BA (Hons) Childhood, Family and Education Studies

This module will provide you with an in-depth overview of key theories, issues and debates within wider social, economic, and political contexts that shape practice in schools, colleges, and universities in the 21st century within the UK and globally. As you develop your knowledge and understanding you will be able to appraise and reflect on how these issues relate to the challenges and opportunities experienced by current educational institutions and staff. These challenges and opportunities include, active learning, social media and technology, inequality, the structure of the curriculum and teacher retention.

This module gives you the opportunity to undertake a placement in a setting of your choice which is relevant to an aspect of your professional development. You will develop your knowledge of working with other professionals relevant to the context of your chosen placement. You will observe an aspect of your placement learning such as the role of practitioners, the environment, pedagogy and multi-agency working. As part of this module you will use research and literature to evaluate issues relating to your chosen topic. You will also explore models of reflective practice which will provide you with the opportunity to apply these alongside your experiential learning to assess your personal and professional learning.

The module aims to introduce you to some of the social psychological influences which affect educational achievement. You will be encouraged to reflect on their own learning experiences and how learning may be determined by social psychological factors such as emotional insecurity, motivation, attitude to learning, self-regulation, self-identity, social cognition, group process and prejudice. You will draw on a range of theories and concepts to help you also examine social psychological perspectives, such as disadvantage, gender, teacher support, peer values and mental health and well-being to explain differences in academic attainment.

This module will provide you with the opportunity to examine youth subcultures beginning with a historical context relating to the development of ‘youth’ as a subculture. You will then consider how contemporary ideas relating to social, cultural and political contexts of youth subculture have moved over time drawing on a number of sociological theories and concepts to explore issues relating to the lives of young people. These include, gang membership, representation of youth in social media, poverty and inequality, youth justice, and the use of public spaces. You will also extend and consolidate your knowledge of how the social construction of ‘youth’ is seen as ‘problematic’ and a public ‘moral dilemma’ and how these labels influence young people’s developing identity and their transition into adulthood.

This module will explore exclusion from school and why some children are more likely to be excluded than others. You will have the opportunity to interpret statistical data, research and literature linking to exclusion from school and social justice and why all people should have equal access to education. Your learning on this module includes applying theories and concepts of social exclusion and social justice in educational contexts. You will also demonstrate the influences of government policy and the curriculum on school exclusion and the issues and challenges of social justice and exclusion from school.

This module will enhance your knowledge and understanding of the role of the practitioner when working with children, young people and families. You will explore and show critical understanding on the impact of adverse childhood experiences and other social issues that may affect young lives. As part of your learning you will develop a critical understanding of how policy impacts on a range of diverse and vulnerable families and the challenges that policy may present for you, the practitioner, in your day-to day role. Key theories and therapeutic interventions will be evaluated as your professional knowledge and skills of family support are enhanced.

This module is the culmination your study and practice building upon your learning at level 4 and level 5 and provides you with the opportunity to develop your expertise and independent research skills in an area of your choice. This module builds on the proposal you developed for the module Becoming a Researcher that you studied at level 5. For this module you will develop your proposal into a research dissertation in collaboration with a supervisor you will be given. The Dissertation will involve you drawing on a wide range of literature and research to develop a critical review of previous theories, concepts and research around your chosen subject area. You will also have the opportunity to explore research methodology and methods that you can draw upon to develop your own research design. You will have the choice to undertake primary research or secondary research for your data collection to provide you with the opportunity to analyse key findings and reflect on what you have learnt.

The module aims to introduce you to issues in relation to learning and teaching in challenging educational settings. You will give particular attention to ‘challenging’ and 'effective' urban schools as well as critically evaluating improvement strategies that enhance academic achievement in a range of contexts. You will be encouraged to analyse the role of learners, educators, school leaders and other stakeholders such as the local community; as well as the impact of external factors such as the environment, educational policy, poverty and socio economically disadvantaged communities.

This module gives you the opportunity to critically explore perspectives on the processes of learning and teaching. You will be encouraged to develop your critical understanding of the nature and impact of factors on the learning and teaching process. This includes, meeting the individual needs of diverse learners, the classroom environment, social and emotional resilience and global and national educational theory and policy. It also enables you to connect current research perspectives on learning and teaching with the realities of day-day classroom practices.

Within this module you will explore the ways in which early childhood professionals make provision for play and playful approaches to learning and teaching, how they design play/learning environments, and all the pedagogical decisions, techniques and strategies they use to support or enhance learning and teaching through play. You will also be able to enhance your understanding of critical issues on play pedagogy in theory and in practice by drawing on research and literature that focuses on different types of play, different aspects of play behaviours, child-centred play, and interactions in communities or groups of players. You will also have the opportunity to critically reflect on your own role as an early childhood practitioner in planning for play, using playful pedagogical approaches in adult- and child-initiated activities, and engaging with children on their terms and with respect for their meanings.

In this module you will explore a range of theories and concepts in relation to how inequalities are constructed in society. Throughout the module you will be encouraged to critically discuss the ways in which different social groups are represented within society, for example, through the mass media and government policy and how they are often marginalised and oppressed as a result of their portrayal in society. You will critically examine how inequalities can be challenged when developing provision to meet the needs of children, young people and families from a multi-agency perspective. You will also appraise the potential challenges that practitioners in multi-agency teams can encounter when working with excluded and marginalised children, young people and their families.