Catalogue 2022-2023 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
Education Department
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Chair: Erin McCloskey;
Professors: Christopher Bjork, Maria Hantzopoulos;
Associate Professor: Erin McCloskey;
Assistant Professors: Jaime Del Razoa, Kimberly Williams Brown;
Lecturer: Hudson Gould (and Director of the Quantitative Research Center);
Visiting Assistant Professors: Leonisa Ardizzone, Victoria Lam;
Adjunct Instructor: Una Miller.
a On leave 2022/23, first semester
The major in Educational Studies challenges students to think deeply and critically about the ways in which schools socialize as well as educate citizens. It provides ongoing opportunities for conceptual integration across disciplines and domains of theory, policy, and practice. This interdisciplinary approach encourages students to study the impact of political, historical, cultural, economic, and social forces on education. Requirements for the proposed major in Educational Studies press students to develop a solid foundation in learning theory, the social foundations of education, as well as a global perspective on education. All majors take one of the foundational courses offered by the department. Following this, each student works closely with a department faculty member to develop a course plan that meets the requirements for the major and fits the student’s interests. Individuals who complete a major in educational studies are prepared to integrate and apply knowledge to guide personal action and development, regardless of their ultimate career trajectory. The major is an excellent option for students who are interested in issues related to education-but who are not planning to earn a teaching credential at Vassar. Students who earn a teaching credential at Vassar are required to major in another discipline-and will not be eligible for the Educational Studies major.
Education Curriculum and Courses
Major
Correlate Sequence in Educational Studies
The correlate is designed to provide students with an interest in education an opportunity to provide intellectual depth and coherence to their studies in this area. Under the supervision of a member of the Department, students undertaking the correlate will design a sequence of courses that address a central topic or theme related to education. Completing these courses should challenge students to think deeply and critically about the manner in which schools socialize as well as educate citizens, and how the interests of certain stakeholders are privileged or neglected. Students are encouraged to examine educational issues from multiple theoretical and disciplinary perspectives. Expanding upon their own educational histories, they will examine the relationship between theory and practice through study, observation, and reflection. Special Programs
Certification
Fellowship
Education: I. Introductory
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EDUC 105 - Conceptualizing Latin and Latinx America Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as LALS 105 ) Topic for 2022/23b: Popular Education and Social Struggle in Latin America. Popular education is a pedagogical technique which builds on the values of solidarity, inclusion, and respect for human rights. This critical theory arms learners with the vital skills and knowledge necessary to construct new forms of anti-capitalist politics and social movements. In this course, students learn about popular education’s philosophical and theoretical assumptions as well as its pedagogical practices. We first look historically at the roots of popular education and liberation theology through the lens of social protest and revolution in Brazil, Central America and Mexico. Next, we turn to the contemporary by studying the developing intersection of popular education and protest in the Southern Cone. In doing so, we explore the ways in which social movements are impacted by colonialism and occupation, armed conflict, extractivism, migration, and racism, as well as how this same academic approach led to the emergence of popular education among civil society groups in Latin America. Students have an opportunity to study the lives and work of human rights activists and the threats they experience as they educate others. As a final project, students develop a critical Latin American studies curriculum for middle and high school students that examines the social, economic, gender, environmental, linguistic, and racial justice issues faced by groups within diverse communities in Latin America and the United States. Tracey Holland.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
EDUC 150 - Critical Approaches to Youth Justice Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 150 ) This course explores how children’s school experiences contribute to their involvement in youth justice systems. Students read about the theories that undergird different approaches to youth justice and how these impact individuals, families and communities. This class weaves together personal narratives and storytelling, policy studies, and curriculum studies to examine the approaches that are currently utilized and to imagine ways to create socially just experiences for youth. This course is held at the Dutchess County Jail. Erin McCloskey.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
EDUC 162 - Education and Opportunity in the United States Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
In this course, students identify, explore, and question prevailing assumptions about education in the United States. The objectives of the course are for students to develop both a deeper understanding of the system’s historical, structural, and philosophical features and to look at schools with a critical eye. We examine issues of power and control at various levels of the education system. Participants are encouraged to connect class readings and discussions to personal schooling experiences to gain new insights into their own educational foundations. Among the questions that are highlighted are: How should schools be organized and operated? What information and values should be emphasized? Whose interests do schools serve? The course is open to both students interested in becoming certified to teach and those who are not yet certain about their future plans but are interested in educational issues. The Department.
Open only to first-year students; satisfies the college requirement for a First-Year Writing Seminar.
