100% online MA Education Leadership and Management

Leading and managing in today’s global working environment is complex. This module addresses the needs of managers and leaders in today’s dynamic environment and focuses on strategic leadership in the context of complexity and change. It explores the origins and history of leadership thinking to provide a foundation for understanding contemporary leadership theory. The pivotal role of the senior leader in the process of understanding and shaping organisational culture is supported by key leadership tools and skills including: the identification of different types of leadership problems and approaches to solving them; understanding and making sense of change; and the leaders role in power, politics, ethics and diversity.

This module looks closely at the role of management in organisations. It explores how organisations are structured and how they function, with a focus on how people work together in the organisational context. You will explore a range of topics that impact on the role of the manager such as: business ethics; the identification, mitigation and management of organisational risk; organisational sustainability; and creating entities that attend to decisions. You will also develop an understanding of sustainability and the way that organisations interact and impact on society and the communities around them through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The module investigates the need for organisational continuity and robustness in an increasingly global context of increased risk, competition, crisis and disasters, as well as the legislative issues that impact on organisations.

This module introduces the principles of learning design for online and blended education courses and activities. Students engage with pedagogical and course design literature, as well as selected learning theories to develop an understanding of the learning process and of suitable teaching strategies to create engaging and pedagogically rigorous online materials. The module engages students in debates on different design approaches and educational theories to develop their knowledge around the ‘whys’ and ‘hows’ of teaching and learning with digital technology. Students build their own learning designs, justifying the proposed use of technologies to support learning in a variety of contexts for learners with a variety of needs.

This module explores the changing world of education in the context of social, political, economic and cultural globalisation. It reflects on the nature of international identity, both for teachers and students, and critically explores what `international’ means, educationally, in this context. The module enables you to understand, and reflect critically on the expansion, origins, tensions, and challenges experienced in international education. It invites you to critically examine the primary aspects of globalisation and their impact on education in any setting and to explore the concept of professional identity in the context of a globalised education policy and practice.

This module analyses the significance of reflective practice in enabling you to develop informed insights and perspectives on key philosophical, socio-cultural and political debates about educational and workplace settings. You will engage actively with a variety of theories and practices associated with reflective practice, with more thoughtful reflection being put forward as the key to reflective practice. You will reflect on an aspect of your practice and develop an action plan for future practice.

This module enables you to critically explore the changing relationships between work and education and the implications for individuals and society. In the module, you are encouraged to interrogate the wider social and historical connections between policies, socio-economic change, education and work. You are invited to critically analyse the links between education, employment and the various social constructions of self-identity.
The module examines in-depth, using a range of materials, the ways in which professional identities are constructed and informed by wider social and economic factors.

This module introduces you to key issues and methodologies underpinning research in the social sciences. You will be introduced initially to how to construct a research project by looking at how to develop and build research questions and how these might be operationalised in your own study. You will be encouraged to begin close planning of your own project. The outcome of the module will be for you to begin to develop both a design and a methodological rationale for your work and the methods you will choose to use.

This module explores a range of research methods – both qualitative and quantitative – and it introduces you to the advantages and pitfalls of these as research tools. You will be supported throughout to reflect on your own understanding of the social world and its implications for developing justified strategies for carrying out your research project. The aim of the module is to enable you to develop concrete plans for the development of the research methods and approaches in relation to your proposed thesis topic.

In this module you will specifically focus on the structure of your final dissertation. The module will equip you to develop specific sections of your dissertation which will include writing an introduction, doing a literature review, writing a methodology chapter, choosing an appropriate approach to data analysis and drawing conclusions. In the module, you will also be introduced to research ethics and will be supported to complete a research ethics application so that you can start data collection.

The dissertation module provides you with the opportunity to carry out and write up an original piece of education research at master’s level. You will draw on the knowledge you developed in the Research Methods module, as well as knowledge and skills gained throughout your academic study in other modules, to conduct your research. The project could be empirical, text-based or a combination of both approaches. Through independent study, you will design and undertake your project in close collaboration with your supervisor and submit a dissertation upon completion.