MODULE OUTLINE
Modern Liberal Arts
University of Winchester
Semester 2 2015-6
LA 2011 Power of the Teacher
Monday 9-11 HL5
Rebekah Howes
Module Learning Outcomes
Show engagement with primary sources
Show a knowledge of theoretical perspectives and/or works
Show an understanding of abstract concepts and ideas within theoretical perspectives
Show an ability to work with theorists and their concepts in various forms of assessment as appropriate
Show evidence of engagement with texts and ideas concerned with power and pedagogy
Introduction
This module explores issues of power and domination in the context of education. Power is
examined largely as a political concept which manifests itself in the classroom between
teacher and student. At root we will be asking what kind of power is represented by the
teacher, what it means for the teacher/student relationship, and whether pedagogy can
ever liberate or emancipate students (and teachers) from their determination within these
power relations. We will ask what the relation between authority and freedom is in the
teacher student relation. Does education always require a teacher? Is the power of the
teacher over the student a necessity? We will examine these questions by looking at the
ways in which critical theorists, critical pedagogues and postmodernists contribute to these
debates. At stake always in these questions however, is the issue of our own power and
authority. And how we understand the nature of our own power in relation to social and
political experience will inform the backdrop of many of the discussions.
Weekly sessions/Readings/Wider reading
Week 1 Freire
Reading
Freire P (1972) Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Harmondsworth, Penguin, chapter 2.
Figueiredo-Cowen, M (ed.) (1995) Paulo Freire at the Institute, London, University of
London, chapter 2, ‘The Progressive Teacher.’
Wider reading
Darder, A. (2002) Reinventing Paulo Freire, Oxford, Westview Press.
Freire, P. (1996) Letters to Christina, London, Routledge.
Gur Ze’ev, I. (1998) ‘Toward a Nonrepressive Critical Pedagogy,’ Educational Theory, Fall,
Vol. 48, No. 4, pp. 463-470. note: this whole article is in the articles reading pack as we will
use different parts from it in different seminars!
Gur Ze’ev, I. (2007) Beyond the Modern-Postmodern Struggle in Education, Rotterdam,
Sense Publishers, chapter 4.
McLaren, P. L. and Lankshear, C. (eds.) (1994) Politics of Liberation: Paths from Freire,
London, Routledge, chapter 5.
Morrow, R.A. and Torres, C.A. (2002) Reading Freire and Habermas, New York, Teachers
College Press.
Shor, I. (1993) ‘Education is Politics’ in McLaren, p. and Leonard, P. (1993) Paulo Freire; a
critical encounter, London, Routledge.
Taylor, P.V. (1993) The Texts of Paulo Freire, Buckingham, Open University Press.
Tubbs, N. (1997) Contradiction of Enlightenment, Aldershot, Ashgate, pp. 17-22.
Tubbs, N. (2003) ‘The Concept of “Teachability”,’ Educational Theory, Vol. 53, No. 1, pp. 8082.
Weiler, K. (1996) ‘Myths of Paulo Freire’, Educational Theory, vol. 46, no. 3
Also: http://www.comminit.com/changetheories/ctheories/changetheories-41.html
Week 2 Marx
Reading
Marx, Preface to the Critique of Political Economy, pp. 3-5.
Marx, Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts, pp. 70-79, (on alienation).
Marx, The German Ideology, pp. 172-3.
Marx, The German Ideology, pp. 192-3 (on revolution).
Marx, Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts, pp. 82-85 (on communism).
(These references are all from the Tucker book called The Marx-Engels Reader. The full
reference for this book is Tucker, R.C. (1978) The Marx-Engels Reader, London: W.W.
Norton).
Wider reading
Bourdieu, P. And Passeron, JC, (19770 Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture,
London, Sage, see in particular pp. 108-114
Bowles, S. And Gintis, H. (1976) Schooling in Capitalist America, London, Routledge and
Kegan Paul.
Hill, D. and Cole, M. (2001) ‘Social Class’ in D. Hill and M. Cole, (eds.) Schooling and Equality:
Fact, Concept and Policy, London: Kogan Page.
Marx, K. (1975) Early Writings, Harmondsworth, Penguin, in particular the Theses on
Feuerbach
Sarup, M. (1978) Marxism and Education, London, RKP, chapters 10 and 11
Sharp, R. (1980) Knowledge, Ideology and the Politics of Schooling, London, RKP.
