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Education Studies

View the employability skills

A graduate in education studies typically will have the ability to:

  • understand theoretical knowledge and research evidence about the processes of learning, including some of the key paradigms and their impact on educational practices
  • understand aspects of cultural and linguistic differences and societies, politics and education policies, economics, geographical and historical features of societies and contexts, and moral, religious and philosophical underpinnings and their effects on learning
  • understand their own and other education systems, and the underpinning value systems
  • understand the complex interactions between education and its contexts, and relationships with other disciplines and professions
  • analyse complex situations concerning human learning and development in particular contexts, including their own learning
  • accommodate new ideas concerning globalisation on education systems and issues such as social justice, sustainable development, peace education, social inclusion and the knowledge economy
  • provide well argued conclusions relating to these main global issues
  • reflect on their individual value systems, development and practices
  • question concepts and theories encountered in their studies
  • communicate and present oral and written arguments
  • use Information and Communication Technology
  • interpret and present relevant numerical information
  • work with others, as a result of the development of interpersonal skills, to demonstrate the capacity to plan, to share goals, and work as a member of a team
  • improve their own learning and performance, including the development of study and research skills, information retrieval, and a capacity to plan and manage learning, and to reflect on their own learning.

Education studies is concerned with understanding how people develop and learn throughout their lives. It facilitates a study of the nature of knowledge, and a critical engagement with a variety of perspectives, and ways of knowing and understanding, drawn from a range of appropriate disciplines. There is diversity in education studies degree courses but all involve the intellectually rigorous study of educational processes, systems and approaches, and the cultural, societal, political and historical contexts within which they are embedded.

Graduates in education studies will be able to participate effectively in a number of constantly changing discourses around values and personal and social engagement, and how these relate to communities and societies.

Education studies provides an academic foundation for practitioners in formal and informal contexts and phases of education, and provides a framework for understanding aspects of human development. These contexts and phases encompass a diverse range of people including community workers, education administrators, health workers, human resource managers, those who care for and educate children of all ages, librarians and information management professionals and other professional educators.

The majority of education graduates enter teaching, whether directly after their degree or following a few years' experience in other jobs. Jobs providing support for children, young people and adults are also popular options. Examples include advice worker, careers adviser, counsellor, education administrator, lecturer, learning mentor, social worker, training and development manager and youth worker.

To check the growing range of resources produced by the Subject Centre to support employability and the use of this profile (including the Skills and Attributes map) go to http://escalate.ac.uk.

This profile, produced in 2006, is based on the QAA benchmark to be found at www.qaa.ac.uk/academicinfrastructure/benchmark/honours/default.asp


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