Sociology and Criminology

Education and Inequality

Module code: L3115B
Level 5
15 credits in spring semester
Teaching method: Lecture, Seminar
Assessment modes: Coursework

The module will introduce you to a range of sociological perspectives on education, training and schooling, with a predominant focus on the UK. It will cover formal and informal, private and public, compulsory and non-compulsory education across the life course, and the history and philosophy of education as well as empirical sociological work.

The first part of the module will set up a series of sociological debates, and cover a range of normative and critical theoretical perspectives. We will then go on to examine how experiences of education are affected by, eg, social class, race, ethnicity, gender and migration history.

Module learning outcomes

• Understand and evaluate different theoretical approaches to education.
• Apply these approaches to a range of contemporary educational concerns.
• Analyse the ways in which experiences of education are shaped by a range of social variables.
• Reflect on their own experiences of education in a critical and theoretically-informed way.