Introduction to Education Studies outlines the core disciplines of the history, philosophy, psychology and sociology of education. The module will also introduce you to the newer and emerging discipline of the economics of education as well as the key topic of technology in education. It will enable you to conceptualise the breadth of areas and the range of age phases and contexts which you will explore within education studies. You will begin to accrue the conceptual knowledge and skills required in order to further your studies in education.

Conceptions of Education: The UK Education System in Context enables you to learn about the ways in which the formal education system is structured, governed and funded in the four countries of the UK. You will explore the similarities and differences that exist between the different systems, examine the conceptualisations of education that each system appears to reflect, and develop opinions as to the ways in which they function. You will also explore the evolution of those different systems over time. Of particular interest for study will be the ways in which the different policy approaches taken by the separate legislatures within the UK have affected education in practice.

Critical Theories is based around the study of critical essays which have had a lasting impact on literary studies. The module introduces you to significant and contemporaneous ideas in literary criticism which scholars still implement in the 21st century. The content of the module has been selected to highlight the difference in literary studies between reading for understanding and interpretive readings.

The Structure of English introduces you to the structure of the English language. You will learn to use grammatical terminology to label words, clauses, sentences and structures.

Learning in a Diverse Society enables you to explore the various ways in which access to education can be helped or hindered as a result of issues such as race, religion, class, ethnicity, learning difficulties, or physical disability. The module encourages you to explore and reflect upon the specific factors that can affect access and consider how obstacles to access can be mitigated against or overcome.

Technology and its Place in Education considers the underlying theoretical perspectives used in conjunction with technology to enhance learning. The term educational technology encompasses technology enhanced and e-learning. It includes the adoption and integration of hardware and software, various electronic devices, pedagogical tools, approaches and delivery methods. Technology has the capacity to significantly re-shape teaching and learning and this module will provide you with the opportunity to critically examine, explore and evaluate the potential benefits of a range of educational technology, to consider the underpinning pedagogical rationale for their use, with the specific intention of enhancing teaching and learning.

Introduction to Literary Periods and Genres 1 focuses on the study of periodicity and genre. Beginning with contemporary poetry and short stories, the module will work backwards chronologically,  also introducing you to the Victorian novel and to Victorian drama, utilising an array of critical and contextual approaches to literature.

The Sounds of English introduces you to the sound systems of English and enables you to gain a basic understanding and knowledge of the description and classification of speech sounds. You will also enhance your knowledge and understanding of the ways in which phonetics and phonology are directly relevant to several fields, such as speech and language therapy, second language learning, education, literary stylistics, forensic phonetics and artificial intelligence.

Designing and Managing a Research Project gives you the knowledge and skills required to conceptualise, design and communicate a research proposal, understanding the fundamental principles of quality research. You will learn how to plan and manage a project over an extended period, sustain focus, conduct and organise extensive data collection and research materials, and mitigate typical problems that can derail or delay a project.

Education, Meaning and Understanding: Debates in the Philosophy of Education enables you to develop your knowledge and understanding of the philosophy strand of education and to enhance your academic skills in critical analysis. You will learn how to synthesise ideas and analyse competing philosophical positions. A key focus will be on understanding how arguments are philosophically underpinned and value-driven.

History and Development of English examines the history and development of the English language from its earliest beginnings to the present-day. The module covers the influence of Chaucer and Shakespeare on the English language, as well as the role of dictionaries and the King James Bible in the making of what English has become today. There are sessions focusing on the rise of standard English, the nature and spread of dialect over time, the effect of linguistic borrowing, recent changes in the language, and the growth of regional standards of English around the world.

Work Based Learning in Education provides you with the opportunity to gain work experience within the education sector. The module enables you to apply your skills and knowledge in real-life situations. You will gain knowledge and understanding of the processes, policies and organisational structure of your placement host, build in-depth knowledge of the business and the marketplace in which it operates, and successfully integrate yourself into a workplace environment.

Work Related Learning in Education enables you to undertake an extended, work-related project focusing upon a strand of the education sector. You will choose the focus of the project, in conjunction with your assigned tutor, with the intention being that it is an area of education into which you might wish to progress after graduation. The module enables you to apply your skills and knowledge in real-world scenarios and experience how the multi-faceted nature of real businesses are often much more complex than they appear when studied in the abstract. You will also gain experience in investigating the systemic and marketplace contexts in which businesses in your chosen sector exist and function.

Literature Dissertation Project provides an opportunity to study a topic of your choice in depth and develop your own ideas through individual research, culminating in the production of a 5,000-word long essay or ‘mini-dissertation’. The topic may develop a particular, pre-established interest or arise from a desire to study an issue or subject in more depth.

