The National MA Education (Wales): Equity in Education is a truly transformative and sector leading programme for educational professionals in Wales, from early career teachers to senior leaders with an interest in Equity in Education.
The educational landscape in Wales is changing rapidly. Teaching not only requires the mastery of a complex set of skills to guide, motivate, and facilitate student learning, but also the ability to enquire into professional practice in order to improve it.
The National MA Education (Wales): Equity in Education programme – which has been collaboratively developed by seven universities in Wales, through direct engagement with a variety of key stakeholders including Welsh Government – will ensure that all education professionals in Wales have the same high-quality opportunity to enhance their professional knowledge, engage with research, and to improve their professional practice in the area of Equity in Education.
Students will choose two from three specialist Modules, and will also take modules in
- Advanced Research and Enquiry Skills
- Dissertation (Equity in Education)
Specialist modules:
- Emotional Health, Mental Health and Wellbeing
- Equity and Diversity
- Responding to the Effects of Poverty and Disadvantage in Education
Assessments are all coursework assignments and will be submitted at the end of each module. Wherever possible, assignments have been designed to complement the working contexts and schedules of full-time teachers.
Equity Pathway modules
Emotional Health, Mental Health and Wellbeing (20 credits)
This module will focus on emotional health, mental health and wellbeing in educational settings. It will critically examine the international research on emotional health, mental health and well-being to explore the evidence base from multiple perspectives and from different contexts. Students will examine factors which impact on emotional health, mental health and wellbeing, and will critically evaluate a range of early interventions in relation to the promotion and protection of child / adolescent mental health and wellbeing, whilst also exploring the international evidence concerning the efficacy of a range of preventative measures. The module will enable students to extend, deepen, evaluate and (where appropriate) apply their knowledge of theory and research relating to emotional health, mental health and wellbeing to their personal /professional contexts.
Equity and Diversity (20 credits)
This module aims to develop students’ understanding of equity, diversity and the impact of inequalities on educational outcomes and experiences. It will provide opportunities for students to develop an advanced evidence-informed understanding of the dimensions of diversity within contemporary Welsh society and across international contexts and settings. The module will require students to think critically about the forms of inequality within contemporary education and to engage in contested debates about how education systems identify inequalities and employ evidence-informed strategies for addressing inequalities. The module will allow students to reflect critically on debates about the role played by the education system in addressing inequalities and inequities.
Responding to the effects of poverty and disadvantage in education
Over a third of children and young people live in Wales are living in poverty today. Poverty and disadvantage impacts on the lives of pupils, students, families, staff and communities. This module aims to develop students’ understanding of poverty and disadvantage, and how these impact on learning and development. It feeds into radical changes in ongoing changes to educational policy in Wales. This module will allow students to critically reflect on their own experiences and how they personally perceive poverty and disadvantage. Students will be asked to critically reflect on the ways in which their educational settings measure learning and development and whether this supports the ongoing issues related to poverty and disadvantage. Finally, this module supports students to be creative in their approach in supporting learners in their chosen educational setting and the barriers they may face along the way, thus enabling them to think about new ways of working in Wales.