First encounters
As students of education studies, we have an interesting relationship with the subject since we are all products of education systems and thus have our own unique perspectives that are hewn from our different experiences. Education is, for most people, an integral part of our first 16–22 years of life and yet our understanding of it as a system or process, beyond experiencing it as more than a set of curriculum subjects and examinations, is often limited. The role we undertake as pupils is to experience rather than question the nature of the education system and its attendant processes. Education studies as a subject turns this on its head and asks us to question what education is, who it is for, who controls it and why – essentially, to think critically about every aspect of education and the societal and political structures it sits within.
Applying Critical Evaluation: Your own educational history
Think back over the time you have spent in education.
- Were you ever encouraged to comment on your experiences?
- Should pupils and students be involved in decisions concerning their education?
The journals and books you encounter from the beginning of your course generally assume a level of understanding and knowledge about educational issues which you are unlikely to have at this stage. Thus, while there are many texts suitable for the knowledgeable student, there are very few which may be used by the novice as an introduction to the field. This present book aims to introduce the study of education and to provide a starting point from which to progress. It outlines several major areas of education studies and the key issues therein. In the text we refer, wherever possible, to current literature which you should be able to access. We are also aware that to deal with the overarching questions and issues in such a short space can actually do them a disservice and cause distortion by oversimplification. We want therefore to emphasise that the purpose is to introduce the study of education, outline the theoretical arguments and encourage deeper exploration.
The development of education studies
In the past, education(al) studies has been seen as very much part of the education/training of teachers (Burton and Bartlett, 2006a). The study was effectively invented during the period of expansion in education post-Second World War, which created a demand for more high-quality teachers. To meet this demand the teacher training courses at the colleges of education were lengthened and the Robbins Report (1963) declared an intention to develop teaching into an all-graduate profession. This heralded the creation of the new Bachelor of Education (BEd) degree, which comprised both theoretical and practical study of education. The content of these new BEd courses was largely created from a range of subjects already in existence at the validating universities. Thus, the academic study of education came to be made up primarily of the sociology, psychology, philosophy and history of education: the so called ‘foundation disciplines’ (McCulloch and Cowan, 2017).
Rather than becoming a unified subject these disciplines generally remained as discrete units and were taught separately. For many students they were presented in isolation and did not sufficiently link with the other parts of their professional training courses to make them appear worthwhile. For such students their prime focus was on the subjects they were going to teach, the teaching practice itself and, particularly, aspects of classroom management and control. In an effort to make the theoretical and academic study of education more relevant to the needs of the student teachers, many BEd programmes began to create a more integrated approach. This involved the development of what became known as curriculum, professional or even educational studies (Lawn and Furlong, 2009). In hindsight this can be seen as a significant point in the development of a specialist study of education.
As a result of political and economic pressures in the 1970s and 1980s the theoretical study of education as part of teacher training courses fell into disrepute. Teacher education was criticised as being too removed from the classroom. It was perceived as largely ignoring the practical nature of teaching while also promoting progressive ideologies of education. It was from the 1980s onwards that the nature of teacher education changed drastically. With the emphasis becoming firmly placed on training, any traces of academic education studies were removed from Initial Teacher Training (ITT) programmes. However, shortly after the critical study of education disappeared from teacher training courses, new programmes called education studies began to develop in the rapidly expanding sector funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). We suggest a number of reasons for the rapid growth of this subject and its popularity among the student population (Bartlett and Burton, 2006a).
The increase in student numbers entering higher education (HE) and the concomitant development of modular degree programmes, allowing more flexibility in the choice of subjects studied, meant that education studies came to be seen as an important partner for a number of combinations. Thus, students combined education studies with sports science, English, drama, religious studies, geography and the like. It took on a special significance for students planning careers that involved working with people in a variety of contexts. Teaching is often the first that springs to mind but there are also personnel management, welfare and health services, retail, publishing and a range of others.
The trend for many students who intend to become teachers to take a first degree and then a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) rather than the traditional BEd has made education studies a more attractive part of that first degree. This changing landscape of teacher training has led to many schools of education seeking actively to diversify their portfolios, making education studies an obvious addition from an institutional point of view. These changes in HE, along with the comparative decline in modular degree programmes, have led to education studies emerging as a single subject degree in its own right.
The nature of education studies
Whatever your eventual career decisions as an education studies student, you have chosen education as an academic area of study and will need to approach it in a critical fashion. You will be seeking answers to key questions such as: What is education and what are its purposes? How does learning take place and how far is achievement dependent upon natural ability or social factors such as income, life chances, gender and ethnicity? Your attention will also be drawn to educational policy and political issues surrounding education and to ways of researching these phenomena.
With the resurgence of the academic study of education and an increasing number of students with education studies in their degree title, the significance of the traditional disciplines from which it draws once again becomes apparent. Aspects of education are studied within various disciplines, specifically philosophy, psychology, sociology and history, as part of their particular interest in the human condition. However, education is also seen as a legitimate area of study in its own right by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) which considered that:
Essentially, education studies is concerned with understanding how people develop and learn throughout their lives, and the nature of knowledge and critical engagement with ways of knowing and understanding. It offers intellectually rigorous analysis of educational processes, systems and approaches, and their cultural, societal, technological, political, historical and economic contexts. (QAA, 2019: 4)
Applying Critical Evaluation: The nature of education studies
Access the education studies benchmarks on the QAA website (www.qaa.ac.uk) and read through the statements.
- How useful do you find these in outlining the subject of education studies? How do your experiences of education studies relate to them?
This means that education is at the centre of the study and therefore draws on the other disciplines as appropriate in an eclectic manner. Thus, while psychology students will study aspects of education as appropriate, for instance, in relation to cognitive development, education studies students will study some aspects of psychological theory when looking at the process of learning within schools or colleges. It is interesting to consider the status relations between these older and newer subjects, the longer-standing disciplines having a better developed theoretical base to consider as their own.
Davies and Hogarth (2004) were unable to identify a clear consensus about the nature of education studies, suggesting that there would be some value in exploring what might constitute its broad parameters.
Some features which, we would argue, characterise the subject are that:
- it is ‘young’ and developing
- it takes a critical, analytical and ‘resistant’ approach to the study of education
- it grapples with fundamental, contested concepts
- it explores a range of perspectives, not just those of teachers and schools
- it deals with multiple rather than singular explanations of phenomena.
Thus, the way in which education studies facilitates a critical engagement with educational phenomena contrasts sharply with the ‘technical–rational’ approach to teacher training described earlier. Even within non-teacher training programmes education studies is circumscribed to some extent by this pervasive culture since it must examine and describe extant education processes and systems in order to analyse them. However, the power to critique and rethink educational policies and processes is available to students of education studies in a way that is denied to ITT students. Education studies provides a set of analytical discourses that generate insights into educational phenomena as bodies of knowledge and societal conditions shift, develop and wane.
While the education studies benchmarks (QAA, 2019) provide a guide to those designing new courses, the structure and content of education studies programmes varies enormously. At the heart of each course, however, lies a critical evaluation of key issues such as the nature of education, the content and development of curricula, teaching and learning, the relationship between ability, opportunity and success, and the policy issues impacting on all of these. It is a mistake to see education studies as essentially school focused. This can happen due to its historical connection to teacher training but is certainly not the case as all aspects of education can be included. The subject has enormous scope – from the development of young children, through learning in HE, to the workplace and the third age – a true study of lifelong learning.
