UG Prospectus 2021 UG Prospectus 2019 | Page 147

Teacher education courses will commence at QMU in September 2019. We will be a new provider of primary teacher education courses in Edinburgh and the surrounding area from 2019 onwards. As stated in our mission, QMU ‘strives to create a community without borders, helping to improve people’s lives locally, nationally and internationally. We are ambitious and enterprising, and, in everything we do, we are committed to social justice.’ We will draw on our existing expertise to deliver courses with a focus on wellbeing, resilience, child welfare and inequality, which will feature highly in our new courses. To provide a vibrant and stimulating teacher education experience with this focus, we will build on our work with a range of community organisations, as well as forging new collaborations with schools, parents, local government and children’s services. There are two course options. The BA (Hons) Education Studies (Primary) will give you a professional qualification to teach in primary schools. The BA (Hons) Education Studies is a broad based social sciences degree with an emphasis on education. Our new teacher education portfolio will sit within the Division of Psychology and Sociology at QMU and will share the reputable approach taken by our psychology and sociology courses in being intellectually rigorous and student-centred, with a focus on wellbeing, social engagement and diversity at their core. Our new courses will not just provide you with a qualification in teaching, you will also be able to specialise in an area from our existing courses, become a researcher- practitioner by engaging in research from the outset, and gain valuable professional experience. Our new courses are designed to meet the challenges as well as recognise the rewards of teaching children in the 21st century. They will prepare students by actively engaging them in contemporary issues in psychology and sociology, and helping them develop a sound knowledge-base of children’s developmental pathways and the range of factors that affect them, studying, for example, the impact of poverty and deprivation in early years. Students will also learn about global health and learning inequality, the impact of adversities such as homelessness, neglect and migration and the 145 importance of creativity and the natural environment for our wellbeing. Our teacher education courses are designed for people who want to make a difference in the world. Our courses will: • appeal to people with a social conscience who want to engage with socio-political issues and make a difference; • provide placements in a range of settings, both traditional and specialised (in the professional course); • offer a rounded education — they will prepare you to be an autonomous, critically thinking reflective professional; • engage you in an exciting variety of learning and assessment methods and • provide a fresh, new approach to teacher education. At the time of printing this prospectus (Feb 2018), the details of this new venture at QMU are still being finalised.