Master of Arts (Social Studies)

MASTER OF ARTS IN SOCIAL STUDIES BY COURSE WORK

The last decade or so has seen major changes in thinking on the role of social studies (as well as geography and history) in our schools. These changes require professionals in the relevant disciplines to adapt within relatively short periods of time, to a wide variety of goals through social studies education. In particular, a further shift which points to a major change, would be the implications of integrated programmes or the international baccalaureate programmes on the teaching of history, geography and social studies at different levels.

Hence, the M.A. in Social Studies is being proposed as a programme which can support teachers who may need to respond with cross-disciplinary perspectives in the disciplines of history, geography as well as in social studies. The goal is to help the programme participants develop a critical understanding of social studies, history and geography with a strong grounding in the philosophies that have guided both scholarship and the development of each of the relevant disciplines and how these can be applied to studies of the social issues of our time.

While the programme is designed for those who have relevant background knowledge in one or more of the following disciplines and school subjects such as geography, history and social studies, it is tailored for candidates wishing to broaden their multi-disciplinary perspectives on the development of our societies in space and time. While it does not eliminate the disciplinary boundaries altogether, the programme will seek to strike a balance by having core components that will have inputs from all the disciplines with the rest of the programme organised around the relevant disciplines and specialties.

In order to accommodate the needs of a wide range of teachers, the programme has incorporated a dissertation as one option. It is not compulsory to write a dissertation, but all candidates are expected to develop skills in academic writing because they will have to write several substantive essays for every subject.

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