University College London

Learning and learners are at the heart of education, yet they are often absent from educational studies. This course considers how ideas, theories, and policies played out in experiences of learning as well as the ways in which learning has been transformed over time. The experience of learning is connected to broader political, social, economic, and cultural changes. Students are introduced to the ways that learning has been understood and practiced in the past, the forms of learning that took place and its significance in people’s lives. Who was able to learn, and what they learnt, are closely related to changing forms of inequality. Themes include histories of school learning, higher education, learning in civil society, learning at work and in the domestic sphere. Although the course is mainly focused on the UK, there will be scope to pursue international comparisons.

This course provides an introduction to interdisciplinarity and in particular, its role in breaking down traditional boundaries and creating new kinds of knowledge. The course addresses issues facing those conducting interdisciplinary work and look into how they play out in practice. Students examine how and why disciplines exist alongside issues that can impede the integration of different disciplinary perspectives through, for example, different conceptions of truth, power and evidence. The course combines this with looking at different ways of overcoming these issues including by means of '‘superconcepts."