| CODE | EDS5028 | ||||||||||||
| TITLE | Social contexts and inclusive conditions of teaching and learning in secondary schools | ||||||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 05 - Postgraduate Modular Diploma or Degree Course | ||||||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 7 | ||||||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 5 | ||||||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Education Studies | ||||||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | Learning is a social process, and consequently cannot be detached from the contexts in which it takes place. This study unit provides a critical reading of the social contexts and inclusive conditions of teaching and learning in secondary schools. It explores topics such as education systems, social class, poverty and disadvantage, educational inequality, racism, Islamophobia, gender and LGBTQi equality and how these have a bearing on teaching, learning and inclusive practices. This study unit will also discuss the principles that guide inclusion and the challenges within an inclusive environment. Through this unit the students will be exposed to the multicultural and multilingual secondary classroom and to planning for addressing the diversity that such environments create. Study-Unit Aims: This study-unit aims to equip students with the necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes to be able to critically analyse and address situations arising from particular social contexts and inclusive conditions in the secondary schools in which they would be teaching. The lectures and school based tasks will help students to become aware of, and understand how structures, policies - such as additional support provided to students - and practices in secondary schools impact teaching and learning. This study unit aims at nurturing an engagement with sociology of education and inclusive education, and an attitude of critical reflection on education polices, process and practices. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Recognise the critical understanding of the social embeddedness of teaching and learning that the sociology of education and inclusive education corpus of knowledge offer to educators. - Identify the social contexts and inclusive conditions which impact teaching and learning for specific categories of learners in secondary school environments. - Engage with theories and empirical research to identify robust explanations regarding what takes place, and why, within the contexts of diverse learning communities. - Analyse and evaluate how policies, processes and practices in secondary schools contribute to learner in/equalities of class, ‘race’, immigration status, gender, dis/ability, and sexual orientation amongst others. - Identify those school and classroom-based practices that would promote equality in educational entitlement. 2. Skills: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Employ a critical and deconstructive reading of the texts relevant to processes of becoming teachers in specific educational contexts. - Identify and critically adopt theoretical frameworks to describe empirical realities. - Analyse texts, including policy texts of the Ministry for Education, from a critical perspective, and creatively come up with alternative solutions to perceived problems. - Synthesise the theories discussed in lectures to create their own theories of learning, informed also by connection to their practice in local schools. - Identify school and classroom-based processes and practices which militate against learning for all, against entitlement curricula and against equality. - Provide critical descriptions of the social contexts and inclusive conditions in which socially and naturally different learners learn (or fail to do so). - Apply theoretical and empirical insights to reflect critically on their own personal experience of schooling, as well as their school placements as a trainee teachers. - Critically reflect on their daily practices as trainee teachers in specific contexts of learning, to develop dispositions favourable to social justice. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Main Texts: Moore, R. (2004). Education and society. Issues and explanations in the sociology of education. Polity Press Ballantine, J. H., Spade, J. Z., Stuber, J. (Eds.) (2018). Schools and society: a sociological approach to education. Sage Mara Sapon-Shevin (2014). How we Respond to Differences – And the Difference It Makes. In Diana Lawrence-Brown and Mara Sapon-Shevin Condition Critical: Key Principles for Equitable and Inclusive Education, pp. 17-32. Disability, Culture, and Equity Series. Teacher College, Columbia University. New York and London. A set of required readings shall also be provided. These will be available through HyDi or on VLE. |
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| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture | ||||||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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| LECTURER/S | Colin Calleja Louise Chircop (Co-ord.) Francois Mifsud Milosh Raykov Lara Ann Vella |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2024/5. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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