Module Information

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.

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.

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.