Module XME-4317:
Poverty and disadvantage in ed
Responding to the effects of poverty and disadvantage in education 2025-26
XME-4317
2025-26
School of Education
Module - Semester 2
20 credits
Module Organiser:
Kaydee Owen
Over a third of children and young people live in Wales are living in poverty today. Poverty and disadvantage impacts on the lives of pupils, students, families, staff and communities. This module aims to develop students’ understanding of poverty and disadvantage, and how these impact on learning and development. It feeds in to radical changes in ongoing changes to educational policy in Wales. This module will allow students to critically reflect on their own experiences and how they personally perceive poverty and disadvantage. Students will be asked to critically reflect on the ways in which their educational settings measure learning and development and whether this supports the ongoing issues related to poverty and disadvantage. Finally, this module supports students to be creative in their approach in supporting learners in their chosen educational setting and the barriers they may face along the way, thus enabling them to think about new ways of working in Wales.
Learning Outcomes
- Critically evaluate the practice and measurements of learning and development with learners who are
impacted by poverty and disadvantage
- Critically examine how to plan, implement and evaluate a change in practice that will benefit learners
who are impacted by poverty and disadvantage in educational settings.
- Critically explore the whole systems approach and how this affects practice.
- Demonstrate a critical understanding of poverty and disadvantage on learners
Assessment method
Report
Assessment type
Crynodol
Description
(4000 words) The report reflects on an issue in the students practice where poverty and disadvantage impact on the learner’s educational setting. The report should be aimed at a chosen target audience (e.g. staff, presentation to governors, Heads of Service, senior management team, etc.) and would be written in an appropriate style. The content and design of a report and action plan will be discussed in your initial session. Part 1 (2,000 words) Drawing from literature and theory, you are asked to critically reflect on the impact of poverty and disadvantage on learners in your educational setting. You are asked to critically examine the role of measurements used in your educational setting to show the learners progress and development, critically exploring whether these successfully identify and support learners who are impacted by poverty and disadvantage. Part 2: Action plan (2,000 words) You will need to consider how in practice you would respond to the issue(s) identified and examined in Part 1. You will need to critically justify your proposed plan of action, demonstrating why you believe if implemented it will contribute to addressing the issues identified. You will also need to consider how you would evaluate the changes that you would implement. Assessments are designed to ensure parity of provision and experience for all students. All students will benefit from formative feedback throughout the module, which will be bespoke to their needs. Students will complete the same summative assessment per module.
Weighting
100%