Education

Entry requirements

We typically require a 2:1 Bachelor (Honours) degree (or overseas equivalent), in any degree subject.

Significant relevant experience will also be considered.

A personal statement should include an outline of your interest and understanding of your chosen programme.

Months of entry

September

Course content

The MA in Education provides outstanding opportunities to study a wide range of educational issues. It will provide you with a clear understanding of the nature and significance of policy and practice in education, relevant to researchers as well as professionals in schools, colleges and universities.

A key feature of the course is the facility for you to draw on your own professional and personal as well as academic and theoretical interests, through being able to choose from a range of optional modules to study (see below). You will also be able to explore your own interests in depth through the completion of a dissertation.

In all of our modules, we aim to introduce you to key ideas and ways of thinking that enable you to engage with related issues in contexts that are relevant to you. Our course is constructed in such a way that contexts as diverse as science education in schools, informal learning in the workplace and the management of schools outside the UK, can be explored through module assignments as well as the dissertation.

The degree has been designed to meet the needs of educational professionals, especially those in teaching, management or administration at all levels of education. Students likely to benefit from the course are those who are interested in education, often teachers or people planning to become teachers, who have a commitment to pedagogy, and educational managers in schools, colleges and higher education institutions, as well as those working in educational administration, in the UK and overseas.

Students who have successfully completed the PGCE at Durham in the previous academic year have the option to use 90 credits they have accredited on this course.

The MA Education comprises compulsory core, and optional modules, designed to provide you with a critical understanding of theories, research, and issues relevant to your chosen course of study.

Course structure

Year 1 modules

Core modules:

Design and Methods in Education Research

introduces key issues, terms, and ideas in education research. It teaches a range of key research skills including the evaluation of research techniques across different research contexts and the ability to conduct a high-quality study. You will learn to recognise the different purposes of education research; understand key terms and vocabulary in education research and develop a critical standpoint in relation to research in education.

Conceptual Perspectives in Education

engages with some of the key debates in education today and considers the role of ‘theory’ in the research process. You will develop an understanding of the ways in which education theories and/or conceptual frameworks inform the types of questions researchers ask about education and learn how this contributes to educational research.

Dissertation

is a substantial piece of research based on an educational issue within your chosen field of study. You will use an approved research strategy to design and carry out your research and report the outcomes.

Optional modules:

You will select modules from a list of options, which in previous years have included some of the following:

• Secondary Data in Education Research
• Ethnographies of Education
• Measurement in Education Research
• Interviews
• Narrative Inquiry - Methodology and Methods
• Experiments in Education
• Systematic Reviews (MA Education)
• Synthesis of Research Evidence through Meta-Analysis
• Student Engagement: An Agent of Change for Positive Youth Development and Learning Success
• Critical Perspectives in Education
• Leading Change in Educational Organisations
• International Development and Education in a Global World
• The Case for Higher Education: From Precarity to Empowerment
• Enhancing Teaching and Learning for Purposeful Productive Thought
• Digital Technologies and Education: Critical Perspectives
• Psychological Perspectives on Learning
• Inclusive Pedagogies for Diverse Classrooms
• Education Policy and Evaluation
• Curriculum Analysis
• Classroom Assessment
• Assessment
• Arts in Education
• Language Education and Power
• Learning & Individual Differences

Information for international students

If you are an international student who does not meet the requirements for direct entry to this degree, you may be eligible to take a pre-Masters pathway programme at the Durham University International Study Centre.

Fees and funding

For further information see the course listing.