MA Education: Culture, Language & Identity

This course emphasises the pleasures of literature and aims to make students knowledgeable and committed readers of literature for children and young people. In the course we aim to address a range of issues in relation to culture and identity through literature for children.

We take a wide definition which includes picture books and graphic novels, media and dramatic texts. We consider historical perspectives and explore children's literature for today, as a distinct form, which is a product of both literary traditions and current ideological contexts.

Sessions will include consideration of the nature of literature for children, poetry and oral texts, picture books, media texts, graphic novels and reader response theory, and an exploration of literature about the refugee experience.

Module Tutor: Dr Clare Kelly

This module focuses on issues of race, ethnicity and cultural diversity in education. We will begin by considering what these terms mean, before discussing how and why ethnic and racial boundaries have been constructed through history, and to what extent people accept or contest these boundaries. We will pay particular attention to the history of the concept of racism, and to some of its contemporary manifestations around the world.

From these starting points we will move on to consider how these concepts impact on education. Issues such as what is or should constitute a 'good pupil', the nature of the teacher’s role in the classroom, what knowledge is valued, and who decides, will be investigated. We will also consider how other aspects of identity, notably social class and gender, intersect with ethnicity and race to affect learning and learner identities in different ways.

The module aims to challenge stereotypes, and notions of ethnic identities as fixed and unchanging. It invites participants to reflect on their own ethnic and cultural background, and to explore how this influences their own understandings of racialisation and identity. It also expects participants to draw directly on their own personal experiences as learners and, where appropriate, as teachers. Throughout the module we will seek to consider strategies and discourse which lead to a more inclusive socio-cultural approach to teaching and learning, and to experience the excitement and complexity of being part of an inclusive multicultural classroom ourselves.

The last two decades have seen the development of global policy orthodoxies (travelling policies) in education, which have been worked on by regional and global organisations (the EU, the OECD, The World Bank) and which have affected policy developments and educational cultures at national and local levels. This effect is not purely discursive: institutional mechanisms of data-collection, data-comparison and target-setting provide a powerful driver of change, as the PISA example shows.

The impact of global policy orthodoxy/global policy mechanisms on national cultures and policies is uneven, and greatly depends on previous paths taken by national educational experience.  It is also shaped of course by economic and social circumstances – migration, precarity, industrial and service sector growth.
This module will consider the global/national/local relationship and the new kinds of policy & practice it is promoting, as well as the new identities it is helping to produce among students and educators - focusing particularly on China, South Africa and Western Europe.

This module will begin by exploring the links between language, experience and culture, using autobiographies of migration as a means to understanding entry into a new world at different stages of life. We will then examine ethnographic studies of socialisation in cross-cultural contexts, revealing how multilingual resources are deployed and developed in home and community learning. This research challenges assumptions on the nature of teaching and learning in schools and other mainstream educational settings, leading to questions on how teachers and students can negotiate an inclusive classroom culture.

We will consider the relative status of different languages and language varieties, and discuss theories on how power relationships affect the construction of multilingual identities, including students’ identities as learners. Case studies of learners of different ages and from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds will enable us to evaluate a range of possible approaches to the teaching of literacy and other curriculum areas. Finally, we look to the future in comparing UK and international research into alternative curricula that expand and enrich learners’ multilingual repertoires.

This module explores contemporary art curation and practice from the perspective of cultural theory. The module will involve classes at The Whitechapel Gallery, The Showroom, The South London Gallery and Goldsmiths, and provides an in-depth understanding of cultural theories of institutional pedagogy and public culture as a way of contextualizing the work undertaken by the galleries. Throughout the module, art works and institutional practices will be encountered and considered in terms of the following questions: What is being produced through artist’s practices and galleries’ remits? What kinds of relationality does an artists’ practice create?  What relationship does an artists’ work have with the production of objects? What is the public sphere created by a gallery?  Does this public sphere engage publics with a political issue? The interrogation of art works and institutions will be informed by reference to contemporary theory in critical and cultural studies that engages with the production of meaning and subjectivity. Module members will be introduced to a selection of theoretical frameworks including schizoanalysis, institutional pedagogy, publics, counter publics and little publics, in order to extend their ability to read and interpret art practices.

Module tutor: Emma Snowden

Leadership in schools requires educators to manage large, complex systems. This requires specialised understandings and strategies, ranging from a deep comprehension of how policy is made and implemented and the training of new staff-members; to the development of empowering, collaborative relationships, and the important business of involving the pupil voice in managing an institution that has been organised for them.

In this module we engage with issues including:

• equity
• identity
• self-awareness
• policy into practice
• youth participation in governance
• learning as leadership
• organisation
• change management
• the embedding of meaningful strategic objectives through pragmatic action

We examine the relationship between management and education, considering what this means in practical terms in the school context, through developing the skills necessary for effective communication, strategic thinking, and the leading of whole-school initiatives.

The link between theory and practice will be the backbone of our seminars, with sessions delivering both a critical framework and a useful set of leadership strategies with which to engage. The mentoring component will offer participants the skills to support and embed teacher training as a tool for school improvement. It will constitute a case study for dovetailing leadership and management tasks so that they work in harmony with each other.

Module tutor: Kirstin Lewis

In this module we will consider the relationship between theory, research and practice, particularly in an education context. This will be covered with sessions delivering both a critical framework and an opportunity to discuss new ideas and alternative approaches.

You'll consider a number of themes including the impact of a move towards ‘craft based’ teaching on classroom inclusion and the impact of the recent Prevent agenda and The Equalities Act on classroom practice, as well as the political, social and economic forces that shape them. You'll explore how policy can be adopted to enhance and inform practice, in tandem with professional expertise, rather than undermining it.

All student will be encouraged to link theory with their own practice and, through research, to further develop their engagement with active professional, and school development in collaboration with colleagues and/or pupils in their own context. Students will also have the opportunity to investigate an area of their own choosing through an assessment based in research-engaged practice.