Education, Power and Society - EDU00063I

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  • Department: Education
  • Credit value: 20 credits
  • Credit level: I
  • Academic year of delivery: 2025-26

Module summary

The purpose of this module is to gain a deeper theoretical understanding of the ways that power influences education and society. It will explore different political and critical theories in order to frame how education can be analysed.

Module will run

Occurrence Teaching period
A Semester 1 2025-26

Module aims

The key aims of the module are:

  • Understanding how economic, political and cultural forces impact on education and society;

  • Examining political and critical theories and how they pertain to education;

  • Analysing case studies which illustrate the connection between theory and practice.

Module learning outcomes

By the end of this module students will be able to:

  1. Demonstrate empirically informed understanding of contemporary debates on education, power and society

  2. Have in-depth knowledge of specific areas and issues related to power, knowledge, and social change in education.

  3. Critically engage with key theories, concepts, and arguments discussed in the module and relate them to real world issues.

  4. Engage in critical thinking, reflection and analysis of the political, cultural and social forces that impact on education.

Academic and graduate skills

  1. Develop effective communications skills (written and verbal), provide clear and concise analysis of concepts, debates and issues discussed in the course.

Module content

The following is indicative of the different topics that will be covered

“…the systems involved in education, including the education system itself, the political system, the economic system, and the social system, are not particularly known for being able to adapt or change quickly. In fact, these systems are resistant to change. All of these systems are deeply intertwined and interdependent that any attempt to change in one will require massive changes in all of the others.”– Jeff Bloom

The module will cover a range of areas, including:

  • Introductory unit - Economic, political and cultural forces on education and society
  • Politics and the right to education
  • Education as a tool of oppression: (In) equality
  • Understanding the ‘canon’ and the curriculum
  • Education as a means of liberation: Justice
  • Education as a practice of freedom: Agency
  • What is 'critically relevant teaching' and who decides?
  • Are the university educated the new elite? ‘Knowing capitalism’ and meritocracy
  • Education, social mobility and social change

Indicative assessment

Task % of module mark
Essay/coursework 100

Special assessment rules

None

Indicative reassessment

Task % of module mark
Essay/coursework 100

Module feedback

Individual written feedback reports, with follow-up tutor meeting, if necessary. The feedback is returned to students in line with university policy. Please check the Guide to Assessment, Standards, Marking and Feedback for more information

Indicative reading

Baker, D. (2015) The Schooled Society: The Educational Transformation of Global Culture. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Breen, R. (2022) The Stubborn Persistence of Educational Inequality. Institute for Fiscal Studies.

Darder, A., Baltodano, M., & Torres, R. D. (Eds.). (2003). The critical pedagogy reader (p. 1). New York: RoutledgeFalmer.

Freire, P. (2021). Pedagogy of hope: Reliving pedagogy of the oppressed. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Giroux, H. (2020). Critical pedagogy (pp. 1-16). Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden.

Grenfell, M., & James, D. (2003). Bourdieu and education: Acts of practical theory. Routledge.

hooks, b. (2014). Teaching to transgress. Routledge.

Naidoo, R. (2004). Fields and institutional strategy: Bourdieu on the relationship between higher education, inequality and society. British journal of sociology of education, 25(4), 457-471.

Rawls, J. (2009) A Theory of Justice. Harvard University Press.

van Noord et al (2023) Classified out of society? How educational classification induces political alienation through feelings of misrecognition. British Journal of Sociology. DOI: 10.1111/1468-4446.13040

Whitty, G and Furlong, J (2017) Knowledge and the Study of Education: An International Comparison, Oxford: Oxford Studies in Comparative Education, Symposium

Young, M. & Muller, J. (2013) On the powers of powerful knowledge. Review of Education
1 (3) 229-250. DOI: 10.1002/rev3.3017.