About Love explores representations of romantic and/or sexual love in texts written, or set, in Anglo-American culture in the 20th and 21st centuries. The module synthesises high-cultural and popular-cultural primary sources, reading them in the context of key critical and cultural theorisations of love, bringing together narratives of desire in three key contexts: ‘falling in love’, ‘staying in love’ and ‘love after love’.

Pilgrims Progress: British Children’s Literature from the 18th Century to the Present Day explores British children’s literature from its origins in the eighteenth century. The module progresses through the Romantic period’s celebration of childhood and Victorian ambiguities about the angelic versus the feral child, to the Golden Age of the Edwardian period and beyond into territory darkened by war, overshadowed by the implications of empire, and the oncoming of adolescence. The module will analyse the relationships between children and adults, nature, animals, class, gender, race and sexuality, underpinned by theoretical and methodological approaches to the history and representation of childhood in literature.

Romanticism provides an introduction to texts, authors, genres and central themes from the first stirrings of what has been traditionally conceived of as the Romantic age in the 1760s, until the dawn of the Victorian age seventy years later. Poetry, the prose essay and the novel are all studied on this module.

Special Author 1 focuses on a single author (such as Hardy or Dickens) or a related group of authors (such as the Brontës) whose works are sufficiently extensive to merit a whole semester’s study. You will examine the author’s work in the light of recent critical and theoretical approaches to authorship and canonicity and develop an ability to theorise the relationship between an author and his/her literary work. You will acquire a specialist knowledge of a literary period and a major writer through examination of the author’s development in relation to relevant historical, cultural and literary contexts.

Contemporary American Literature enables you to study a range of significant contemporary American literature from post World War 2 onwards. The module enables you to examine a variety of ways in which America is imagined and constructed within fiction. You will explore how persistent figures, landscapes, and mythic concepts are engrained in American culture and embedded in the wider world’s imagination. Such concepts retain imaginative power because of frequent re-enactments in popular cultural productions. This module will trace the complex histories and fictional appropriations and discursive shifts that form these literary productions. The aim is to concentrate specific study on American fiction within its historical, social, cultural, political, critical and theoretical contexts.

Special Topic 1 enables you to begin to develop your independent research skills within a structure which provides a clear and continuing framework of support. The module will take you through weekly subject-based sessions to structured study of your chosen extended special subject research. You will have considerable choice of subject matter within three broad pathways which draw on current staff research specialisms. You will work towards producing a guided but independent research project, with specialist staff support.

Introduction to Sociolinguistic Variation immerses you in sociolinguistics, the study of language and society. At the heart of the discipline is the knowledge and understanding that there is no one ‘type’ of language used by every speaker within a given community but that it differs between social groups and contexts. Language use may vary based on factors such as age, gender, class, ethnicity and geography and this module will examine the relationship between language and these categories. Variationist sociolinguistics examines how language is used across society and explains why this variation exists. It relies on quantitative methodologies to draw results from large pools of data, and on a broader, interdisciplinary understanding of society and culture to interpret those results.

Language of Shakespeare and His Time enables you to explore distinctive Early Modern English linguistic features (including morphology, syntax and pronunciation) of Shakespeare’s work in great detail, and to compare them with corresponding features in present-day Standard British English. You will identify linguistic distinctions in Shakespeare’s language which are no longer active today, analyse the differences between Early Modern English and contemporary English in terms of vocabulary, grammatical structure and usage, and distinguish between the language of Shakespeare’s time and Shakespeare’s own creative use of the language.

Analysing Discourse takes a linguistic approach to the examination of discourse, both written and spoken. You will explore how discourse is structured and consider how meaning in discourse is created and negotiated between addressors and addressees. Furthermore, the module presents a linguistic approach to the study of the communication, creation, maintenance and contestation of ideologies via discourse.

Early English (600-1500) provides an opportunity to gain greater familiarity with linguistic features of Old and Middle English and to undertake in-depth analysis of the language of writers such as Chaucer and Gower and the writers of Beowulf, Piers Plowman and other major texts of the period. The module will enable you to understand the complexities of describing the English of an age before the rise of standard forms of the language were widely adopted. Your awareness of major literary texts written in English will also be increased.

Phonetics and Phonology provides you with the opportunity to acquire practical and theoretical knowledge and skills in the description and classification of speech sounds. Using English as its focus, the module begins with the study of articulatory phonetics, focusing on segmental and suprasegmental features of accent. You will then use this knowledge as a foundation to begin the study of basic phonology. Concepts, such as phonemes, allophones and the syllable are discussed in some detail.

Modern English Structure and Usage teaches aspects of modern English grammar (morphology and syntax) or structure, and examines their interaction with variational aspects of modern English usage. You will acquire an extensive basis of expertise in the key area of grammatical description, becoming familiar with an appropriate level of grammatical terminology and developing important practical skills in detailed grammatical analysis.

