Professional Education and Leadership (Taught)

This Masters in Professional Education and Leadership is designed to impact directly on professional practices and pupils’ learning experiences and outcomes. The Professional Education and Leadership team in the Faculty of Social Sciences has worked in partnership with local authorities and other stakeholders over a number of years to develop this highly regarded professional education course.

This course draws upon current research to help you develop a critical, collaborative and enquiring approach to leading professional practice in the current policy context.

Building on the success and impact of previous courses, the modules you’ll take on this course take account of current policy and the General Teaching Council for Scotland’s (GTCS) Professional Standards framework (2012) providing the opportunity to practice leadership at all levels.

The benefits of this course do not just extend to participants but also to colleagues and the wider school community and will lead to the development of strong professional networks both within and beyond the course.

Individual routes
The following optional routes have been developed to meet your own professional learning interests and career aspirations.

Advanced professional practice – aims to support your leadership development through critical engagement with research, policy and practice
Middle leadership – aims to develop an understanding of the principles underpinning middle leadership through critical engagement with research, policy and practice.
Curriculum – aims to support practitioners’ leadership development through critical engagement with curriculum theories and principles leading to changing practices and improvement in outcomes for children and young people in their setting and/or wider educational community
Digital leadership – aims to help practitioners develop a critical overview of theories, principles and concepts of digital technologies in professional practices. This module is designed for students interested in how digital technologies and data are challenging and transforming professional and pedagogic practices and decision-making
Coaching and mentoring – aims to support the leadership development of practitioners through using coaching and/or mentoring to support the professional growth of others in their setting and/or wider education community through critical engagement with research, policy and practice.
Promoting equity - aims to help practitioners develop a critical understanding of the theories and principles of equity with regard to improvement in attainment, closing the attainment gap, health and wellbeing and employability through critical engagement with research, policy and practice.