Study Overseas

The study of education is an essential focus for the academic pursuit of knowledge. But it is more than an abstract study. All students have experience and knowledge of education at some level; we have all spent time in schools, and we have views on the value, quality and worth of that experience.

Education is fundamentally both a human right and a human responsibility. Societies need an educated population, and the population needs to be educated. Lifelong learning is a human commitment whatever our age, ethnicity, gender, physical ability or disability, sexuality and religion.

It is then important that education is a focus for study at University. To understand how and what education is about, for whom and why societies develop education systems: these should be central questions in any academic world. How children learn - and how teachers teach and can improve that learning - is a central plank to understanding not only education, but the very structure of society. Policy studies in educational and historical accounts of the development of education systems (grounded in an understanding of the nature and structure of society, and the economic and political contexts in which education systems evolve) are both crucial academic analytical tools and fascinating investigative processes which students enjoy.

Whether you choose to focus on education at the level of its societal context, or education as experienced by people (or a combination of the two), you will be pursuing a study that can give you satisfaction, insight, knowledge and understanding. Such studies will equip you to develop grounding in a broadly-based academic discipline (History, Policy, Economics, Sociology, Psychology, and Philosophy to name but a few contributing 'disciplines'), structured to give you a rigorous analytical approach. You will therefore be prepared to go on to any professional training with strong academic credentials and excellent intellectual skills. Such a preparation will equip you to work in a wide range of professions apart from teaching itself; in administration, social work, or youth work - in the caring professions and beyond.

If your choice is to study education on a professional training programme in order to become a teacher, you will be following a path into what is perhaps the most valuable and crucial profession in the world. To teach young minds is to bring opportunities to children and young people and enable their development as they grow and mature - and it's fun!

So, if you are considering whether education is the field for you, you should remember that it is an academic discipline in which we all have a grounding and a basic understanding. The excitement of studying it at University as either an undergraduate or a postgraduate is to develop the rigour of analysis, critical understanding, and a conceptual frame which takes you beyond the simple everyday understanding to another, where you have a higher level of understanding, knowledge and analysis. Studying and researching education is possibly one of the most worthwhile and enjoyable academic routes a student can take.

Courses in education typically focus on issues of major significance in developing an understanding of how schools work; where and how education policy evolves; how and why children learn; what constitutes good teaching. Issues such as the nature of success and achievement are central, and considerations of the way opportunities for success can be made available to everyone are important issues for students of education. What pupils learn - and how societies choose what it is that pupils are to study - is important for us to understand. Students coming to the UK to study education are able to develop an understanding of its education system in comparison with their own. Such comparative studies can help you develop a better understanding of your own education structure and systems, of the curriculum, and of the way schools work in your own country.

What is invaluable is to have first-hand experience. Fortunately, most academic courses in education will include fieldwork or research in a school, which might involve you looking at processes and practices in a primary school, or choosing to study gender bias in school textbooks at a local secondary school. Alternatively, you might decide to interview pupils in a neighborhood school about their perceptions of school and education; or your research might lead you to look at ways teachers label certain pupils in their classrooms, and the impact such labelling might have. If you are taking a teaching qualification, you will be given the most thorough grounding in the preparation, planning, classroom management, assessment and evaluation necessary for the classroom. You will be trained to be a competent and effective teacher. If your studies are at the postgraduate level, you will be working with others who are typically practising professionals wishing to develop a deeper understanding and knowledge of education at both its most abstract and concrete levels.

Choose to study education - its possibilities are manifold and its attraction and satisfaction is strong. You will enjoy it, and you will end up in a position where you can make a major contribution to society.

Author

Mary Stiasny