| Effective Term: | 2024/05 |
| Institute / School : | Institute of Education, Arts & Community |
| Unit Title: | Foundations of Knowledge |
| Unit ID: | FEAFN1101 |
| Credit Points: | 15.00 |
| Prerequisite(s): | Nil |
| Co-requisite(s): | Nil |
| Exclusion(s): | Nil |
| ASCED: | 090399 |
| Other Change: | |
| Brief description of the Unit |
The study of knowledge has traditionally focussed on how individuals can justify their claims to know the world. Recent breakthroughs in the field of social knowledge challenge individualist assumptions by exploring the collective ways in which knowledge is discovered, developed, justified, and challenged across time, place, languages, and cultures. This course introduces students to this exciting new field, exploring its critical potentials and applications to multiple disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. The course aims to inform and power professional practice in the 21st century by familiarising students with a broad range of disciplinary perspectives on knowledge.
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| Grade Scheme: | Graded (HD, D, C, P, MF, F, XF) |
| Work Experience Indicator: |
| No work experience |
| Placement Component: | No |
| Supplementary Assessment: |
| Where supplementary assessment is available a student must have failed overall in the Unit but gained a final mark of 45 per cent or above, has completed all major assessment tasks (including all sub-components where a task has multiple parts) as specified in the Unit Description and is not eligible for any other form of supplementary assessment |
| Course Level: |
| Level of Unit in Course | AQF Level(s) of Course | | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | | Introductory | | |  | | | | | Intermediate | | | | | | | | Advanced | | | | | | |
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| Learning Outcomes: |
| Knowledge: |
| K1. | Describe and explore a range of approaches to knowledge and social epistemology. |
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| K2. | Consider the significance for knowledge of standpoints, ideology, testimony, injustice, ethics, Indigenous knowledge, decolonisation, and objectivity. |
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| K3. | Explore how and why knowledge is contested in contemporary society. |
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| K4. | Examine how disciplinary knowledges can inform professional practice in the 21st century. |
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| Skills: |
| S1. | Analyse diverse modes of knowledge production and theories of knowledge. |
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| S2. | Analyse and appraise different forms of evidence. |
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| S3. | Read and think critically. |
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| S4. | Articulate an informed argument. |
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| Application of knowledge and skills: |
| A1. | Compare and critically discuss diverse approaches to knowledge including the significance of evidence. |
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| A2. | Read and reflect critically on the significance of context, culture, language, experience, place and history in shaping how we come to know and make sense of the world. |
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| Unit Content: |
•This course takes a critical, interdisciplinary approach to knowledge in the humanities and the social sciences. Students will read and critically interrogate the work of scholars working in social theory, critical theory, philosophy, sociology, history, and related disciplines.
•Introducing knowledge: foundationalism and its critics
•Social knowledge: practice and society
•Marxist epistemology: standpoint and practice
•Feminist epistemology: standpoint theory
•Knowledge and liberation: speech and representation
•Epistemic injustice: testimonial injustice
•Epistemic injustice: hermeneutic injustice
•Virtue epistemology: epistemic justice
•Indigenous knowledge: history
•Indigenous knowledge: politics
•Indigenous knowledge: land and ecology
•Critical reflections: social knowledge revisited |
| Graduate Attributes: |
| The Federation University graduate attributes (GA) are entrenched in the Higher Education Graduate Attributes Policy (LT1228).Federation University Australia graduates develop these graduate attributes through their engagement in explicit learning and teaching and assessment tasks that are embedded in all Federation Courses. Graduate attribute attainment typically follows an incremental development process mapped through Course progression. One or more graduate attributes must be evident in the specified learning outcomes and assessment for each Federation University Australia Unit, and all attributes must be directly assessed in each Course. |
| Graduate attribute and descriptor | Development and acquisition of GAs in the Unit | Learning outcomes
(KSA) | Assessment task
(AT#) | GA 1
Thinkers | Our graduates are curious, reflective and critical. Able to analyse the world in a way that generates valued insights, they are change makers seeking and creating new solutions. | K1, K2, K3, K4 | 1, 2, 3 | GA 2
Innovators | Our graduates have ideas and are able to realise their dreams. They think and act creatively to achieve and inspire positive change. | S3, S4 | 1, 2, 3 | GA 3
Citizens | Our graduates engage in socially and culturally appropriate ways to advance individual, community and global well-being. They are socially and environmentally aware, acting ethically, equitably and compassionately. | K2, K3, S1, A2 | 1, 2, 3 | GA 4
Communicators | Our graduates create, exchange, impart and convey information, ideas, and concepts effectively. They are respectful, inclusive and empathetic towards their audience, and express thoughts, feelings and information in ways that help others to understand. | S4, A1, A2 | 1, 2, 3 | GA 5
Leaders | Our graduates display and promote positive behaviours, and aspire to make a difference. They act with integrity, are receptive to alternatives and foster sustainable and resilient practices. | N/a | N/a |
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| | Learning Outcomes Assessed | Assessment Tasks | Assessment Type | Weighting | | 1. | K1, K2, K3, S1, S2, S3, S4, A1, A2
| Actively engage in class and/or online discussion about diverse approaches to knowledge. Write critical reflections on the content discussed. | Critical reflections on peer discussion | 40-50% | | 2. | K1, K2, K3, S1, S2, S3, S4, A1, A2
| Discuss, explain, and assess an approach to knowledge. | Presentation | 25-35% | | 3. | K1, K2, K3, K4, S1, S2, S3, S4, A1, A2
| Demonstrate skills in devising, developing, and expressing an argument addressing an aspect of course content. | Essay | 25-35% |
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