What is education studies?

This article argues that, in the light of the forthcoming QAA reviews of ed ucation studies programmes in 2000-2001, there is a need to initiate discus sion regarding the nature of education studies as an academic field of stud y in its own right. We argue here that education studies at King Alfred's C ollege, Winchester, provides a model of such a programme but one which QAA in their descriptors of the subject do not easily recognise. We argue that the most significant feature of education studies at undergraduate level is that, perhaps alone of all degree courses, it has as part of its subject m atter critical examination of what it is to be 'educational'. Our claim for our own programme is that it is not just about education but is structured around a model of development and learning, based on the German idealism o f Kant and Hegel, and is in itself an 'educational' experience. In conclusi on, we criticise those ITE providers who do not recognise education studies defined in this way as a relevant preparation for PGCE training.