Assessment brief for EDUC70331 Contemporary Issues in
Education Leadership
You are expected to produce a critical literature review of 3,000 words. This is based
on a critical reading of research that is published in the academic literatures.
Do not collect primary data (e.g. through questionnaires or interview).
This is because you would not have the necessary ethical permission to do so.
The University of Manchester would see this as a breach of its ethical procedures,
which it takes very seriously.
The penalties for such breaches can be severe.
Here is an outline of the process that you should follow.
- Planning your assignment
You should identify which of the five taught topics you want to locate your work within.
Here is a reminder of the five topics:
• Topic 1: “Understanding Education Leadership, Leader and Leading”
• Topic 2: “Theories and Models of Education Leadership”
• Topic 3: “Performance, Performativity and Effectiveness”
• Topic 4: “Corporatised and Privatised Education Leadership”
• Topic 5: “Student Voice as Education Leadership”
Next, you need to develop an idea for an assignment. This will require you to do some
reading about the topic and idea – often called a literature search or review – and you
should then plan the assignment on one page as follows.
• Working title — it is your responsibility to create one, based on your reading.
• Focus – what is the study about?
• At least one aim – what do you hope to achieve by doing this study?
• Two to three Research Questions – what do you want to know and understand
about the focus?
• Key authors: who are the main people who are researching the issue?
• Key texts: indicate three or four research texts or key policy documents that you
expect to include.
• Reasons for the study: think of two or three reasons why your study is important
and should be undertaken.
This plan will not be assessed but will help you to write the full assignment. - Support available: tutorials
Support is provided in several ways. One of these is through a tutorial: you will be
offered a date and time for the tutorials. - Support available: submitting a draft title, abstract and introduction
The following is voluntary.
You may write and submit through Blackboard by 8th January 2021 a document
including: - A title;
- An abstract (max 200 words);
- A draft introduction (max 500 words) that sets out your:
a. Assignment focus;
b. Research questions;
c. Academic rationale;
d. Intended argument;
e. Intended structure for the rest of the assignment. - Feedback on your draft title, abstract and introduction
One of the course-unit tutors will read and briefly comment on one draft of your
introduction if you send it by: 5.00 pm (17.00) on 8th January 2021.
Please upload this draft to Turnitin on Blackboard. This will not affect subsequent
originality scores.
Please note that it is not our policy to pre-mark or grade a draft. You will be
provided with comments regarding whether the assignment is at Master’s level or not,
and will be given relevant general advice if the whole or parts of the assignment are not
at Master’s level.
In addition to your written feedback, we will also discuss your feedback in a tutorial. - Submitting your final assignment
Your final, 3000-word assignment must be submitted via Turnitin on or before 2.00 pm
(14.00) on 4th February 2021. Penalties for late submission are severe (10% is deducted
per day from the mark awarded, including the initial 24-hour period. So being late by 2
minutes means you still lose 10%.)
References and the abstract are not included in the word count.
Dr Steve Courtney, Dr Ümit Yildiz and Dr Bee Hughes
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