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EDUC10270

Academic Year 2024/2025

What’s it for?” – Socio-Historic Perspectives on Education (EDUC10270)

Subject:
Education
College:
Social Sciences & Law
School:
Education
Level:
1 (Introductory)
Credits:
5
Module Coordinator:
Professor Judith Harford
Trimester:
Autumn
Mode of Delivery:
On Campus
Internship Module:
No
How will I be graded?
Letter grades

Curricular information is subject to change.

Education is one of the most significant and effective lenses through which we examine how society operates. How an individual society operates, assesses and shapes the way it educates its people is a powerful reflection of its own values and mores. This is particularly the case for marginalized groups, whose othered status is often reinforced and reproduced, wittingly or unwittingly, by seemingly unchanging and inflexible systems of education. This module examines the key ideas, movements and forces that have shaped education systems today, both nationally and internationally. Underpinned by principles/concepts of equality, this module will employ historical and sociological perspectives to interrogate key concepts, ideas, values and discourses which continue to influence contemporary education. These include: the role and function of the education system; access and experience of the system mediated by social class, gender, sexuality and ethnicity; power and control, inclusion and exclusion. It will question the concept of educational “success” and, by challenging taken-for-granted truths about the function of education, will challenge students to posit alternative perspectives to meet the needs of a modern, pro-active society.

About this Module

Learning Outcomes:

• Critically analyse the role of various stakeholders in the formation of the education system in Ireland as well as the complexities and contradictions inherent in the historical record of education;
• Interpret aspects of the Irish education system in the context of historical and sociological developments in education internationally;
• Interrogate educational policies from a historical and sociological perspective;
• Demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between the nature and purpose of education and the wider experience of education.
• Recognise and evaluate any structural impediments to an equitable education system and suggest creative, agentic solutions to address these obstacles.

Student Effort Hours:
Student Effort Type Hours
Lectures

96
Online Learning

24
Total

120

Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
Weekly, two-hour interactive lectures which involve a mixture of interactive lectures; group-based activities/projects; guided, structured discussion and guest speakers.

Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Not applicable to this module.
 

Assessment Strategy
Description Timing Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade In Module Component Repeat Offered
Reflective Assignment: Choose one journal article or opinion piece that you have read for this module and discuss how it changed your thinking on that particular issue. Week 10 Graded No
50
 No
Group Work Assignment: You will be asked to participate in a group presentation on a selected topic. Presentations will be made in class during final two lectures of the module. Week 11 Graded No
50
 No

Carry forward of passed components
Yes
 

Resit In Terminal Exam
Spring No
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 

Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, on an activity or draft prior to summative assessment
• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment
• Group/class feedback, post-assessment

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Not yet recorded.

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Boyle, A., Flynn, M., & Hanafin, J. (2020). Optimism despite disappointment: Irish traveller parents' reports of their own school experiences and their views on education. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 24(13), 1389-1409.
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Cavaliero, T., & Levinson, M. (2019). Criss-crossing the irish sea: Shifting traveller Women’s identities in home and school environments. Diaspora, Indigenous and Minority Education, 13(1), 26-39. https://doi.org/10.1080/15595692.2018.1475353

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Fahie, D. 2017. Faith of Our Fathers - lesbian, gay and bisexual teachers' attitudes towards the teaching of religion in Irish denominational primary schools. Irish Educational Studies 36 (1), 9-24t

Fahie, D. (2017) Faith of Our Fathers - lesbian, gay and bisexual teachers' attitudes towards the teaching of religion in Irish denominational primary schools. Irish Educational Studies 36 (1), 9-24

Fleming, B. Harford, J. (2021) 'The DEIS Programme as a Policy aimed at Combating Educational Disadvantage: Fit for Purpose?' Irish Educational Studies, doi: 10.1080/03323315.2021.1964568
Fuller, K. and Harford, J. (2016) Gender and Leadership in Education: Women Achieving against the Odds. Oxford: Peter Lang

Ginley, H. M., & Keane, E. (2021). “The school for the travellers and the blacks”: Student and teacher perspectives on “Choosing” a post-primary school with a high concentration of disadvantage. Education Sciences, 11(12), 777. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci11120777

González, L., Cortés-Sancho, R., Murcia, M., Ballester, F., Rebagliato, M., & Rodríguez-Bernal, C. L. (2020). The role of parental social class, education and unemployment on child cognitive development. Gaceta Sanitaria, 34(1), 51-60.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gaceta.2018.07.014

Harford, J. (2008) The Opening of University Education to Women in Ireland. Dublin and Portland OR: Vallentine Mitchell/Irish Academic Press.

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Harford, J. (2018) Education for All? The Legacy of Free Post-Primary Education, Oxford: Peter Lang.

Harford, J. and O’ Donoghue, T. (2020) Cultural Histories of Education, Volume VI, London: Bloomsbury.

Harford, J. & Murphy, K. J. (2022) ‘Leading in the Academy: Women Science Professors at University College Dublin in the 1960s,’ Paedagogica Historica, doi:
10.1080/00309230.2022.2028872

Hunter, M., & Morrell, R. (2021). Corporal punishment and gender equality: Regimes of care and rights in south african schools. Journal of Gender Studies, 30(3), 344-357.
https://doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2020.1867832

Kurt, S. H. (2021). Perceptions of children and childhood in the context of new childhood sociology. Child Indicators Research, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-021-09881-6

Neary, A. (2021). Trans children and the necessity to complicate gender in primary schools. Gender and Education, 33(8), 1073-1089.
https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2021.1884200

Neary, A., & McBride, R. (2021). Beyond inclusion: Trans and gender diverse young people’s experiences of PE and school sport. Sport, Education and Society, , 1-14.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13573322.2021.2017272

O’ Donoghue, T. and Harford, J. (2021) Piety and Privilege: Catholic Secondary
Schooling in Ireland and the Theocratic State, 1922-67, Oxford University Press.

Quilty, A. (2017). Queer provocations! Exploring queerly informed disruptive pedagogies within feminist community-higher-education landscapes. Irish Educational Studies, 36(1), 107-123. http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/z2pdBe7cPCN8wppi64ZE/full

Seehuus, S. (2019). Social class background and gender‐(a)typical choices of fields of study in higher education. The British Journal of Sociology, 70(4), 1349-1373.
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Van Praag, L., Stevens, P., & Van Houtte, M. (2016). "no more turkish music!' the acculturation strategies of teachers and ethnic minority students in flemish schools. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 42(8), 1353-1370. doi:10.1080/1369183X.2015.1103171

Visser, M. (2021). Evaluation of a masculinity and gender equality intervention for primary school boys. Journal of Psychology in Africa, 31(5), 481-487.
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Wenz, S. E., & Hoenig, K. (2020). Ethnic and social class discrimination in education: Experimental evidence from Germany. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 65, 100461. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rssm.2019.100461

Name Role
Dr Declan Fahie Lecturer / Co-Lecturer

Timetabling information is displayed only for guidance purposes, relates to the current Academic Year only and is subject to change.
Autumn Lecture Offering 1 Week(s) - Autumn: All Weeks Mon 14:00 - 15:50
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