Gwybodaeth Modiwlau

Module Identifier
EDM3820
Module Title
Responding to the effects of poverty and disadvantage in education
Academic Year
2025/2026
Co-ordinator
Semester
Summer
Reading List
Other Staff

Course Delivery

 

Assessment

Assessment Type Assessment length / details Proportion
Semester Assessment Report  A report focusing on poverty and disadvantage within the context of the student's subject/AOLE/setting 4000 Words  100%
Supplementary Assessment Report  A report focusing on poverty and disadvantage within the context of the student's subject/AOLE/setting 4000 Words  100%

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this module students should be able to:

Demonstrate a critical understanding of poverty and disadvantage on learners

Critically evaluate the practice and measurements of learning and development with learners who are impacted by poverty and disadvantage

Critically explore the whole systems approach and how this affects practice.

Critically examine how to plan, implement and evaluate a change in practice that will benefit learners who are impacted by poverty and disadvantage in educational settings.

Brief description

This module aims to develop students’ understanding of poverty and disadvantage, and how these impact on learning and development.
This module is an optional module that will be delivered in part-three of the taught phase of the degree. The module is optional for the National MA Education (Wales). The target audience for this module will be educators working in different sectors and settings.

Aims

1. To enable students to develop a critical understanding of poverty and disadvantage and its impact on education
2. To critically examine theories, literature, practice and measurements
3. To critically evaluate specific contexts in relation to poverty and disadvantage.

Content

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 in to 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.


This module will cover the following areas:


· Definitions of poverty and disadvantage in educational contexts, with a focus on learners, families, and communities
· Theoretical approaches to researching and understanding the effects of poverty on educational experiences and outcomes, including consideration of intersectionality.
· Welsh policies and responding to issues of poverty and disadvantage for learners
· Who is ‘poor enough’ in education? Eligibility
· Changing demographics – migration, war, as
· Measuring learning and development – ‘targets’ ‘attainment gap’ ‘attendance’ ‘progression’?
· Teacher’s perspectives of disadvantage: A critical reflection
· The educator’s role – is there a line between teaching and responding to poverty and disadvantage?
· Developing learning capabilities – Without a Maslow there is no Dewey.
· Whole Systems Approaches – how to plan for positive change

The module will also have guest speakers who work in educational settings that have implemented changes.

Lecture
Total hours: 16
Type of contact: Scheduled
Students will engage in online lectures and workshops to explore and examine the key concepts in this module.

Seminar
Total hours: 6
Type of contact: Scheduled
Online seminars will encourage students to build confidence and deepen their understanding of the concepts being taught in smaller groups. Approaches to seminar delivery will include ‘flipped learning approaches’ whereby students interrogate key issues before further exploration with their peers, supported by course tutors, as well as Problem-Based Learning and challenge-based learning approaches.

Self-Directed Tasks and Individual Study Time
Total hours: 178
Type of contact: Independent
Between scheduled sessions, students will have opportunities to engage in wider reading, undertake independent tasks to test out ideas and to build confidence in their own professional practice.

Module Skills

Skills Type Skills details
Co-ordinating with others Apply their knowledge, understanding and transferable skills to engage with, support and where appropriate, to influence others.
Critical and analytical thinking Arrive at evidence-informed conclusions relating to complex issues in education in general, and in their area of professional practice in particular.
Professional communication Develop clear and appropriate writing styles in Welsh or English, which are accessible to a range of audiences.
Reflection Apply engagement with theory and evidence to develop new personal and professional perspectives of own professional practice. Evaluate own learning needs in order to set and review own professional learning objectives.
Subject Specific Skills Apply systematic approaches to critically evaluate their own practice in relation to the Professional Standards for Teaching and Learning (2017).

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 7