Small, R, (2005) Marx and Education, Aldershot, Ashgate.
Week 3 Marx and Althusser
Reading
Althusser, L. (1984) Essays on Ideology, London, Verso, pp 14-31
Wider reading
See above
Week 4 Critical Theory : Habermas and Instrumental Reason
Reading
Carr, W. and Kemmis, S. (1986) Becoming Critical, Lewes, Falmer Press, pp. 131-143
Outhwaite, W. (1994) Habermas: A Critical Introduction, Cambridge, Polity, pp. 26-31.
Roderick, R. (1986) Habermas and the Foundation of Critical Theory, Basingstoke, Macmillan, pp. 8287.
Young, R.E. (1989) A Critical Theory of Education: Habermas and our children’s future, London,
Harvester Wheatsheaf, pp. 118-123.
Tubbs, N. (1996) ‘Becoming Critical of Critical Theory of Education’, Educational Philosophy and
Theory, vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 42-54.
Wider reading
Abbinnett, R. (1998) Truth and Social Science, London, Sage, pp. 93-99.
Adorno T.W. (1967) Prisms, Massachusetts, MIT Press.
Adorno TW (1976) The Positivist Dispute in German Sociology, Aldershot, Avebury.
Adorno, T.W. (1991) ‘Why Philosophy,’ in David Ingram and Julie Simon-Ingram, (eds.) Critical
Theory: The Essential Readings, New York, Paragon House.
Adorno, T.W. (1991) The Culture Industry, London, Routledge.
Arato A and Gebhardt E (1978) The Essential Frankfurt School Reader, Oxford, Blackwell.
Benjamin, A. (ed ) (1991) The Problems of Modernity: Adorno and Benjamin, London, Routledge, chapter 1,
Peter Dews on Adorno.
Benjamin, W. (1973) Illuminations, London, Fontana, ‘The Storyteller’.
Blake, N. (1995) ‘Ideal Speech Conditions, Modern Discourse and Education’, Journal of Philosophy of
Education, Vol. 29, No. 3, pp. 355-367.
Blake, N. and Masschelein, J. (2003) ‘Critical Theory and Critical Pedagogy’, in The Blackwell Guide to
Philosophy of Education, Blake, N., Smeyers, P., Smith, R. and Standish, P. (eds.), pp. 38-56.
Bottomore T (1984) The Frankfurt School, London, Tavistock.
Braaten, J. (1991) Habermas's Critical Theory of Society, New York, SUNY.
Bronner S E and Kellner D M (1989) Critical Theory and Society, London, Routledge.
Bronner, S.E. (1994) Of Critical Theory and its Theorists, Oxford, Blackwell, chapter 9 on Adorno.
Brunkhorst, H, (1999) Adorno and Critical Theory, Cardiff, University of Wales Press, try chapter 2.
Burbules, N. (1993) Dialogue in Teaching , New York, Teachers College Press, pp. 73-6.
Craib, I. (1992) Modern Social Theory; From Parsons to Habermas, Hemel Hempstead, Harvester
Wheatsheaf.
Critchley, S. and Schroeder, R. (1999) A Companion to Continental Philosophy, Oxford, Blackwell,
chapter 34
Dews, P. (1995) The Limits of Disenchantment, Essays on Contemporary European Philosophy, London,
Verso, chapter 1.
Dews, P. (ed.) (1999) Habermas: A Critical Reader, Oxford, Blackwell.
Giddens, A. (1990) The Consequences of Modernity, Cambridge, Polity Press, chapters 1 and 6.
Habermas (1985) The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity, Cambridge, Polity Press, chapter XI
Held D (1980) Introduction to Critical Theory, California, University of California Press.
Heslep, R.D. (2001) ‘Habermas on Communication in Teaching’, Educational Theory, Spring, Vol. 51,
No. 2, pp. 191-207.
Horkheimer (1947) Eclipse of Reason, New York, Continuum.
Horkheimer (1992) Critical Theory Selected Essays, Continuum, New York.
Ingram, D. and Simon-Ingram, J. (eds.) (1991) Critical Theory: the essential readings, New York, Paragon
House.
Kellner, D. (1989) Critical Theory, Marxism and Modernity, Cambridge, Polity Press.
Lukacs (1963) Theory of the Novel, London, Martin Press.
