Program Overview

• Excellent preparation if you want to become a teacher, or keep your options open for other careers in Special Educational Needs or care roles
• Voluntary work in your second year counts towards academic credit
• Benefit from a caring and dedicated tutor team to support you through your degree

You study Special Educational Needs through a diverse range of perspectives, including disability studies, psychology, sociology, philosophy, political theory and feminism. The nature of inclusivity is examined in relation to social justice, identity, gender, race and politics. The course is both a rigorous academic degree and excellent preparation for those who wish to take a PGCE and become a teacher, possibly to specialise further in Special Educational Needs.

A Foundation Year is the perfect way to boost your academic skills, build your confidence and develop your wider subject knowledge so you can succeed at Winchester. This course offers an extra year of study at the start (Year 0) which leads onto a full degree programme (Years 1, 2 and 3).

A Foundation Year is ideal if you are returning to education after a break; haven’t quite achieved the entry qualifications required; are wanting more support during the transition to studying at university; or are unsure about which subject you wish to pursue.

In Year 0, you will study a set of modules from across the Faculty of Education which are designed to develop your academic and practical skills. This broader focus in your first year introduces you to studying at university level and provides you with a better understanding of Education Studies and Special Educational Needs and related subjects.

In Year 1, you engage thoroughly with issues at the heart of special needs, disability and inclusion in education, bringing them into focus through your own experiences.

In Year 2, you learn about theories that illuminate key issues in disability, impairments, exclusion and inclusion in schooling and society. You choose from a broad array of specialist modules such as Thinking about Race, Theories of Discipline, Sexuality in Education, and Social Inclusion and Exclusion.

In Year 3, you draw upon your own experience and knowledge to critically evaluate policy, practice and theory in special and inclusive education. You also write a dissertation or independent study project. Additional optional modules include The Inclusive Educator, The Language of Inclusion, Inclusion and Refugees, or Education and the Arab-Islamic World.

Our graduates become teachers, work with disabled children and adults, specialise in special needs in schooling, and enter caring professions. Many do pastoral work, or seek postgraduate degrees, for example, the MA Philosophy of Education.