THEORIES OF SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL CHANGE

EDPOL 423

How do people conceptualize and utilize education to (attempt to) create individual, familial, community, institutional, national, and global change? Push collective understanding about the diverse ways that people have conceptualized change, its goals, and the mechanisms through which to produce change around the world. Explore a diverse range of educational approaches (including formal, informal, non-formal, and "traditional" educational models) to transforming the world. Draw on a range of disciplinary and sectoral approaches, including education, public health, and public policy; and a broad range of change models, including individual and peer behavior change, social marketing, social movements, chaos theory, and liberation theory.

EDPOL 300

Focuses on the interplay between schools and society by examining societal and cultural influences on school processes, policies, practices, and pedagogy; or, how society shapes schooling, and conversely, the ways in which schools assist in shaping society. Reflect on the purposes of schools and how these purposes have shifted over time. Examines how assumptions regarding the purposes of schooling interact with debates over how we teach, what we teach, and how we evaluate schools, teachers, and students. Identify the foundations of education in the United States and critically examine the ways in which educational practices and policies impact the lives of students.

EDPOL/SOC 648

Utilizes a sociological lens to examine American schools and schooling, with a particular focus on social inequality in the U.S. and how class, race, and gender intersect in the experiences of students. Examine how schools and schooling relate to broader social structures, institutions, and practices with a focus on inequality in public education.

EDPOL 640

Introduces the social, political and cultural influences surrounding educational policies and practices and the role of teachers in education policymaking. Focuses on the purpose(s) of schooling, considering questions such as: What should the purpose of schooling be? How do our assumptions regarding the purpose(s) of schooling shape our understandings of education policies and practices? Considers educational inequalities and contemporary education policies.

CURRIC 716

Social, political and epistemological assumptions underlying current efforts towards curriculum and instructional reform in elementary and secondary schools.