Lukacs (1971) History and Class Consciousness, London, Martin Press, pp 83-110.
Marx, K. (1976) Capital Volume 1, Harmondsworth, Penguin, pp. 163-165 on the fetishism of commodities.
McCarthy, (1986) The Critical theory of Jurgen Habermas, Cambridge, Polity
Papastephanou, M. (2001), ‘Estranged but not Alienated: A Precondition of Critical Educational
Theory’, Journal of Philosophy of Education, vol. 35, no. 1.
Peukertruth, H. (1993) ‘Basic Problems of a Critical Theory of Education’, in Journal of Philosophy of
Education, vol. 27, no. 2.
Rasmussen, D.M. (ed.) (1999) The Handbook of Critical Theory, Oxford, Blackwell.
Sim, S. and van Loon, B. (2004) Introducing Critical Theory, Royston, Icon Books (its got pictures!).
Solomon, R.C. and Sherman, D. (eds.) (2003) The Blackwell Guide to Continental Philosophy, Oxford,
Blackwell, chapter 9.
Tucker, R.C. (1978) The Marx-Engels Reader, London: W.W. Norton, pp. 319-321 on the fetishism of
commodities.
Wellmer, A. (1991) The Persistence of Modernity, Cambridge, Polity Press, chapter 2.
Wiggershaus R (1994) The Frankfurt School, Cambridge, Polity.
Winter, R. (1988) ‘Finding a voice- Thinking with Others: a conception of action research’, in
Educational Action Research, vol. 6, no. 1
Young R.E. (1989) A Critical Theory of Education, London, Harvester Wheatsheaf.
Week 5 Critical Pedagogy
Reading
Giroux H.A. (1994) Disturbing Pleasures London, Routledge, pp. 133-140, and 153-171.
Gur Ze’ev, I. (1998) ‘Toward a Nonrepressive Critical Pedagogy,’ Educational Theory, Fall, Vol. 48, No. 4, pp.
463 and 483-486.
McLaren, P. (1997) Revolutionary Multiculturalism, Colorado, Westview, pp. 13-14.
Wider reading
Cole, M. (2011) Racism and education in the U.K. and the U.S.: towards a socialist alternative,
Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan
Giroux, H. (1983) Theory and Resistance in Education, London, Heinemann.
Giroux, H. (1992) Border Crossings, New York, Routledge.
Gur-Ze’ev, I. (1998) ‘Toward a Nonrepressive Critical Pedagogy,’ Educational Theory, Fall, Vol. 48, No.
4, pp. 470-475
Gur-Ze’ev, I. (2003) Destroying the Other’s Collective Memory, New York, Peter Lang, the
Introduction.
Hill, D. (2009a) ‘Culturalist and Materialist Explanations of Class and “Race”: Critical Race Theory,
Equivalence/Parallelist Theory, and Marxist Theory’ Cultural Logic, 16.
http://clogic.eserver.org/2009/Hill.pdf
Kanpol, B. (1994) Critical Pedagogy, an introduction, Westport, Bergin and Garvey.
McLaren P. Note: there are 8 titles in the library for McLaren.
Marx, K. [1843] (1978) ‘On The Jewish Question’, in Tucker, R. (Ed.) The Marx-Engels Reader, New
York: W.W. Norton.
Marx, K. [1870] (2001) ‘Marx to Sigfrid Meyer and August Vogt, April 9, 1870’, in Ahmad, A. (Ed.) Karl
Marx & Frederick Engels On the National & Colonial Questions: Selected Writings, New Delhi: Left
Word.
Masschelein, J. (1998) ‘How to Imagine Something Exterior to the System: Critical Education as
Problematization’, Educational Theory, Fall, Vol. 48, No. 4, pp. 521-529.
Lather, P. (1998) ‘Critical Pedagogy and its Complicities: A Praxis of Stuck Places’, Educational Theory,
Fall, Vol. 48, No. 4, pp. 487-497.
Lovlie, L. Mortensen, K.P. and Nordenbo, S.E. (2003) Educating Humanity, Bildung in Postmodernity,
Oxford, Blackwell, especially chapter 5.
Trifonas, P. (2000) Revolutionary Pedagogies: cultural politics, instituting education and the discourse
of theory, New York, RoutledgeFalmer.
