Education (Research Design and Methodology)

The information provided on this page was correct at the time of publication (November 2024). For complete and up-to-date information about this course, please visit the relevant University of Oxford course page via www.graduate.ox.ac.uk/ucas.

The MSc Education (Research Design and Methodology) introduces you to the range of tools and concepts in educational research. The course aims to provide you with the knowledge and skills to undertake your own research and to evaluate the research of others.

The course covers a range of quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection and data analysis, and introduces you to the challenges of carrying out social research in the field of education.

Students will normally complete six taught modules:

Five core modules:

Foundations of Educational Research 1: Concepts and Design
Foundations of Educational Research 2: Strategies and Methods
Philosophy of Educational Research
Introduction to Quantitative Research
Either Intermediate Quantitative Research or Perspectives and Debates in Qualitative Research

One option module:

This will normally either be Intermediate Quantitative Research or Perspectives and Debates in Qualitative Research, but may include an alternative module.

The following list provides an indication of alternative option modules usually available (please note, this is not a guarantee of availability for any particular elective in a given year):

Core Principles of Child Assessment
Child Development and Educational Attainment
Critical Digital Innovation
Education, the Internet and Society
Global Higher Education
Education in Africa
The Implementation of the Rights of Children

Each module meets once a week. The teaching methods include lectures, small group work, student presentations, seminars, workshops, one-to-one dissertation supervision, and individual research projects. Some modules run on a seminar model with one longer meeting per week. Others run on a model that includes a lecture of about one hour followed by a smaller-group workshop of about an hour and a half, usually later the same day.

You will participate in classes on research design, quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis techniques used to yield research findings, and philosophical and ethical considerations in research. Supervision sessions will support you in identifying and honing research questions towards dissertation research, selecting areas for literature review, carrying out field work, and reviewing drafts of the dissertation.

Supported ICT sessions on literature access skills (including electronic searches) will be provided by the department's library staff.

Research in the department is organised around three major themes:

Language, Cognition and Development
Policy, Economy and Society
Pedagogy, Learning and Knowledge.

Within each of these themes there are several research groups and centres. All staff and doctoral students belong to one or more of these research groups, each of which has its own seminar programme to which graduate students often contribute.

In addition, the department as a whole sponsors regular seminars and public lectures which attract distinguished national and international speakers. Masters students are encouraged to attend these research group events.

You may take part in an optional ‘internship’ in which you will work with an academic/research team on an ongoing research project for a short period. Internships usually take place in Trinity term for full-time students, and may be arranged flexibly for part-time students depending on individual circumstances and availability of ongoing projects of interest. During the internship, you will gain experience by working on the variety of activities that constitute an everyday part of doing educational research.