Education

Education Across The Life Course

Module code: X7002
Level 4
30 credits in spring semester
Teaching method: Workshop
Assessment modes: Report

On this module, you'll explore how education is everywhere throughout our lives, shaping them from birth to old age. You'll examine how educational pathways vary based on individual circumstances, reflecting a more fluid and enduring relationship to learning beyond formal schooling and age-related expectations.

You'll consider the learning opportunities provided by diverse educational spaces and explore the personal and professional motivations for engaging with them. The module includes the chance to work with archival resources or life history narrative interviews to investigate the relationship between education and lived experiences across different contexts and time periods.

Pre-requisite

This module provides an opportunity to explore how education is interwoven across the life course, shaping lives in different ways from birth though to ‘old age’. It will consider how educational pathways vary according to different circumstances, suggesting a more fluid and lasting relationship to learning than is captured in approaches that focus on formal schooling and age-related expectations. We will consider the nature of the learning opportunities afforded by a range of alternative educational spaces and the personal and professional motivations for taking these up. The module will include an opportunity to learn from archival resources and/or life history narrative interviews about the relationship between education and lived experiences across contexts and over time.

Module learning outcomes

  • Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of how education supports human flourishing in particular contexts and at key moments
  • Draw on relevant policy and theory to show how and why pathways through education vary across the life course and the implications of this
  • Evaluate carefully selected resources to show an understanding of how education can be interwoven across the life course
  • Demonstrate independent learning and applied understanding in selecting and using a range of research and presentational skills