Course overview
This is an interdisciplinary degree programme, which is structured to give students a broad set of social science skills which will aid you in becoming educational practitioners, social science researchers and policy makers. Our students are introduced to a variety of theoretical frameworks, and learn how to think about, write about and analyse the ways in which humans develop and flourish throughout their lives across social and cultural contexts and institutions.
The first year of this degree provides an introduction into the degree's core subject disciplines (sociology, psychology, philosophy and history) to explore problems such as globalisation, schooled societies and the cultures of knowledge production through research. As students progress into years two and three of the course, they can either choose modules that maintain this broad subject focus, or instead construct a specialist pathway more closely aligned with their interests and plans for further work and/or study.
As a result, in years one and two, students combine both compulsory and optional modules and have the opportunity to take one of the two placement modules (see below). In year three, students get to choose all of their modules, and have the opportunity to conduct independent research into a specific topic as part of their dissertation with support from an academic supervisor.
Students complete 120 credits per academic year, which are usually divided into eight modules, spread evenly over two teaching terms.
Please note that this degree does not lead to Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), but students can apply for a one-year teacher training programme in primary and a limited number of secondary subjects after completing the degree.
What this course will give you
Our students are introduced to a broad set of social science and humanities subjects through which they gain an interdisciplinary toolkit to understand education, society and culture and the ways in which humans develop and flourish throughout their lives.
Students on the programme learn to think about education as a driving force for change relevant to how we think about workplaces, the media, globalisation, migration, politics, social justice and the economy.
Students have a unique opportunity to be taught by, and work alongside, active researchers at IOE, ranked Number 1 in the world for Education for the past ten years (QS World University Rankings by Subject 2023).
Our students go on to work in a wide range of careers: our curriculum therefore gives students the space to navigate their own pathway through their degree, choose from a range of teaching and assessment methods, and to specialise within particular subject disciplines if they wish.
