MA Education

Gain a clear understanding of the nature and significance of policy and practice in education, relevant to researchers as well as professionals in schools, colleges and universities.

The MA in Education provides outstanding opportunities to study a wide range of educational issues. It will provide you with a clear understanding of the nature and significance of policy and practice in education, relevant to researchers as well as professionals in schools, colleges and universities.

A key feature of the course is the facility for you to draw on your own professional and personal as well as academic and theoretical interests, through being able to choose from a range of optional modules to study (see below). You will also be able to explore your own interests in depth through the completion of a dissertation.

In all of our modules, we aim to introduce you to key ideas and ways of thinking that enable you to engage with related issues in contexts that are relevant to you. Our course is constructed in such a way that contexts as diverse as science education in schools, informal learning in the workplace and the management of schools outside the UK, can be explored through module assignments as well as the dissertation.

The degree has been designed to meet the needs of educational professionals, especially those in teaching, management or administration at all levels of education. Students likely to benefit from the course are those who are interested in education, often teachers or people planning to become teachers, who have a commitment to pedagogy, and educational managers in schools, colleges and higher education institutions, as well as those working in educational administration, in the UK and overseas.

Through its flexible delivery routes, the MA in Education is suitable for students from all backgrounds and countries. In addition to a traditional full-time study route, the course is also available part-time. On the part-time route, teaching is delivered through intensive teaching weekends scheduled around (Durham) school half-term holidays making the course more accessible for those working full-time.

Students who have successfully completed the PGCE at Durham in the previous academic year have the option to use 90 credits they have accredited on this course. These students will only need to do the core modules, Education Enquiry and the Dissertation (if part-time, over 2 years), to complete the course.

Course Structure

Full-time students study the four taught modules plus the dissertation over one year.

Part-time students normally study two taught modules per year in years one and two. The dissertation is also completed in the second year of the programme.

Core modules:

• Design and Methods in Education Research (30 credits)
• Critical Perspectives in Education (30 credits)
• Dissertation (60 credits).

Optional modules:

You must select 60 credits from a list of optional modules which may include:

• Digital Technology and Education: Critical Perspectives (30 credits)
• Arts in Education (30 credits)
• Curriculum Analysis (30 credits)
• Enhancing Teaching and Learning for Productive Thought (30 credits)
• Improving Computer Education
• Intercultural and International Education (30 credits)
• Intercultural Communication (30 credits)
• Policy Studies (30 credits)
• Psychology of the Learner (30 credits)
• Special Educational Needs and Inclusion: Rhetoric or Reality? (30 credits).

The above are examples of modules we have run in previous years and does not necessarily reflect the exact list of optional modules on offer each academic year. Modules are continually developed in response to student feedback and interests, as well as to reflect the changing nature of academic research within the department.