Power and Knowledge in Educational Policy PDF Print

ΕΕ13 - Power and Knowledge in Educational Policy

Tutor: Maria Nikolakaki

Semester: 8th
ECTS: 4.5

Short Description:

This course attempts to investigate the mechanisms used by the power to shape the conscience through the knowledge provided by the educational system. The course examines the relationship between power, knowledge and educational science, which is one of the main topics in the discourse for the curriculum of critical pedagogy and especially the trend of the postmodern discourse in educational sciences. The course focuses on the contradictions of domination and emancipation in the field of educational sciences. The problem of power in educational sciences considered in the context of discussions on modernity and postmodernity.The course covers the following areas

  • Relations of power and knowledge;
  • Modern / Postmodern;
  • Issues of epistemology;
  • Education and the construction of subjectivity;
  • Curriculum / teaching / education teachers as agents of power and knowledge.

Aims:

  • Critique the development of various ideologies and their policy effects in specific sectors of education (such as Early Years, School Education Leadership, School Teaching, Further Education and Higher Education)
  • Critically evaluate the differential impact of policy and its implementation in relation to specific education issues
  • Identify and critique the impact of a specific policy initiative on a specific educational sector
  • Identify and justify one’s own evaluative presuppositions and judgment on education ideology, policy and change

Learning Outcomes:

Students after completing this course will be able to critically evaluate a range of theoretical explanations and ideological perspectives relating to education policy including, the role of the state, capital and educational change and its application to the specific sectors of student interest/focus.

Structure:
13 three-hour lectures.

Assessment:

The assessment is in two parts: written examination and a written case study.Notes provide further guidance on both parts of assessment.

Bibliography:

Hill, D. (2013). Dave Hill: Marist Essays on Postmodernism, Neoliberalism, Neoconservatism, Class, Race and Education. Brighton: Institute for Education Policy Studies.
Knoester, M. & Apple, M. (2012) (ed.) International struggles for critical democratic education. London-New York: Peter Lang
Popkewitz, T. (2008). Cosmopolitanism and the age of school reform: Science, education and making society by making the child. New York: Routledge.