| 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. |
| Grade Scheme: | Graded (HD, D, C, P, MF, F, XF) |
| Work Experience Indicator: |
| No work experience |
| Placement Component: | |
| Supplementary Assessment:No |
| Supplementary assessment is not available to students who gain a fail in this Unit. |
| 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: |
| | 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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