Anderson, K. (2010) Marx at the Margins: On Nationalism, Ethnicity, and Non-Western Societies,
Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Marx, K. & Engels, F. (1960) On Colonialism, Moscow: Progress Publishers
Marx, K. (2007) Dispatches for the New York Tribune: Selected Journalism of Karl Marx, London:
Penguin
Week 6 Critical pedagogy: feminism and plantation pedagogy
Reading
Bristol, L. (2012) Plantation Pedagogy, A postcolonial and Global Perspective, New York: Peter Lang
Publishing, Inc. pp 13-20
Luke, C. (1996) ‘Feminist Pedagogy Theory: Reflections on Power and Authority’, Educational Theory,
Summer, Vol. 46, No. 3, pp. 283-302
Luke, C. (1996) (ed) Feminism and Pedagogies of Everyday Life, Albany: State University of New York
Press pp 1-5
Wider reading
Cole, M. (2009c) ‘Critical Race Theory comes to the UK: A Marxist response’, Ethnicities, 9 (2) pp.
246-269
Cole, M. (2009) Critical Race Theory and Education: A Marxist Response, Basingstoke: Palgrave
MacMillan
Cole, M. (2012) ‘‘Abolish the white race’ or ‘transfer economic power to the people’? : Some
educational implications’ Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies 10 (2)
http://www.jceps.com/?pageID=article&articleID=265
Delgado, R. & Stefanic, J. (2001) Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, New York: New York
University Press. Chapter 1
Gilroy, P. (2002) There ain't no black in the Union Jack: the cultural politics of race and nation,
London: Routledge
Gilroy, P. (2001) Against race : imagining political culture beyond the color line, Cambridge, MA :
Belknap
Gillborn, D. (2008) Racism and Education: Coincidence or conspiracy? London: Routledge
Gillborn, D. (2002) Education and institutional racism, London : University of London, Institute of
Education
Gillborn, D. (2009) ‘Who’s Afraid of Critical Race Theory in Education? A Reply to Mike Cole’s ‘The
Color-Line and the Class Struggle,’ Power and Education, 1 (1)
Gillborn, D., Rollock, N., Vincent, C. & Ball, S. (2012) ‘“You got a pass, so what more do you want?”:
race, class and gender intersections in the educational experiences of the Black middle class’ Race
Ethnicity and Education, 15(1), pp. 121-139
Gore, J. (1993) The Struggle For Pedagogies: Critical and Feminist Discourse and Regimes of Truth,
London: Routledge
Nicholson, C. ‘Postmodern Feminisms’, in Peters, M (ed.) (1995) Education and the Postmodern
Condition, Connecticut: Bergin and Harvey.
Ladson-Billings, G. & Tate, William, F. (2006) ‘Towards a Critical Race Theory of Education’ in Dixson,
A & Rousseau, C. (Eds.) Critical Race Theory in Education: All God’s Children Got a Song, New York:
Routledge
Rose, E.C. & Mayberry, M. (1999) Meeting the Challenge: Innovative Feminist Pedagogies in Action,
London: Routledge
Shapiro, S. (1999) Pedagogy and the Politics of the Body: A Critical Praxis, London: Routledge
Weiler, K. (2001) Feminist Engagements: Reading, Resisting, and Revisioning Male Theorists in
Education and Cultural Studies, London: Routledge
Week 7 Lyotard and the post-modern condition
Reading
Lyotard, JF. (1984) The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge, Manchester, Manchester
University Press, introduction.
Lyotard, JF. (1992) The Postmodern Explained to Children, London, Turnaround, pp. 24, 29-30, 61, 97
and 110-111.
Wider reading
Rorty, R. (1980) Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature, Oxford: Blackwell.
Sarap, M. (1993) An introductory guide to post-structuralism and postmodernism, London, Harvester
Wheatsheaf, chapters 4, 5 and 6.
Solomon, R.C. and Sherman, D. (eds.) (2003) The Blackwell Guide to Continental Philosophy, Oxford,
Blackwell, chapter 13.
Standish, P. ‘Postmodernism and the Education of the Whole Person,’ Journal of Philosophy of
Education, vol. 29, no. 1, March 1995, pp. 121-135.
Theory, Culture and Society, (1988) Postmodernism, London, Sage; 1 article on Lyotard, and 1
interview with him.
Week 8 post-modern critique
Reading
Usher R and Edwards R (1994) Postmodernism and Education London: Routledge, chapter 1.
