Description

In English Literature, our philosophy is simple: words matter. Words shape the world we live in (books can and have changed the world) and the connections between the written page and the concerns of the ‘real’ world are a crucial part of the programme. Overall, the degree will enable you to develop your expertise as a reader and critic of a range of literary materials, whilst also supporting you in the development of a portfolio of professional skills which will aid you in the wider job market.

Education Studies is concerned with understanding how people develop and learn throughout their lives, and the nature of knowledge and critical engagement with ways of knowing and understanding. It offers intellectually rigorous analysis of educational processes, systems and approaches, and their cultural, societal, political, historical, and economic contexts.

The Education Studies and English Literature programme is built around a number of key dispositions that the team wishes to develop with our students. Through change, critique, creativity and curiosity, it is hoped that Education Studies and English Literature students will care about themselves, others and the environment, and challenge both themselves and others in their ongoing quest to understand themselves and the world as it is, as it could be, and as it should be.

Change is a constant, in that all students need to be prepared for change, and that change will happen no matter what. The important thing is to be able to understand this. Critique enables students to deal with change; it allows them to question why things are as they are, who is driving change, and to engage with their own responses to this. Creativity allows students to look at their world in a number of ways, not just accepting it as it is, and also looking for different ways to respond to it. Curiosity is about wanting to find out more, and to understand themselves and others, and to know how to find out in a coherent and ethical manner.

Graduates are able to participate in and contest changing discourses exemplified by reference to debate about values, personal and social engagement, and how these relate to communities and societies. Students have opportunities to develop their critical capabilities through the selection, analysis and synthesis of relevant perspectives, and to be able to justify different positions on educational matters. They will engage in a critique of current policies and practice and challenge assumptions.