The first half of the academic credit that we recognise towards our Masters in Professional Education upon enrolment will either be drawn from a recent UK PGCE with teaching practice or from our Postgraduate Certificate in Professional Education Programme. All Masters pathways then share the same ‘taught’ MA course structure, although this is tailored towards your research interests and objectives.
The step-by-step module process takes teachers through designing a research study, applying for ethical approval and conducting the study over an appropriate time-period. The final assessment is a dissertation which communicates the findings of the substantial research project in an appropriate academic form; preparing teachers to share the research more widely with other practitioner researchers, colleagues and the wider profession.
Core modules
Research in Professional Practice
This module aims to develop understanding of the research process and its relevance to your professional practice as a teacher, mentor or leader in education, including designing and carrying out research into your own practice field. This includes identifying research questions and appropriate research strategies and gathering and analysing sources using a variety of methods. It will enable you to carry out research into an aspect of career development or current practice of interest and relevance to you.
Ethics Portfolio
The Ethics Portfolio module is designed to facilitate students on the MA Professional Education to carefully consider the challenges of researching ethically in schools as a practitioner, particularly with regards to how this might differ to teaching ethically.
The process of completing the portfolio will help you to work through common problems that teachers researching in school commonly face such as working with school data, negotiating the focus of their research with school leaders and working with vulnerable individuals. The module will help you prepare for the various conversations that need to take place in school with school leaders, colleagues, students and parents. Successful completion of the ethics portfolio will result in your formal ethics application being put forward to the ethics board. Prior to the module you will have already completed a draft of your Research Proposal.
Dissertation
This is the final major project of the MA Professional Education, providing an opportunity for you to consider in depth an area of academic and professional interest related to education.
Optional modules
There are no optional modules for this course.
