Postgraduate Module Descriptor


EFPM910: Education Policy

This module descriptor refers to the 2019/0 academic year.

Module Content

Syllabus Plan

The content of the module may change to reflect emerging and developing theory, research and practices in the field of education policy. Nevertheless it will consider key questions and perspectives on education policy including:

  • Characterising education policy
  • Localised and elite policy making
  • Educational centralisation and decentralisation
  • Education policy transfer, travel and re-contextualisation
  • Reforming teacher professionalism and teacher identities
  • Conceptions of children and young people in education policy
  • Education policy and social justice
  • Large scale educational reforms including state intervention, New Public Management and privatisation
  • The internationalisation of education policy
  • Educational policy and students, teachers/lecturers and education institutions

Learning and Teaching

This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:

Scheduled Learning and Teaching ActivitiesGuided independent studyPlacement / study abroad
30.5269.50

...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:

CategoryHours of study timeDescription
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities30.530 hours of in-class sessions (10 x 3 hours) and 1 academic tutorial (0.5 hours)
Guided Independent Study119.5Directed study (e.g. web-based activities, preparing for academic tutorial, preparing for seminars, responding to seminar activities, contributing to online activities/discussion)
Guided Independent Study50Directed reading related to topics discussed in the module
Guided Independent Study100Preparing for assignments and further independent reading

Online Resources

This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).

Indicative Reading List

This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.

  • Ball, S.  (2007) Education PLC, London: Routledge.
  • Ball, S. (1998) Big Policies/Small World: An Introduction to International Perspectives in Education Policy, Comparative Education, 34: 2, Special Number (20): Comparative Perspective in Education Policy, pp. 119-130.
  • Ozga, J. (2000) Policy research in educational settings, Buckingham: Open University Press.
  • Whitty, G. (2002) Making sense of education policy, London: Sage.
  • Burch, P. (2009) Hidden Markets, New York, NY: Routledge.
  • Clarke, J. and Newman, J. (1997) The Managerial State, Power, Politics and Ideology in the Remaking of Social Welfare , London: Sage.
  • Hall, D. Grimaldi, E., Gunter, H., Moller, J., Serpieri, R., and Skedsmo, G. (2016) Educational Reform and Modernisation in Europe: The Role of National Contexts in Mediating the New Public Management. European Educational Research Journal, 14 (16), pp. 487-507
  • Hall, D. and Gunter, H. (2016) England: the European Educational NPM Laboratory in Gunter, H., Grimaldi, E., Hall, D., and Serpieri, R. (Eds) New Public Management and the Reform of Education: European Lessons for Policy and Practice. London: Routledge
  • Hall, D. and McGinity, R. (2015) Conceptualising teacher professional identity in neo liberal times: Resistance, compliance and reform, Education Policy Analysis Archives
  • Lipman, P. (2004) High stakes education, London: Routledge Falmer.        
  • Pollitt, C. (2007) New Labour’s re-disorganization: hyper-modernism and the costs of reform, a cautionary tale. Public Management Review, 9, 529–543.
  • Sachs, J. (2001) 'Teacher professional identity: competing discourses, competing outcomes', Journalof Education Policy, 16: 2, pp 149 — 161.