Educational Leadership and Change

The MA Educational Leadership and Change at Durham University prepares you for a professional career that relies on combined expertise in education, leadership & management, and data analysis. Our course is designed to engage with theory and evidence in leadership and management across sectors to inform improvements in various mechanisms, processes, and practices in education at all levels.

Our two specialised modules - 'Effective Educational Leadership' and 'Leading Change in Education Organizations' cover a range of critical issues around leadership development, professional learning, and leadership for equity, system leadership, excellence, and innovation in education. Two more core modules 'Design and Methods in Education Research' and 'Postgraduate Dissertations' hone your skills in the research and data analysis aspects.

The MA Educational Leadership and Change combines innovative teaching with exceptional support. You will have opportunities to engage with students from diverse backgrounds and countries, gaining a global perspective on education. To further enhance your experience, you will learn from world-class academics who are behind some of the leading research in the field, and experienced practitioners who are involved in educational policy-making.

Upon successful completion of the course, you will have the ability to connect your professional experience with theory in the field and compare it with real-life instances. You will be equipped with the essential skills, knowledge, and behaviours essential to flourish as a well-rounded professional and an influential leader in education and other sectors.

Discover more about how our MA in Educational Leadership and Change can be the next step in your professional journey.

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Course structure

Full-time students normally study three core modules, one mini module, one optional module, and complete a dissertation over one year.

Core modules:

• Effective Educational Leadership (30 credits) engages with global leadership trends and their impact on educational quality and outcomes. This module is designed to engage with theory and evidence on effective leadership in education and across sectors. It covers critical topics on leadership models, leadership development, and professional learning and networking. The module will support you with designing your leadership development plan and strategies, drawing on a range of evidence.
• Leading Change in Educational Organisations (30 credits) develops your critical understanding of the processes and practices of leading, managing, and evaluating change initiatives, with a particular focus of educational contexts. This is an increasingly important part of the leadership role as the scale and number of educational reforms continues to grow.
• Design and Methods in Education Research (20 credits): introduces key issues, terms, and ideas in education research. It teaches a range of key research skills including the evaluation of research techniques across different research contexts and the ability to conduct a high-quality study. You will learn to recognise the different purposes of education research; understand key terms and vocabulary in education research and develop a critical standpoint in relation to research in education.
• Postgraduate Dissertation (60 credits) is a substantial piece of research based on an educational issue within your chosen field of study. You will use an approved research strategy to design and carry out your research and report the outcomes.

Examples of mini modules*:

• Secondary Data in Education Research introduces secondary data use in multiple research designs, enabling you to critique these datasets and judge published research based on secondary data resources. This module aims to develop knowledge and understanding of using existing datasets in education research; to develop skills in research designs using secondary data resources, and to develop skills for analysing and interpreting findings from secondary data research
• Ethnographies of Education introduces you to the foundational characteristics of ethnography of education as a field of study, providing you with opportunities to discuss and reflect on a range of methodological and methodical perspectives relevant to ethnography of education. The module introduces select key theories and conceptual frameworks and how they inform ethnographic research in different areas of study.
• Measurement in Education Research aims to develop your critical understanding of what measurement in social science research means and how it can be implemented in education research. This module explores types of measurement tools and scales in research with a focus on questionnaire development. It considers validity and reliability of measurement tools used in research, and ethical issues related to measurement in research.
• Interviews provides an overview of interviewing as a social research method with a focus on education. This module offers guidance on planning interviews, pre-interview tasks and post-interview tasks. It explores the processes of organising information; interpretations through coding; gathering data from planning through transcription to analysis, and considers the issues of ethics, positionality, and logistics.
• Narrative Enquiry – Methodology and Methods explores the philosophical, empirical, and analytical debates and practices central to the field of narrative inquiry. Narrative inquiry is the umbrella term for approaches aimed at understanding the human dimensions of lived experience over time and in personal context. This module covers a broad range of approaches to and methods for developing and understanding educational and allied research centred on narrative accounts of lived experience.
• Experiments in Education (15 credits) aims to enable you to appreciate and contribute to the debate about the role of experimentation in educational research; recognise and make choices from a range of experimental designs; identify threats to the validity of experimental features and understand strategies for minimising threats to the validity of experimental inferences; analyse, synthesise and interpret data from experimental research
• Systematic Reviews introduces you to established methodologies for creating evidence syntheses such as systematic reviews, iterative reviews, and scoping reviews with emphasis on finding and managing information. This module aims to develop knowledge and understanding in the design, conduct and reporting of systematic reviews for use in education and social science topic areas; to develop skills for conducting systematic reviews, and to develop skills for summarising review evidence.

*Modules may vary depending on the academic year

In recent years, optional modules have included:

• Psychological Perspectives on Learning considers methodological approaches to the operationalization of learning (e.g., the assessment of learning ability) and reflects on the challenges to claims that certain educational interventions are causal to changes in learning outcomes. This module also critically reflects on prominent misconceptions related to learning, including the notion of learning styles, the fixedness of intelligence, and others.
• Education Policy and Evaluation is concerned with the analysis of the process of education policymaking, and critical reflection on education policy reform, evaluation, and research. This module looks closely at attempts to evaluate education policy and provides you with an opportunity to develop skills in critically appraising the ways in which policy innovation has been evaluated in the UK and elsewhere. The relationship between policy, practice and research is also critically examined.
• International Development and Education in a Global World aims to develop knowledge and understanding of key issues related to globalisation and international development and the challenges and opportunities these offer for education. For students interested in learning more about education as an international issue, this module offers an introduction to international development and comparative education. It considers why it is important to look beyond the nation state in the current context of globalisation and global inequalities and explores suitable research approaches and concepts for developing this perspective.
• Language, Education and Power considers the multiple languages in circulation in a community, and their speakers. It explores questions such as: How are languages recognised and valued in communities? How are language and identity linked? What structural features support languages in the community and their speakers? How can education support non-mainstream languages, and what are the implications for those being educated? It also considers how languages are acknowledged in research.
• Leading Change in Educational Organisations aims to develop advanced knowledge and understanding of educational leadership and management and the ways to bring change, and to develop understanding of how context and values influence educational management practice. This module aims to promote the development of effective educational leaders through critical reflection on practice; improve professional capability in education organisations; and enable you to carry out evaluations of change management/leadership.
• The Case for Higher Education will introduce students to the changing context of global higher education landscape, including its competing purposes, value contexts, governance frameworks and the identities of key actors. It will enable students to appreciate critically the key issues within higher education and reflect on what matters in taking higher education forward.
• Digital Technologies and Education: Critical Perspectives offers a theoretical and research-based perspective on the effects and impact of digital technologies on education practice. It does so by focusing on different themes related to critical understanding of digital education.
• Enhancing Teaching and Learning for Purposeful Productive Thought By the end of the module participants should have acquired a critical understanding of issues relating to teaching and learning for the fostering of productive purposeful thought in the classroom.

*Modules may vary depending on the academic year