Education Studies
Education studies is a discipline that examines education as a social institution, asking how it is organised, what purposes it serves, and what effects it has on the individuals and communities who experience it. At Teesside University, the BA Education Studies is a three-year full-time programme that takes a historical, social, and policy-oriented approach to these questions, developing your critical and analytical understanding of education in the UK and beyond.
As the current description notes, the programme invites you to discover the key moments in the history of British education that have shaped current policy, practice, and curriculum, approaching educational change through its wider moral, social, and political context. You will engage with how ideas about childhood, learning, equality, and the purpose of schooling have changed over time, and how these changes are connected to broader social and political developments. Contemporary education policy, the sociology of educational inequality, the psychology of learning and development, and comparative and international perspectives on education systems all contribute to a curriculum that develops your capacity to understand education systemically rather than merely empirically.
Practical engagement with educational settings may feature in the programme, giving you direct experience of how policy and practice interact in real institutions.
Education studies graduates are well placed for a range of careers in and around education. Teaching is a common career direction, and the degree provides a strong academic foundation for subsequent teacher training programmes such as the Postgraduate Certificate in Education. Other pathways include educational management and administration, community education, youth work, social work, educational research and policy analysis, publishing and educational media, and roles in charities and organisations that support access to education.
Some graduates go on to postgraduate study in education, educational psychology, school leadership, or social policy. The critical analytical skills and contextual understanding of how education systems work that Teesside's programme develops are applicable in any career where understanding institutions and the people who work within them is important.