Methodology provides an overview of contemporary approaches to working with linguistic data. You will explore current methodological approaches used by linguists according to the kinds of features, and levels of, language being explored.  Different specialists in the English Language team will introduce their approaches to linguistic data during the course of the module and present, critiquing recent research in their field that employs different kinds of methodologies.

Child Language Development offers an overview of the processes involved in first language development. The module considers how children develop language in terms of perception and comprehension, phonetics and phonology, lexis and grammar. You will also be introduced to, and examine, theoretical accounts of how we acquire our first language. This will include consideration of themes around nativism and evidence-based approaches.

Understanding Education through Sociological Perspectives enables you to engage in the in-depth study of one of the key disciplines of education studies. You will examine the genealogy of a number of key aspects of the current education sector, such as the National Curriculum, Early Years Provision, Lifelong Learning, the Exam System, and Higher Education. You will explore what current researchers are investigating, where the discipline appears to be heading and how it can continue to make a contribution to the future of education and education studies.

Knowledge, Learning and Understanding enables you to study the thinkers and ideas currently existing at the forefront of the philosophy of education, exploring how philosophy contributes to education policy-making, curriculum design, teaching and learning. The module encourages independent thinking through the use of philosophical approaches, building upon your skills in critical analysis in order to develop an awareness of your own values and beliefs. You will need to communicate and defend your personal position in relation to challenging issues, exploration of which will structure many sessions.

Current Debates in the Psychology of Education immerses you in the advanced study of psychological theories in order to develop in-depth knowledge of what constitutes effective teaching and learning. Psychology makes a vital contribution to the field of education, offering theories which can explain learning, behaviour and the mind. It allows examination of the motivations and perceptions of individuals, enabling educators to better understand the most effective ways to promote learning and how potential barriers to progress might be overcome. The module will support you in developing the skills required to examine and critique psychological enquiry and then apply this knowledge to considering key educational issues from a psychological angle.

Exploring Issues and Affecting Change in Education enables you to explore shifts in educational policy and consider the most pressing contemporary issues in the sociology of education. You will reflect on how education across the age spectrum, and in its formal and informal paradigms, is affected by the design and implementation of government policy, as well as by factors relating to class, gender, race, religion and wealth, amongst other things. Additionally, you will explore the origins of the history of the sociology of education and how researchers apply the core concepts, collect and analyse data, and report on the results of their research.

The Victorians At Work recognises that Victorians saw literature as a form of social commentary. This period survey module explores Victorian prose and poetry that addressed the pressing social and cultural questions of the period, such as the impacts of industrialisation, urbanisation, scientific advance and secularisation. You will examine the work of a range of canonical and popular Victorian authors and place their writing in the relevant literary, cultural and historical contexts.

Modernisms develops your understanding and appreciation of the key features of early 20th century movements in the literary arts. The module will examine a range of different forms, styles and practices in order to focus on the heterogeneous interpretations of the term modernism and engage with ongoing debates in modernist studies.

Contemporary Literature in English develops your understanding and appreciation of the key features of late 20th century and early 21st century movements in the literary arts. The module examines aesthetic paradigms relevant to the period including realism, the postmodern, late modernism and metafiction. The aim is to understand the continuations and reactions to the earlier Modernist period.

Hosting a Literary Festival enables you to make a direct connection between the subject matter of your degree and your plans for a graduate career by engaging with workplace practice via a group project. You will work collaboratively to research, plan and initiate an in-house literary festival while reflecting on and evaluating your ability to do so.

Special Author 2 focuses on a single author (such as Christopher Marlowe, Jane Austen or Angela Carter) or related group of authors (such as the Brontës) whose works are sufficiently extensive to justify a whole semester’s study. The module will examine the author’s work in the light of recent critical and theoretical approaches to authorship and canonicity, and develop an ability to theorise the relationship between an author and his or her literary work. You will acquire a specialist knowledge of a literary period and a major writer through examination of the author’s development in relation to relevant historical, cultural and literary contexts.

Sexuality and Subversion is devoted to the critical analysis of textual representations of sexuality and especially of same-sex desire and sexual dissidence in British prose. The module focuses mainly on the novel, but also on key autobiographical prose texts, from the 19th century to now (with particular focus on the 20th century). It problematises perceptions that sexual radicalism originated in the late 20th century by interrogating its earlier textual representation(s). Texts, their contexts, and relevant literary and cultural theories combine to reveal the changes and continuities in the textual representation of subversive and dissident sexualities and sexual identities over time.

Special Topic 2 enables you to pursue independent research within a structure which provides a clear framework of support. The module will take you through weekly subject-based sessions to more independent study of your chosen extended special subject research. You will have considerable choice of subject matter within three broad pathways which draw on current staff research specialisms. You will work towards producing a significant independent research project, with specialist staff support.

