The idea of ‘theory’ can be frightening because it suggests both difficult language and detachment from the ‘reality’ of the practice of education. But, for those interested in thinking critically about education, theory is a potent source of new questions about what happens in education as well as new answers to old questions. Theory, then, is a fruitful resource for anyone who wants to engage in researching education.
'Winners and losers: Social theories of education' is designed to introduce new graduate students to a limited body of important theories in some depth. These theories are selected because they have been – or are coming to be – influential in education research and scholarship in Aotearoa New Zealand and elsewhere.
This graduate course is reading and discussion-based in mode. There is room to follow your own interests in assignments within the broad scope outlined here, and we share food and companionship during class.