising teacher professional identity in neo liberal times: Resistance, compliance and reform, Education Policy Analysis Archives
• Lipman, P. (2004) High stakes education, London: Routledge Falmer.      
• Ozga, J. (2000) Policy research in educational settings, Buckingham: Open University Press.
• Pollitt, C. (2007) New Labour’s re-disorganization: hyper-modernism and the costs of reform, a cautionary tale. Public Management Review, 9, 529–543.
• Sachs, J. (2001) 'Teacher professional identity: competing discourses, competing outcomes', Journal of Education Policy, 16: 2, pp 149 — 161.
• Whitty, G. (2002) Making sense of education policy, London: Sage.

Key words search

Policy, education, markets, choice, privatisation, reform