EDF: Educational Foundations

EDF 506. Public Pedagogy & Radical Informal Learning Spaces. 3 Credits.

Consideration of the concept of Public Pedagogy and education that takes place outside of traditional classrooms including learner-specific, self-directed learning and assessment. Special focus on the emergence of radical informal learning spaces as sites of empowerment and transformation.

EDF 509. Contemporary Teaching Trends. 3 Credits.

Team teaching, programmed instruction, and various media of communication in the elementary and secondary schools are evaluated. Effective adaptation to newer practices is emphasized.

EDF 510. Poverty, Inequality and Education. 3 Credits.

This course examines the nature and extent of poverty and economic inequality in the U.S. and the role local, state, and federal educational policy has played in both maintaining poverty inequality and seeking to ameliorate it. Students will consider the ways in which social inequality begets educational inequality, and how educational inequality reproduces social inequality in broader society. Drawing primarily from sociological and anthropological scholarship, the course will review some of the historical patterns and contemporary links between social and educational inequality. Students will be asked to consider the structural forces of inequality in neighborhoods and schools, and how those forces contribute to unequal opportunities, experiences, and achievement outcomes for students along lines of race/ethnicity, class, gender, and immigration status. Specific attention will be given to the impact of neoliberal policies on public education since 1980.

EDF 511. Foundations of Transformative Education. 3 Credits.

An exploration of how education has been, and could be, used as an instigator of social transformation. Students will consider the social, historical, and philosophical foundations of education, emphasizing the interconnection between systems of education and social power structures: political, economic, cultural, and theological.
Typically offered in Fall.

EDF 515. Legal & Financial Issues in Education. 3 Credits.

If American public education is to obtain the financial support necessary to meet legal requirements and the expectations of its various publics, then administrative practitioners and other supporters of public education--including academicians, researchers, policy-makers, and lay citizens--must provide leadership in the debate concerning taxation and revenues, resource distribution, and school management. To provide this leadership, they must possess specific knowledge of the field of education finance--an understanding of the basic concepts and how they are applied in practice--and the ability to bring this knowledge to bear on the policy processes which shape decisions in the public sector. Further, they must be aware of the fundamental constitutional and legal rights that all Americans, including children, enjoy in their daily lives. They must also be familiar with case law, statutes, and rules, which establish standards for education finance. This course is designed to help provide this knowledge and develop this ability.
Distance education offering may be available.

EDF 520. Comparative Education. 3 Credits.

This course focuses on how major problems of education in a number of other countries are related to similar problems in the United States. Contrasting purposes and philosophies, and differences in organization and administration are analyzed.
Typically offered in Fall & Spring.

EDF 560. History of Latin American Educational Philosophy. 3 Credits.

This course provides an overview of key historical voices, text, and practices in the tradition of Latin American thinking about education covering Pre-Columbian, Conquest, Liberal, Nationalist, and Liberatory periods.
Typically offered in Fall, Spring & Summer.

EDF 561. Latin American Philosophies of Education: From Colonial to Decolonial Education Theory and Practice. 3 Credits.

The diversity of populations in Latin America and the region's political, cultural, and economic achievements and challenges have shaped unique education philosophies and practices. Likewise, a variety of education philosophies and practices within the region have had enormous sociological, political, and economic impacts on the region's populations. The principle aim of this course is to begin an exploration of Latin American philosophies of education. Particular emphasis will be placed on investigating the different ways that philosophers of Latin American education have conceptualized education as a (trans)formative and liberatory process. Our inquiry will be guided by these questions and others: What is the place of education in the forming of Latin American cultures, identities, epistemic paradigms, and social movements across the region? How have Latin Americans and those who study the region conceived "education," "teaching," "curriculum," and "schooling"? How can we trace educational theory, practices, and institutions from the pre-conquest civilizations of the Aztecs, Incas, and others, to the communities and modern nation-states that make up contemporary Latin America? To what degree is Latin American education theory "situated"? What does it mean to suggest that education and knowledge can be colonized? What does it mean to suggest that people can decolonize knowledge and liberate themselves to strive in new cultural directions? How does philosophical inquiry into these issues illuminate the quest for justice and equality in education and civil society? And finally, how have a wide variety of contemporary Latin American social movements incorporated liberatory education practices into their struggles for social justice?.
Typically offered in Fall, Spring & Summer.

