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The Erasmus Mundus SEN Programme will not be running during the academic year 2010-11.  

Programme length: one year, full-time (from late August-September)
Programme start date: last week of August
Number of places: 30
Number of credits: 180 / 90 ECTS
Location: Roehampton University, London; Fontys University, Tilburg; and Charles University, Prague.
Award: The final degree is a joint award from Roehampton University and Charles University.

Key areas of study: The MA programme consists of 90 ECTS credits and is made up of 60 core ECTS credits and a further 30 ECTS credits chosen from options. It requires students to develop their own learning, often quite independently of tutors. Students will be given additional advice and support outside of the academic programme.

Core modules for all students

Research Methods & Enquiry (20 ECTS)

This module develops the concept of the reflective enquirer. It is therefore designed to introduce students to the nature of knowledge, paradigms of educational research and basic research techniques upon which they can structure an individual enquiry, in order to make effective and valid analysis and conclusion from collected data. It is intended that the module will prepare students for their dissertation and also be foundational for further postgraduate work. 

International Perspectives on Professional Practice in Education (IPPE) (10 ECTS)

This compulsory module presents the demands of postgraduate study as a reflective practice and seeks to do so within a comparative international framework. It will have an impact on the student’s academic, professional, managerial and personal development. This will be achieved by contextualising professional experience in Special Education Needs within Europe with a focus on the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom as well as at least one other international context. A student will therefore reflect on her/his own context and compare it analytically with other practice within Europe.

Dissertation (30 ECTS)
The Dissertation is designed to enable students to undertake an extended piece of work in SEN within an area of their own interest relevant to their professional practice and in so doing, demonstrate the application of forms of educational enquiry and specific strategies for collecting, analysing, interpreting and validating data within a range of educational contexts within Europe and internationally.

The Dissertation also enables the student to synthesise learning and practice from the preceding modules and to contextualise these elements in a concentrated research project. The module is designed so that students may become autonomous and independent critical researchers in areas of advanced interest and concern in SEN education and practice. The module aims to provide a research focus for students to test arguments, assumptions, hypotheses and models of professional practice, including those relating to their own experience and provide for subsequent development of SEN practice within Europe and internationally.

The Dissertation enables students to carry out a carefully planned, sustained enquiry and to critically evaluate the implications of their findings with a view to developing and improving their own professional practice in relation to SEN within Europe and internationally. The module is also designed to help students demonstrate their understanding of the complex nature of the relationship between theory and practice, critique existing theory in their chosen field, and relate that theory to their own work and thinking.

Students will work on a substantial piece of research in SEN that is professionally relevant to them. They will be supported in this process by tutors. Each student will require a written agreement with a designated tutor so that the individual nature of this work can be facilitated. The Programme Convener will ratify the agreement so that quality and standards issues can be maintained.

The agreement will include:

• a statement relating to the field of study and the SEN research issue(s) under consideration
• a title
• the aims of the research
• intended outcomes from this research
• the type of research methods involved.

Optional modules

Students may choose to do either:

• both Inclusion modules
• or, one Inclusion module and Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning (APEL).

Inclusion module (The Netherlands) (15 ECTS)
This module was developed with the Dutch educational environment in mind with its application worldwide. This module, for which Fontys is responsible, was developed especially with the cooperative masters programme Special Educational Needs between the Roehampton University and Fontys University. Essentially it enables SEN practitioners to develop further their practice and knowledge and understanding of SEN policy-making. For all students it is relevant to have knowledge of the development of Dutch research practice, especially the Dutch tradition of Action Research.

Inclusive Education and Innovation Module (Prague) (15 ECTS)
This module offers a critical view on different perspectives towards ability and disability. By developing an understanding of changing paradigms of disability, students observe different barriers in full participation of persons with disabilities in society. Analysis of the movement towards inclusive society and towards inclusive education is documented by means such as observation in educational and support environment including legislative instruments. The module also enables SEN practitioners to mediate further comparison of their knowledge gained in the other European countries involved in the Erasmus Mundus programme.

Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning (APEL) (15 ECTS)
This module offers an opportunity to gain credit towards award-bearing programmes for work or for prior experiential learning which has been carried out in professional practice relating to SEN. This work may include practice-based projects; work done on short modules, practice-based research and enquiry. This process of according value and status to work carried out in practice underpins and strengthens the model of critically reflective practice which informs the MA SEN programme. The module aims to support and enable participants to critically analyse work carried out as part of their professional practice and to produce, for assessment, a reflective portfolio which meets masters-level criteria through which they will make a claim for credit.

Learning outcomes of the programme

These are divided into four areas:

Knowledge and understanding

Students who graduate with an MA SEN Erasmus Mundus will have:

• systematised their knowledge and understanding of advanced theoretical developments in the area of SEN
• gained a thorough understanding of the significance of interdisciplinary and international approaches within their programme of study and an ability to evaluate them critically
• developed a critical understanding of the political aspects of legal, social and ethical processes, practices and institutions, and used interdisciplinary methodology to analyse them
• become well versed in drawing on, and critiquing, a number of significant approaches and theories relating to SEN being studied
• become critical readers in relation to the development, testing and contesting processes that shape SEN both locally and internationally
• become aware of ways in which knowledge and understanding of SEN will impact at both personal and professional levels of experience
• become capable of applying knowledge and understanding to research issues and outcomes
• a commitment to the importance of theory, research and critical enquiry for enhanced competence in professional practice in relation to SEN
• a sound theoretical knowledge of recent and current theoretical, critical and empirical research pertaining to SEN.

Cognitive skills

The student will have gained cognitive skills that demonstrate:

• analysis: the ability to engage with, and critically reflect on practice and material from a range of sources dealing with formative issues in SEN
• synthesis: the ability to develop a complex, critical academic argument, drawing on a range of sources, and demonstrating a degree of originality
• valuation: the ability to evaluate critically practice associated with policy, practice and research in SEN
• application: a critical understanding of their own political position in relation to current socio-political events and the manner of its representation
• application: appropriate use of specialist vocabulary in academic discourse.

Practical skills

On successful completion of this programme the student has:

• developed skills application that can operate in complex and unpredictable and/or specialist contexts, and has an overview of the issues governing good practice
• autonomy in skill use and is able to exercise initiative and personal responsibility in professional practice in SEN
• technical expertise – performs smoothly with precision and effectiveness; can adapt skills and design or develop new skills and/or procedures for new situations
• increased self-awareness, including a realistic assessment of their existing abilities and future development
• enhanced their skills in the design, application and evaluation of research in education, with special reference to SEN and to their professional needs
• enhanced personal, social and academic skills required for effective advanced level academic study.

Key skills

In addition to the skills listed above the learner will be expected to develop the following key skills:

• the ability to devise, manage and bring to completion varied-format projects, working to deadlines and presenting one’s findings in a variety of formats
• the ability to work independently and under supervision as an individual and as part of a team
• IT and computing skills (including data gathering and processing, bibliographic searches, word processing, use of the internet, email and other new media)
• specific research skills and the independent learning ability, which graduates will be able to use either in further study for a research degree or in employment where data gathering and analysis, as well as the ability to develop a complex argument, will be needed
• the ability to listen to, and engage with, conflicting intellectual opinions and positions
• thorough understanding of, and respect for, cultural diversity
• increased self-awareness including a thorough understanding of, and respect for, cultural diversity, ethical issues and international perspectives in relation to SEN.