Critique, Power and Transformation in Education

General Guidance:

1. Your assignment should be word processed (handwritten assignments are not accepted), using time new roman size 12 font, double spaced, with numbered pages and your student number printed as a footer on every page.
2. The word limits stated for this assignment excludes the reference list at the end of the assignment but includes all text in the main body of the assignment (including direct quotations, in-text citations, footnotes, tables, diagrams and graphs).
3. Please be aware that exceeding the word count limit will affect the academic judgement of the piece of work and may result in the award of a lower mark.
4. The majority of references should come from primary sources (e.g., journal articles, conference papers, reports, etc.) although you can also utilise area specific textbooks.
5. You must ensure that you use the Harvard style of referencing.
6. Please indicate the word count length at the end of your assignment.

Marking and assessment:

1. Your summative assessment consists is an Essay (4,500 word element) which will be graded out of 100.

Learning outcomes assessed in this assessment:

1. Critically evaluate different models of educational governance
2. Analyse power relationships within educational governance and provision
3. Recognise and reflect upon how educational governance is both influenced by, and has influence upon, wider social structures and cultural practices.

Written assignment topics to choose from:

• In a 4500-word essay, you will need to address one of the issues listed below. After you review each week’s topic, you will need to think about how one of the topics in the course aligns with the topics for your final project.
• The key to a successful essay is to find a theory or model that you believe is Best In Class compared to others. You need to make the case that this particular theory or model should be scaled across the globe. This is more than just your personal or political view, but using critical research skills to persuade an audience of policy makers, educators, and/or stakeholders that would be impacted by one of the topics you have chosen.

Topic Choices:

1. Should Parents have an active role in the education of their children? If not, why not and If so, why and to what level should that be in a specific context.
2. Who should fund education, the government through taxes, or through direct payments from parents to the school?
3. Who should control schools, localities/governments, or private companies/organizations or a board of directors for each individual school?
4. What governance issues exists within your country’s educational systems? How is that having an impact on the system?

Structure of the Final Assignment:

Introduction and rationale

• Focus of assignment, context and rationale clearly defined.
• (10 marks).

Depth of Thought

• Show evidence of depth of thought in preparation, organization and clarity.
• (25 marks).

Connection to Course Materials

• Assignment shows engagement with course readings and other relevant literature and integrates this in an appropriate manner.
• (25 marks).

Conclusions and Implications

• Substantiated conclusions, implications and recommendations.
• (20 marks).

Presentation criteria

• Cover Page
• Table of Contents
• Page numbering
• Margins
• Line spacing
• Appendices (if it is necessary)
• Font consistency, Separation of paragraphs.
• (10 marks).

Harvard reference guide

• Citations and reference list according to Harvard referencing guide.
• (10 marks).