EDF 563. Latin American Epistemologies. 3 Credits.

When it comes to preparing teachers, we speak about "knowledge," since that is the foundational raw material with which teachers work. Nonetheless, what is knowledge? What is knowledge for Latin Americans? Is it something generated only when teachers and students meet together? Or is it created spontaneously? That question implies concrete, but mostly philosophical, implications. In other words, it is an epistemological matter. This course is devoted to showing how we have built our epistemologies growing up in Latin America. Throughout history, foreign approaches tried to translate our thought. Currently, many scholars and international organizations are seeking to hear directly from us. This is why "decolonial thinking" is in vogue. Since you as an educator or teacher work with Latin American students on a daily basis, you have the opportunity to learn what knowledge and ways of knowing your students already have. This is related not only to what contents or skills your students already handle. This course will show you the way in which we have grasped our ways of knowing through our ways of being, since our cosmovisions, cultural learning, qualitative symbols, and stories have shaped our ways to know (epistemology) the world.
Typically offered in Fall, Spring & Summer.

EDF 564. Latin American Narrative Learning. 3 Credits.

This course will address how narrative learning or narrative ways of knowing are necessary epistemological foundations to curriculum in education. Stories are themselves ways of knowing for us, the Latin American peoples. The epistemological breakthrough that enabled narrative learning gaining a place within educational research has been a historically difficult process. Narrative learning can be traced back to the way in which indigenous peoples of Latin America have made sense of reality over millennia. This idea leads to the notion of narrative knowledge as a special form of reasoning, feeling, and grasping the world for us in Latin America. In our countries we translate knowing into telling and telling into knowing. Narrating or telling our knowledge is a special form of reasoning, feeling, and making sense of reality. In this course students will learn how narratives become the key aspect of an intimate relation between knower and the known for us. While we were growing up in Latin America, narratives shaped the manner in which we thought about what we know and how we know it. That process passed down from generation to generation. Thanks to the decolonial thinking perspective in vogue, today we have the opportunity of speaking for ourselves to explain our narrative ways of knowing and learning. Since you as an educator or teacher work with Latin American students on a daily basis, you have the opportunity to learn what knowledge and ways of knowing your students already have with them.
Typically offered in Fall, Spring & Summer.

EDF 580. History Of American Education. 3 Credits.

Nature and direction of American education, studied through individual and group research.

EDF 581. Philosophy Of Education. 3 Credits.

Selected philosophies and their influence on educational principles and practices in a democratic social order.

EDF 582. Seminar In The Hist Of Probs Of Educ. 3 Credits.

Historical study of the recurrent problems of education and their solutions. Implications of these solutions for contemporary American educational problems.

EDF 583. The American School as Social Narrative. 3 Credits.

An integrated exploration of the philosophical culture, social, and physical foundations of schooling and education in the United States.
Distance education offering may be available.
Typically offered in Spring & Summer.

EDF 588. Critical Pedagogy and the Politics of Education. 3 Credits.

This course examines the historical development of critical pedagogy from its roots to its current models. By encouraging students to engage in a critical study of the educational system, this course seeks to aid in the development of analytical skills in regard to educational issues and provide a context within which future issues may be examined as they emerge.
Pre / Co requisites: EDF 588 requires prerequisite of EDF 511.
Typically offered in Fall.

EDF 589. Sociological Foundations Of Education. 3 Credits.

Study of the socio-cultural influences on the structure of American educational institutions.

EDF 593. Transformative Curriculum Theory and Evaluation. 3 Credits.

The focus of this course is the investigation, critique and application of curriculum theory and evaluation, specifically as it relates to transformative teaching and learning. The students will consider a wide spectrum of curriculum theories and theorists and explore the historical roots of curriculum development and practice. This course will also provide students with the opportunity to investigate the theory and practice of curricular evaluation and various assessment techniques. Students will construct a curriculum, including an assessment plan, based on the ideas covered in the course.

EDF 599. Workshop In Professional Education. 3 Credits.

Contact department for more information about this course.
Repeatable for Credit.