Foucault, M. (1980) Power/Knowledge London: Harvester, pp. 78-108
Bauman, Z. (1989) Modernity and the Holocaust, Cambridge: Polity Press, pp. 88-95.
Wider reading
Barnett, R. and Griffin, A. (eds.) (1997) The End of Knowledge in Higher Education, London: Cassell.
Biesta, G.J.J. (1998) ‘Say you want a revolution… suggestions for the impossible future of critical
pedagogy’, Educational Theory, Fall, Vol. 48, No. 4, pp. 499-510.
Burbules, N. (1993) Dialogue in Teaching, New York: Teachers College Press
Parker S (1997) Reflective Teaching in the Postmodern World (Milton Keynes: Open University Press)
chapter 5 (but chapters 6-8 will also give you much that is useful in thinking about postmodern
thinking in education).
Mourad, R.P. (1997) Postmodern Philosophical Critique and the Pursuit of Knowledge in Higher
Education, Westport: Bergin and Harvey, pp. 27-37.
Bauman, Z. (1997) Postmodernity and its Discontents, Cambridge: Polity.
Cherryholmes, C.H. (1988) Power and Criticism (New York: TCP) chapter 3
Critchley, S. and Schroeder, W.R. (1998) A Companion to Continental Philosophy, Oxford: Blackwell,
chapter 52.
Donald, J. (1992) Sentimental Education, London: Verso, chapter 5 (on vampires!!)
Hogan, P. (1995) The Custody and Courtship of Experience: western education in philosophical
perspective, Blackrock: The Columba Press, pp. 109-113.
Jennings, L.E. and Graham, A.P. (1996) ‘Postmodern Perspectives and action Research: reflecting on
the possibilities’ in Educational Action Research, vol. 4, no. 2.
Lyotard, J.F. (1992) The Postmodern Explained to Children, London: Turnaround.
Mourad, R.P. (1997) Postmodern Philosophical Critique and the Pursuit of Knowledge in Higher
Education, Westport: Bergin and Harvey, Introduction.
Nicholson, C. ‘Postmodern Feminisms’, in Peters, M (ed.) (1995) Education and the Postmodern
Condition, Connecticut: Bergin and Harvey.
Peters, M. (ed.) (1995) Education and the Postmodern Condition (Connecticut: Bergin and Harvey)
Peters, M. (2001) Poststructuralism, Marxism and Neoliberalism: Between Theory and Politics,
Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, pp. 49-53 (p/c available from me)
Usher, R. and Edwards, R. (1994) Postmodernism and Education, London: Routledge, chapter 8.
Vanderstraeten, R. and Biesta, G.J.J. (2001) ‘How is education possible? Preliminary investigations
for a theory of education’, Educational Philosophy and Theory, Vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 7-21 (read in
columns!!).
Wyschogrod, E. (1985) Spirit in Ashes, New Haven, Yale University Press, pp. 23
Week 9 post-modern ‘undecidability’
Reading
Ellsworth, E. (1997) Teaching Positions; difference, pedagogy and the power of address, New York:
Teachers College Press, pp. 50-53 and 136-8, 140-2.
Wider reading
Barnett, R. (1997) Higher Education: A Critical Business, Buckingham: Open University Press.
Barnett, R. and Griffin, A. (eds.) (1997) The End of Knowledge in Higher Education, London: Cassell.
Biesta, G.J.J. (1998) ‘Say you want a revolution… suggestions for the impossible future of critical pedagogy’,
Educational Theory, Fall, Vol. 48, No. 4, pp. 499-510.
Burbules, N. (1993) Dialogue in Teaching, New York: Teachers College Press
Donald, J. (1992) Sentimental Education, London: Verso
Nicholson, C. ‘Postmodern Feminisms’, in Peters, M (ed.) (1995) Education and the Postmodern Condition,
Connecticut: Bergin and Harvey.
Vanderstraeten, R. and Biesta, G.J.J. (2001) ‘How is education possible? Preliminary investigations for a
theory of education’, Educational Philosophy and Theory, Vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 7-21 (read in columns!!).
Week 10 Parker’s Postmodern Education Manifesto
Reading
Parker, S. (1997) Reflective Teaching in the Postmodern World, Buckingham: Open University Press,
chapter 9.
Wider reading
Allam, J. (2004) ‘Deterritorializations: Putting postmodernism to work on teacher education and inclusion’,
Educational Philosophy and Theory, vol. 36, no. 4.
