School of Education

Welcome to the School of Education

Welcome to the School of Education. We are a flourishing School with a long-standing reputation for excellence in a wide range of areas of educational practice and policy. With staff and students coming from all over the world, we are committed to creating an accessible and inclusive environment, in which every member of the School community feels welcomed and valued. 

The School of Education is comprised of three departments- Teacher Education; Education and Social Justice; and Disability, Inclusion and Special Needs- and students come to study with us on a wide variety of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, via in-person and distance learning.

With such a diverse range of programmes and research interests within the School, there is always something to get involved in. We advertise a range of opportunities above and beyond your studies, such as seminars and workshops, led by leading experts and new researchers. We look forward to you joining us and making life-long friends as well as scholarly connections.

School Key Contacts

Student Experience Officers

Deena Baskin-Atkinson 

Contact: Edu.studentexperience@contacts.bham.ac.uk

You can contact Deena about any aspect of your student experience. 

Education Support Office

The Education Support Office is home to our team of Education Support Administrators in the School. This team exists to support your progression throughout your degree, including pulling together module information; organising assessments; and answering student queries. You can contact them with any questions or concerns about your degree.

Wellbeing Team

Contact: soe.wellbeing@contacts.bham.ac.uk

The Wellbeing Team provides a confidential and non-judgemental service to support you with any challenges you face in your studies. Find out more information about them. 

Academic Leads

  • Head of Education: Graeme Dobson 
  • Director of Undergraduate Programmes: TBC
  • Director of Postgraduate Taught Programmes (FT): TBC
  • Director of Postgraduate Taught Programmes (PT): Neil Hall 
  • Senior Tutor: Tracy Whatmore 

School Societies

Getting involved in a society is a great way to meet and connect with other students who share similar ideas and interests. You can find the full range of student societies through the Guild of Students’ website , but here are a few of the School-affiliated societies:

Education Society

This society is for any student with an interest in education. They organise a range of social events, as well other enrichment activities, throughout the year. There is a lot of room to make this society whatever you want it to be! Find out more information about the Education Society.

Think Diversity

Think Diversity is a student-led group primarily comprised of Education students, with the aim of raising awareness of and making strides towards a decolonised university experience. So far, they have completed a project to understand the experiences of minority ethnic students within the School of Education; run a university-wide decolonisation event; and created a decolonising education toolkit, amongst other pieces of work. Have a look at their webpage for more information.

Spotlight on Teaching

School of Education academics- your tutors- regularly inform and frame policy and practice in education in the UK and internationally, and we are proud to say we have a history of top-rated research. Our students regularly benefit from the School’s research excellence in their experiences of teaching and learning. 

Spotlight on Careers

Students on our programmes progress onto a wide range of career pathways, both within the UK and abroad. Some of our students go on to become teachers, but in addition to this, our students have pursued careers in areas such as educational research, the civil service, educational writing, special educational needs work and language tuition, just to name a few.

As a University of Birmingham student, you have access to a thriving Careers Network , where you can get support progressing in your career. Our programmes also include a variety of information sessions about potential careers in education and other sectors, and our degrees are designed to develop a range of transferrable skills. 

 

Spotlight on Research

The School of Education at the University of Birmingham is an international leader in education. Our students have developed dissertations in a wide range of research areas, and in some cases, these then become the starting point for further study.

Recommended Reading

As part of your degree you will be given essential and recommended readings for each of your modules. These readings help develop your knowledge and understanding of the topics covered in your modules and will come in a variety of forms such as journal articles describing literature reviews, experiments or theoretical concepts as well as book chapters, textbooks and policy documents. You will be given your reading lists for the modules you are taking when you start your course.

Examples of Reading:

This reading is not compulsory but offers you a taster of the type of reading/topics you might be doing.

BA Education and BA Education and Sociology – Stephen Ball, The Education Debate (Policy Press, 2021)

BSc Psychology in Education - Educational Psychology (Routledge, 2021)

Colleges

Professional Services