Our tutor team are passionate academics in education and active researchers in their areas of specialism. You will be part of a vibrant local, national, and international community where everyone’s prior learning and experience, interests and passions are valued and used as a springboard for learning more about the rich field of education. We feel privileged to hear your voices and experiences, which offer so many different local, national and international perspectives.

Throughout your time here there will be opportunities to follow your interests and to get involved in the wider postgraduate and education communities at CCCU, through events such as open lectures, seminars and conferences. These can enrich your experience and are regularly advertised on Blackboard – our virtual learning environment.

You will be asked to read and engage with lots of material during your MA, and our huge library and e-library means you will not need to buy key texts. If you do want to buy something to read in advance, the tutor team recommend the texts below as useful throughout your studies and beyond.

Reflection

Before you start on your course, try keeping a research journal – a simple notebook is fine. Writing reflectively and reflexively is important in academic writing at Masters level. In here you can store your ideas, questions and thoughts relating to education. It can become a place to jot down notes about interesting things you hear on the radio or TV, and somewhere to keep articles you read in newspapers or professional journals. It can also be a place to record conversations or observations of events that happen in practice.

You might find the following book helpful:

• Bassot, B. (2020) The Reflective Journal 3rd Edn. London: Red Globe Press

Reading academic research

Reading academic texts can feel daunting at first. This short book below is aimed at new MA Education students:

• Williams, J. (2020) How to Read and Understand Educational Research London: Sage

Designing and running a research project

You will be learning how to design, run and write up your own research as part of your MA. This book sets out the different stages of the process in a clear and easy to read way:

• Thomas, G. (2009) How to do your Research Project. London: Sage

Your welcome and induction will be w/c 16 September 2024 - we look forward to meeting you then.

As you prepare for your study at Level 7, we would invite all students to engage with some key open-access reading on Education. Here are some interesting websites, with links to recent policy publications and research, that you might like to look at:

• The British Educational Research Association (BERA) is the leading authority on educational research in the UK, supporting and representing the community of scholars, practitioners and everyone engaged in and with educational research both nationally and internationally. Their website has lots of free articles, guides and resources: https://www.bera.ac.uk/
• CCCU’s Expert Comment blog is a collection of short articles written by CCCU academics about current issues, often related to education: https://blogs.canterbury.ac.uk/expertcomment/
• The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) is an independent charity dedicated to breaking the link between family income and educational achievement. It publishes guidance reports on a whole range of educational interventions: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/
• The FFT Education Datalab produces independent, cutting-edge research that can be used by policymakers to inform education policy, and by schools to improve practice. They analyse education data to produce impactful reports, visualisations and policy recommendations. https://ffteducationdatalab.org.uk/

It is useful to note that the University Bookshop offers 10% discount on most titles in print and have some price-beating book bundles. They also price match Amazon on core texts recommended in the module handbooks you will receive when you start in September.