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EDU-20050 - Module Specification
School of Social Sciences
Faculty of Business, Law, Humanities & Social Sciences

For academic year: 2026/27 Last Updated: 17 March 2026

EDU-20050 - Educational Inequalities
Coordinator: Bowen Zhang
Lecture Time: See Timetable...
Level: Level 5
Credits: 30
Study Hours: 300
School Office:

Programme/Approved Electives for 2026/27

None

Available as a Free Standing Elective

No

Co-requisites

None

Prerequisites

None

Barred Combinations

None

Description for 2026/27

Understanding the role that education can play in helping children overcome different forms of disadvantage is one of the most pressing concerns of the modern world. In this module you will visit and work with the local community of Stoke-on-Trent and/or Newcastle-under-Lyme to try and understand not just why inequality occurs in society and how it impacts a person’s life chances but also, by creating audience-facing learning resources, what you as a teacher, or as someone working with young people, can do about it.

Aims
1. To enable students to understand social inequalities associated with education at national and local scales.
2. To introduce debates along the lines of theory and practice related to social inequalities and education’s role in helping children overcome such challenges.
3. To enable students to develop an ‘action-oriented’ approach to working with local communities in understanding and addressing the challenges of social inequalities through education.
4. To develop strong and sustained links with communities and marginalized groups within those communities in areas local to Keele.

Intended Learning Outcomes

Explain the key concepts related to theoretical and practical debates about social inequalities and education’s role in perpetuating and addressing them.: 1,2
Illustrate and analyse the various social inequalities associated with education at the national and local level.: 1
Work collaboratively with others to identify challenges associated with social inequalities and education in a local setting.: 1
Use a range of sources including statistics, empirical research, policy documents and reports to identify potential solutions to challenges of social inequalities associated with education at the national and local level.: 2
Assess the role and contribution of local communities in addressing the challenges of social inequalities through education.: 2
Confidently apply the relevant knowledge to develop appropriate audience-facing learning resources that could contribute to addressing the challenges of social inequalities in a local setting.: 2

Study hours

36 hours of interactive lectures
2 x 2 hours of assessment workshops
8 hours of external visits
60 hours of group work on poster and presentation
92 hours directed study tasks, preparation for interactive lectures, individual consultation with module lead and reading
100 hours digital toolkit preparation and development

School Rules

None

Description of Module Assessment

1: Group Assessment weighted 30%
Group poster presentation highlighting a particular local challenge related to social inequality and education
Groups of 4-6 students will work together to develop a poster highlighting a particular local challenge related to social inequality and education, drawing from weekly materials and readings. Each group will present their poster for 15-20 minutes. The feedback received from the poster presentation will help to inform their next assessment on development of the digital toolkit. Marks will be awarded on an individual basis, based on student’s presentation performance and a 250-word individual summary where they detail their contribution and key arguments in the poster.

2: Website weighted 70%
Development of digital toolkit of learning resources to address the challenge identified from group presentation
Individual students will develop a digital toolkit that includes a collection of content (e.g. images/videos with critical commentary, short blog posts, reflections from site visits and guest speaker presentation, bibliography of resources) hosted on Padlet. This collection will serve as learning resources to address the challenge identified from the group presentation based on extended engagement with a local organisation in Stoke-on-Trent and/or Newcastle-under-Lyme. Students will draw on weekly materials and readings, field trips to local organisations, information from the guest speaker, augmented by a range of sources including statistics, empirical research, policy documents and reports. The overall submission should be equivalent to approximately 2,500–3,000 words of content.

The University undertakes a continuous review of its teaching and research provision to ensure programmes are of a high quality and changes may be made to modules where it is necessary and reasonable to do so. Please be aware that minor changes to modules, such as a change to an individual assessment, can occur up until enrolment, although we endeavour to give you as much notice as possible of any changes. Details about the circumstance in which changes are made to programmes can be found in the Student Agreement, available at: https://www.keele.ac.uk/legalgovernancecompliance/governance/actcharterstatutesordinancesandregulations/studenttermsconditions/

Last Updated: 17 March 2026