International Institute for Higher Education Research & Capacity Building

Cross-Electives & Core Courses

Core Course

Research and Publication Ethics (DS-C-005)

Studying the philosophy of a particular subject area helps to learn the basic concepts of logical analysis and how to use them in developing arguments based on evidence. The problems of human life, that are the subjects of inquiry, are embedded within the social and ecological environment. Hence, a philosophical enquiry or research question is expected to contribute to the good of society and the environment. This is where ethics or moral philosophy becomes important for a researcher. The relationship between the researcher and the society/environment thrives on ethical values based on universal principles like honesty, trust, and justice. These ethical values practised by researchers can enhance the credibility of the research findings in the perception of the public. Therefore, these ethical values are the ideals, that each researcher should strive to attain. This course was designed as mandated by the UGC to educate students about this integral relationship between philosophy and ethics, and why both these concepts are critical for a researcher to comprehend.

History of Education

This course will help students get a thorough grounding in the contextual factors that shape education in schools and universities within specific geopolitical, social and cultural contexts over a historic period of time. This course is designed with the assumption that the historic developments around the world are not linear and there are different histories of education in different part of the world. Depending on the doctoral student’s research project, the student will learn the history of education in India or, the historic of education in some other country/region of the world to facilitate historically situated contextual analysis of educational problems.

Advance Psychology of Education

Educational psychology is a branch of psychology that deals with the cognitive and behavioural science of student learning. This course will help students understand the cognitive processes that facilitate or hinder student learning. It will help students explore how people learn, as well as topics, such as student learning outcomes and instructional processes that address individual differences in learning, gifted learners, and learning disabilities. This course will provide the necessary theoretical background in the psychology of education to students who are seeking to investigate research questions related to the psychological and cognitive aspects of education.

Social & Philosophical Foundations of Education

This course will help students to explore the relationship between social theory and education and the philosophical bases of education. The course will teach how to do systematic study of education as a social and cultural institution, and investigate the educational process as an object of humanistic inquiry. The students will get a thorough grounding in the theories of major Eastern and Western philosophers of education. This course will help students to frame their research enquiry conceptually. It will provide them the knowledge base required to apply the intellectual tools of philosophy and social sciences to interpret and analyse research data.

Comparative and International Education

Comparative and International Education is a vast, rich, and growing field of inquiry. It is concerned with the academic study of a wide range of key educational issues and themes across a range of cultures, countries and regions. Comparativists come from diverse disciplinary backgrounds. They come to the field with different subject expertise and ideas about how best to conduct educational research within an international context. There has been much debate over the theoretical, epistemological and methodological frameworks and tools that should be used when carrying out research in comparative and international education. Comparativist are now discussing over the future directions of the field with the rise in post-humanist concern and the sustainability challenges of planet Earth. This course will provide students an exposure to these theoretical, epistemological and methodological debates in the field of comparative education to frame their own comparative and international education research

Electives

Globalization of Education – (MA DLB) 0388

Historically education has been a privilege for the few in every country context. This course takes a global perspective in studying how access to education globalized 1990 onwards with the UN Declaration of Education for All and a more recent focus on access to Quality Education for All under the UN Sustainable Development Goal 4. Students read some of the seminal theoretical texts on globalization and education. Thereafter, by studying case studies from different countries, students learn how global organizations, such as the United Nations, do policy advocacy at the national level and how policy processes have been historically circulating around the world from the colonial period to the contemporary times.

Global Citizenship and International Understanding- MA (DLB) 0446

This course was designed to help students gain a critical understanding of the concept of “global citizenship” in the context of the UN declaration of the 17 sustainable development goals. The course begins with theoretical readings on the concepts of citizenship and globalization. Thereafter, the course materials discuss how and under what circumstances the UN and other global organizations developed the concept of “global citizenship education” building on the earlier concept of “education for international understanding’. Students write a reflection paper, work on a group project and develop a final research paper as part of the continuous learning assessment for the course.

Governance of Higher Education in India (DS-C-04)

The HE sector is getting more complex by the day owing to growth in private and public institutions, as well as the diversity in the models that they utilize to govern, administer, and generate funds. A researcher of higher education is interested in looking at the specific phenomenon that happens within the spaces designated as HEI or allied spaces that are intricately linked to or get impacted by HEI. These phenomena of interest to research scholars occur within particular contexts. This context of HEI can be seen as either illuminating the phenomena under study or influencing them, or in some case, the context itself can be the object of study. The governance structures of HEI and the logics governing these structures can be considered as one such crucial contextual element. Therefore, it becomes crucial for any scholar of HE to have a fair understanding of these governance structures. This Ph.D. elective course is aimed at providing the participants with an understanding of the way Indian HEI are governed through in-depth reading of selected literature (including specific policies or institutions, theoretical frameworks, and comparative perspectives) and in-class discussions.

Education for Sustainable Development Goals  

This course focuses on the social and emotional learning of young citizens to implement the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The course will help students to gain deeper understanding of the concepts of compassion, secular ethics and democracy. Students will read theoretical readings on the 3 main concepts- compassion, secular ethics and, democracy. Thereafter, they will reflect on actual scenarios, stories and case studies based on these concepts. As part of the continuous learning assessment for this course, the students will work on an individual reflection paper on the concepts and a group project to demonstrate how the concepts learnt through this course could be applicable to actually implement the UN Sustainable Development goals.