Course summary

The MA Education is a stimulating part-time programme designed to develop and strengthen your identity, critical confidence and academic expertise as a serving educational professional – whether you’re in the early stages of your education career or you have extensive experience. This MA puts emphasis on broadening your critical perspective on education, with a carefully weighted balance between sector-wide and context-specific content and tasks. Dedicated, knowledgeable and enthusiastic staff will guide you through varied philosophical and disciplinary positions, with a focus on supporting you in articulating and strengthening your own expert critical voice. We’ve designed the course to lead you through established and emerging debates about policy and practice. Through a developmental sequence of modules, you will strengthen your skills of critically reflective practice and practical enquiry. You’ll receive specialist training in thinking further and deeper about the complexity and challenges of education, as well as its possibilities. Throughout the MA, we’ll encourage you to reflect on your own priorities and interests, enabling you to shape and influence good practice in your workplace. The course brings together educational professionals from a wide variety of contexts: early years, primary education, secondary education, special education, further and higher education. Students range from early career teachers to senior leaders and managers to those who support learning, and this diverse mix ensures sessions encompass multiple perspectives, broadening perception out from the practice of each singular workplace. Our programme is specifically designed to meet the needs of busy professionals, with evening and weekend sessions sensibly spaced over each year. Learning is supported through access to the online library and journal resources, a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) and a specialist team of staff in our Learning Hub to support academic learning and development. Each module comes with a comprehensive handbook, reading list and detailed support for assessment, both with process and product.