Cherryholmes, C.H. (1988) Power and Criticism, New York: TCP, chapter 8.
Blake, N. , Smeyers, P., Smith, R. and Standish, P. (1998) Thinking Again, Education After Postmodernism,
Westport, Bergin and Garvey, pp. 185-190. For a series of comments on this book, see Educational
Philosophy and Theory, vol. 32, no. 3, 2000.
Marshall, J.D. (2000) ‘Education and the Postmodern world: rethinking some educational stories’,
Educational Theory, vol. 50, no. 1.
Trifonas, P. (ed.) (2003) Pedagogies of Difference: rethinking education for social change, New York:
RoutledgeFalmer, try chapter 10 on deconstruction and ‘difference’.
Week 11 Are we ready for post-humanism?
Reading
Freire, P. (1972) The Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Harmondsworth; Penguin, chapter 2.
McCarty, L.P. (1997) ‘Experience and the Postmodern Spirit’, Educational Theory, Summer, Vol. 47,
No. 3, pp. 377-394.
Spanos, W.V. (1993) The End of Education, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 11, and
187 – 221.
Wider reading
Biesta, G. J. J. (2006) Beyond Learning; democratic education for a Human Future, Boulder: Paradigm
Publishers.
Burbules, N.C. (1986) ‘A Theory of Power in Education’, Educational Theory, Spring, vol. 36, no. 2, by way of
a conclusion (I have a copy).
Burbules, N.C. and Torres, C.A. (eds.) Globalization and Education: critical perspectives, New York:
Routledge, chapter 13.
Carr, D. (ed.) (1998) Education, Knowledge and Truth: beyond the postmodern impasse, London, Routledge,
try the Introduction, and chapters 2 and 7.
Derrida, J. (1988) Limited Inc, Evanston: Northwestern University Press, p. 93.
McLaren, P.L. and Lankshear, C. (eds.) (1994) Politics of Liberation: Paths from Freire, London: Routledge,
chapter11.
Tubbs, N. (2003) 'The Concept of Teachability,' Educational Theory, Vol. 53, No. 1.
It is also the case that the kind of debates that currently are offered for and against the postmodern are not
really new. See, for example, Book XI, chapter 5, lines 1062a 20 – 1062b 11 of Aristotle’s Metaphysics.
Assessment
Assessment 1: (50%)
1. In what ways do critical educators believe education can be a tool for emancipation?
(2000-2250 words; deadline: Monday Week 6 15th Feb given to Catherine in the
Office by 3.30pm).
Assessment 2: (50%)
1. ‘What are the characteristics of the post-modern teacher’?
2. Individually negotiated titles
(2000-2250 words; deadline Week 12 Friday 1st April given to Catherine in the Office by
3.30pm).
Use Harvard Referencing
We attempt always to return work within 3 working weeks (15 days working days).
MODERN LIBERAL ARTS MARK SCHEME
We want you to be very clear about how we will mark your work and that means you must know with each
assessment what you are expected to do. We hope that this does not mean you will feel that you have to write
to a formula. We are trying to build in considerable freedom to your assessments; but as the term ‘liberal arts’
conveys, in every freedom there is a discipline, and in every discipline there is a freedom; together, we hope,
they constitute the struggle of learning.
There are (often but not always) two types of essays in MLA: the first assessment title in a module will most
often be set by the tutor and will be restricted to texts explored in the first weeks. The second assessment title
can be tutor-led, or chosen from a list of titles, or can be negotiated individually; this varies according to the
tutor and the module. This assignment can explore wider issues, employ wider reading, or explore a single
issue in depth. Students will bear some responsibility for the references consulted in the second essay,
increasing through years 1, 2 and 3.
Tutor-set assessments (disciplina)
Student/tutor-set assessments (libertas)
1st module essay
2nd module essay
Marks for
 depth of understanding specialist
terminology
 depth of understanding of set texts
 depth of understanding of ideas/concepts
 evidence by quotation
 answering the question
 correct referencing
 word limit
Marks for
 depth of understanding of texts
 depth of understanding and application of
ideas/concepts
 evidence-based critical arguments
 depth/breadth of reading (depending on
the question)
 answering your own question
 correct referencing
 word limit
Note the difference between essays 1 and 2: the first one is marked only on your understanding of texts; the
second one is marked on understanding, on your own reading, and your emerging critical voice. Be careful
here; being critical does not mean just giving your opinions. It means making a case based on evidence from
your reading, using ideas and concepts from texts. It does not mean you have to fight for one side of an
argument or another… ambivalence will be treated with great respect. But for every essay, remember this: if
we (and you) get the title right, then by answering the question you will be doing exactly what is required.
