Analysing Policy: Children's Voice

In recent years, social welfare and educational policy has re-emphasised childhood as a protected space policed by professionals and regulated through institutions. This unit explores the multi-faceted aspects of children’s lived experience of family, school and community in contemporary Britain and the ways in which social and geographical locations influence identities shaped by ethnicity, poverty, ability and disability. It revisits the social and political theories underpinning contemporary social welfare and education policies already discussed in other core units, and explores the ways in which neo-liberal ideologies and practices have focused on productivity, contributing to fractured communities, employment patterns often characterised by low pay and long working hours and constraints placed on the family time available to children. It explores how despite family-friendly employment policies, parents face renewed demands for exercising responsibility in meeting children’s educational and welfare needs at a time of increased absence from the family, economic constraints and renewed social anxieties about children’s care and well-being. This unit examines children’s lived experiences to critically analyse tensions within family, welfare and education policies. It draws upon the children’s rights agenda to examine children’s social worlds and the role of children’s voice in exploring issues of inclusion, equality, diversity and difference across family, school and community contexts and the implications for policy and professional practice.

The unit will be of value to professionals working with children, young people and families across a broad range of contexts including youth and community work, education, SEN, criminal justice, social welfare or medical practice across a range of state or voluntary sector settings. The unit will be relevant to those in leadership and management particularly in relation to developing practice and policies and the training, mentoring or supervision of staff. It will develop and extend skills in analysis, critical reflection, evaluation and collaborative working with practitioners, families and children

Early Years Education And Care

This unit reflects on the realities of child development, and focuses on how developments within different areas manifest. A range of theoretical lenses are explored to give a deeper understanding of children’s development and learning, which students will be expected to explore when they engage in their own primary research, exploring the development of a child.

This unit will support them to be able to critically contrast different theoretical perspectives, and the extent to which they help us to understand an individual child.

The aim of this unit is to develop:

·         A critical awareness of the theoretical concepts surrounding young children’s learning

·         Reflection on your own observations of practice and beliefs in light of your learning.

·         A critical appreciation of the context of contemporary early years policy and research.

·         Perceptions of children and how these have been shaped by historical and philosophical thinkers, policy makers and researchers.

Leading Change In Education

This unit will help you to acquire the knowledge and skills required to lead developments within a specific context, with a focus on improved outcomes. The unit will cover different aspects of change, including changing practice in education settings, and exploring how to manage and develop positive staff attitudes in order to secure positive outcomes in the short, medium, and long term.
The application of this focus might be in a range of educational contexts; as a teacher in your classroom, as a leader in a school or college, as a leader of Children’s Services or a Leader involved with direct provision of services to children and young people. Whatever role you apply this unit to, the learning outcomes will enable you to apply new skills and understanding within your organisation with a view to enhancing outcomes of others. The unit will enable you to:

• Critically analyse approaches and theories to leading learning and development within your organisational context.
• Critically analyse the suitability of a range of models and strategies for the promotion of change within your organisation,
• Create a culture conducive to individual and collaborative professional development
• Develop and support an ethos of continual review, innovation and change within your team/organisation

Meeting Diverse Needs

This unit is targeted at full-time and part-time students who have an interest in developing an extensive understanding of the range of needs that students can present with, and how educational settings try to respond to these needs.

This unit takes the Salamanca statement (UNESCO, 1994) as a starting point in identifying a very broad range of dimensions in which children and young people can differ. While traditional categories of need will be discussed and explored, a broader range of dimensions (e.g. ethnicity and culture, gender, class, language) will also be critically explored.

A key element of the unit is its level of engagement with research literature. Students will be presented with a variety of readings, which try to explore how diverse needs are presented and are supported, across a wide range of settings.

How inclusion is theorised will be explored, with a range of different conceptualisations, including the difference between medical and social models of disability, will form a key part of the discussions and debates.

The unit aims to address the following questions:

What are the different ways that inclusion can be interpreted?
How do practitioners meet the diverse needs of pupils?

Exploring Coaching And Mentoring

The aim of this unit is to help you gain a better understanding of your role as a coach or mentor and the positive impact your interventions can have on those with whom you work. You will explore different models of coaching and mentoring and identify skills that make the process effective. You will relate your theoretical learning to your own work as a coach or mentor and consider how your practice can be developed during and after your study of the unit.

Educational Leadership In Context

Recognising the continually changing nature of contemporary educational leadership and theory, this unit explores key literature and research to support you to reflect upon key aspects of leadership and management within a range of educational contexts:

• Critically explore how national policies inform individual school policies and practice
• Evaluate leadership and management styles in an educational setting
• Analyse the mission, vision and strategic planning of educational organisations

Enhancing Practice In Educational Settings

This unit highlights the importance of engaging with Continuous Professional Development. It will engage with contemporary thinking and trends in relation to areas of need. The unit will encourage you to audit your own practice, identify areas of strength and development. You will be supported to engage in this process in an individual manner, recognising both school priorities, and your own. The importance of reflection and engaging with specific models of reflective practice is also a key component of this unit. Later sessions in the unit are tailored to address key development areas identified by students, and is designed to be responsive to student needs.

Research Methods In The Workplace

 This unit provides support for practitioners and non-practitioners to further develop their research skills. It provides the opportunity to build on previous research skills in order to further develop and apply more advanced research skills in practice contexts. The unit will enable you to engage critically with research based literature, and ultimately contribute to this literature through conducting research yourself.

This unit provides all students with an opportunity to work through the process of conducting research in an educational workplace environment, and recognises the complexities of conducting research, which can vary depending on the environment. This will be carried out through the development of a research instrument in a pilot research activity together with engagement with the skills required for analysing and evaluating collected data.

The research undertaken will take into account multidisciplinary views on the skills and approaches needed to conduct research, with a primary focus on common paradigms, instruments, and analytic approaches within social research. This will ensure that you have developed the skills expected of a student carrying out a substantial piece of research, which you will be doing within the dissertation.

Full-time students will be required to find a relevant work place setting in order to carry out this activity with a minimum of 5 days engagement. Part-time students already working in an educational setting will be able to carry out the research activity in their own work place if they wish

Dissertation In Education (Practice)

The dissertation provides an opportunity for sustained independent study in an area of professional interest and ideally builds on the research completed for the Research Methods in the Workplace unit. The dissertation should relate to an area of educational research that interests you and enables you to investigate an area of practice related to your work environment. You need to conduct a substantial piece of research, which is presented in a formal dissertation. This provides an opportunity to develop and demonstrate a deep understanding of issues relevant to your research area, and to apply the skills you have acquired throughout the course, in relation to critical reading, critical writing, and conducting research.