Psycholinguistics explores the ways that we understand and produce language, from a cognitive perspective. With a primary focus on the English language, the module questions whether there is evidence for a developmental trajectory of child language comprehension and production and considers whether we can distinguish between linguistic competence and performance in either oral or written communication. You will also discover a variety of psycholinguistic methodologies, analyse how we teach and evaluate particular linguistic skills and abilities, and examine whether we can identify individuals early in life who are at risk of a slower rate of language development and give them appropriate support.

Bilingualism investigates bilingualism as a socially and culturally contextualised phenomenon. The module begins by identifying processes involved in the acquisition of more than one language in different contexts, such as within the family and community and within various formal educational settings. At the level of individual language use, you will examine conversational code-switching in the light of current research findings. At the level of communities and societies, you will explore different models for the functional distribution of languages and attempts for language planning. The focus of the module is on bilingualism as a worldwide phenomenon but attention is given to language diversity and the use of languages other than English in the UK.

An Introduction to Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) examines the principles and practice of good English language teaching. Issues dealt with during the module include the history of language teaching and learning, individual learner differences, grammatical terminology, materials development and planning English for Speakers of Other Languages’ programmes and lessons.

Beyond English takes a typological approach to language. The module enables you to understand the major features of the structure of English at a more universal level, in terms of the ways in which the features of English phonetics, phonology, morphosyntax, semantics and its writing system compare with the same features in other numerically significant or otherwise relevant languages.

Language and Identity explores a variety of past and present approaches to the study of language and identity. You will examine how different identities are constructed and look at their intrinsic relationship to language and other socio-cultural phenomena. Placing a strong emphasis on the symbolic social value of language differentiation, the aim of the module is to make you aware of the importance of promoting more tolerant attitudes to language variation in society and reducing linguistic prejudices, a perspective that will be essential for those intending to develop a career in educational contexts.

Historical Linguistics centres around the questions of how and why language changes. This will be a platform through which to explore not only language and its structure, but also human (pre)history, society, cognition and psychology. Historical linguistics is one of the most dynamic fields in linguistics. It deals with many of the same issues and questions as other areas of the field, such as sociolinguistics, but takes a diachronic approach to them, looking at change over time. In order to understand how language works in the present day, it is crucial to achieve an understanding of how it has worked in the past and what the continuities are between past and present.

Forensic Linguistics recognises that the law is overwhelmingly a linguistic institution. Laws are coded in language and the concepts that are used to construct law are accessible only through language.  Legal processes, such as court cases, police investigations, and the management of prisoners take place almost exclusively though language. Forensic linguistics concerns the application of linguistics to describe and analyse language and discourse in the legal process.  This module takes a broad view of the subject in order to examine a wide interface between language and the law.

Language, Gender and Sexuality enables you to analyse and account for the ways in which gender and sexuality are constructed and represented through language use. Butler’s influential theory that gender is performative and that it emerges through discourse is key to the approach taken in this module. You will explore the diverse linguistic means by which gender and sexual identities are linguistically constructed and performed. The module will also encourage you to examine a variety of discourse types, such as spontaneous conversation, magazines, children’s literature, and film, in order to interrogate the ways in which gender and sexual identities are linguistically represented, regulated and constrained. In addition to this, the intersectionality of language, gender and sexuality with other aspects of social identity, such as ethnicity, age, and social class, will be explored.

LIT2051 Special Author 1 (20 credits) and LIT2057 Contemporary American Literature (20 credits) added as optional modules in Year 2.

104-112 UCAS Tariff points are required to join this programme with effect from September 2020 entry.

LIT1022 Introduction to Literary Periods and Genres 1 (20 credits) replaces LIT1024 Literary History (20 credits) as an optional module in Year 1.

BED2003 Education, Meaning and Understanding: Debates in the Philosophy of Education (20 credits) changes from optional to compulsory in Year 2. BED2004 UK Education In Its Global Contexts (20 credits) removed as an optional module in Year 2. LIT2027 Texts in Motion: Film Adaptation (20 credits) and LIT2040 Renaissance Literature: Self and Society (20 credits) removed as optional modules in Year 2. LIT2059 Special Topic 1 (20 credits) added as an optional module in Year 2.

LIT3054 Special Topic 2 (20 credits) added as an optional module in Year 3. LIT3041 The Victorians at Play (20 credits), LIT3046 Narratives of Nation and Empire (20 credits), LIT3047 Neo-Victorian Literature and Culture (20 credits), LIT3048 Sex, Drugs and Rock N Roll: Young Adult Fiction (20 credits) and LIT3051 The Shakespeare Problem (20 credits) removed as optional modules in Year 3.

LIT1021 Critical Theories (20 credits) replaces LIT1020 Ways of Reading (20 credits) as a compulsory module in Year 1.

LIT1024 Literary History (20 credits) replaces LIT1022 Introduction to Literary Periods and Genres 1 (20 credits) as an optional module in Year 1.