Over years 1, 2 and 3 the levels of your work are raised by using increasingly challenging texts, ideas, concepts
and writers, and by the way you are able to employ ideas, concepts and writers from other modules across the
degree in increasingly sophisticated ways.
For all essays, then
Depending on the question you will need to




Demonstrate reflection on module material and the wider contexts from across the degree which
might impact upon it
Communicate experiences of texts and ideas as appropriate
Show knowledge and understanding of specialist terminology
Demonstrate requisite research skills in gathering, summarizing and presenting evidence including
proficiency in referencing and academic conventions.
For essay 1
Depending on the question you will need to



Show careful reading of primary sources
Show a knowledge of theoretical perspectives and/or works
Show an understanding of abstract concepts and ideas within theoretical perspectives


Show an ability to work with theorists and their concepts in various forms of assessment as
appropriate
Show evidence of engagement with texts and ideas concerned with issues raised in the module.
For essay 2
Depending on the question you will need to




Show an ability to employ theorists critically in relation to issues
Show an ability to use concepts as critical tools in discussing issues and questions as appropriate
Show an ability to employ theoretical perspectives as critical tools
Therein, to develop a critical voice informed and deepened by appropriate use of theory as
critique.
 Sustain a critical relationship to ideas related to the module
It is often hard to explain in generic terms how any particular essay could have been improved. But, cautiously,
we can say the following:
In general,
a 3rd (40-49%) may have ignored the question, may have not given much evidence of reading, may have clumsy
sentence structure, but will still have made a bona fide attempt at the work.
a 2.2 (50-59%) will have provided evidence of reading, quotations where appropriate, clear sentence structure,
attended to the question or title, but not related the material in ways which synthesise more developed and
complex thinking.
a 2.1 (60-69%) will have evidence of reading through effective selection of quotation, being able to make
specific points, and to relate material together to make broader and/or deeper and more complex
observations. At the higher end, it may have been able to relate material from across modules, or across the
degree as a whole, to synthesise separate ideas and issues into more holistic comments, ideas and problems.
The questions addressed will be getting ever more difficult and important, including those that are asked
without being answered.
a 1st (70-100%) will make a little go a long way. Quotations may carry implications beyond their precise
content; sentences will be clear but able to refine complex ideas succinctly; most importantly, it will be able to
combine the microcosm of its subject matter with the macrocosm of its place in the wider context, and these
contexts will be drawn form the overall, experience of the degree, growing obviously from years 1 to 3. No
inaccuracies of grammar or sentence construction, and no referencing mistakes are expected here. The voice
of the essay will be in control of difficult material throughout. Above all the questions asked and addressed will
be compelling in their difficulty and import.
Module Evaluations (previous year)
This module had changed considerably from the previous year. The seminars were incredibly
engaging and challenging and enjoyable. Feedback stated that it was ‘well –designed’ with ‘great
content’ and that teaching and learning was ‘good’, ‘interactive’ and ‘encouraging’. The first essay
was due in rather late in the module so one student commented that feedback on the first was
unavailable when writing the second. Students felt supported and commented on the quick
response to emails and need for guidance. There was an overabundance of resources which was too
overwhelming for some so this will be changed for next year. Students felt there had been good
progression of their work and that writing was improving. I anticipate only minor changes to the
module next year. I will also try to get an earlier return of the first essay so that feedback can inform
the second.
Catalogue summary
This module asks how the power of the teacher can affect the teacher/student relationship. It
explores ways in which teachers can be said to dominate students, and looks at ways of changing the
teacher/student relationship that might overcome this domination. Inevitably we will be forced to
ask whether the relationship between the student and the teacher can, or should, ever be
democratic? Can and should students be given responsibility for their own learning and
enlightenment? Does education always require a teacher? We will examine these questions by
looking at the ways in which progressive educators, critical pedagogues and postmodernists can
contribute to these debates. At stake always in these questions is the necessity or otherwise of the
power of the teacher over the student.