Would you like to see a more just and humane world? The SJQ courses engage you from the very start of your Vassar studies in thinking about the relationship between power and social change. A set of public lectures that address the nature of social justice accompany SJQ courses.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
Education: II. Intermediate
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EDUC 215 - Intersections of Our Homes, Schools, and Communities Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 215 ) This course draws on varied and rich experiences of all participants to read about, share and discuss the ways our homes, schools and communities intersect to create experiences for youth. We discuss the benefits and drawbacks of different school structures and different behavioral and instructional approaches. We explore how school structures such as standardized testing, tracking, and curriculum design influence students’ experiences in and out of school. Throughout the course we grapple with the continued significance of socially differentiating factors such as race, gender, class, sexuality, dis/ability, and citizenship in shaping public policy and youth’s experiences.
Essential questions we explore together include:
- What are the effects of having a predominately white teaching staff teaching in schools that enroll predominately students of color? What effects does this have on families and communities of color?
- How have zero tolerance policies contributed to a disproportionate suspension and expulsions for children of color?
- How do families and communities come together to offer alternative educational experiences for youth?
- How are our own school experiences reflected, or not, in the readings for this course?
Erin McCloskey.
Course Format: INT -
EDUC 232 - Accessing the Ivory Tower
1 unit(s)
(Same as SOCI 232 ) Since 2000, there has been a 30% increase in the number of students enrolled in colleges and universities. Over 17 million undergraduates are enrolled in an array of degree-granting institutions across the U.S., with enrollments projected to increase another 14% by 2026. But who goes to college? Focusing on the experiences of historically underrepresented students, this course examines the history of higher education’s expansion and the lived experiences of students navigating higher education. Course content that examines the expansion of access to higher education focuses on important developments at the federal, state, and institutional levels. The course covers topics such as the GI Bill®, the 1965 HEA, the formation of the community college system, key court cases that have increased access, state-level legislation (e.g., states that allow undocumented students to apply as residents of the state or make them eligible for state financial aid), and institutional policies concerning admission and financial aid. Course content that focuses on student experiences in higher education explores patterns of racial and socioeconomic stratification within higher education by accounting for students’ varying degrees of college preparedness, choice of college and course of study, campus experiences, persistence to a degree, and post-graduate trajectories. This course aims to uncover how various forms of stratification shape personal relationships with peers, faculty, and administration while in college (e.g., student-faculty relationships, peer interactions, dating, networking, satisfaction with their overall college experience, and the accessibility of higher ed administration). Eréndira Rueda.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2022/23.
Course Format: CLS -
EDUC 235 - Issues in Contemporary Education Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
This course introduces students to debates about the nature and purposes of U.S. education. Examination of these debates encourages students to develop a deeper and more critical understanding of U.S. schools and the individuals who teach and learn within them. Focusing on current issues in education, we consider the multiple and competing purposes of schooling and the complex ways in which formal and informal education play a part in shaping students as academic and social beings. We also examine issues of power and control at various levels of the U.S. education system. Among the questions we contemplate are: Whose interests should schools serve? What material and values should be taught? How should schools be organized and operated? The Department.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
EDUC 240 - Building an Alumna/i Archive: Documenting Our Work through Qualitative Research Methods
1 unit(s)
The purpose of this intensive is to help in the creation of a robust, interactive, and evolving alumna/i archive for the Education Department. As the Department has grown over the last ten years, many of our former students remain a vital resource, inspiration, and connection for our current ones. Our almuna/i are engaged in community-based movements, transformative educational spaces and schools, and grassroots educational justice and activism. This intensive helps the department organize and conduct panels, focus groups, and surveys to map what our students do when they leave us, forge connections between them and our currently enrolled students, and help us build a web-based database. Students in this intensive also are immersed in learning research methods and skills, mostly qualitative, including survey design, interview protocols, observations, and data analysis. This course also counts towards the Research Methods requirement for the Educational Studies Major. Maria Hantzopoulos.
Prerequisite(s): EDUC 235 .
One three-hour period.
Not offered in 2022/23.
Course Format: INT -
EDUC 250 - Introduction to Special Education Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
This course explores the structure of special education from multiple viewpoints, including legislative, instructional, and from the vantage of those who have experience in it as students, teachers, therapists, parents, and other service providers. We tackle conceptual understandings of labeling, difference, and how individuals in schools negotiate the contexts in which “disability” comes in and out of focus. We raise for debate current issues in special education and disability studies such as inclusion, the overrepresentation of certain groups in special education and different instructional approaches. The Department.
Prerequisite(s): EDUC 162 or EDUC 235 .
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
EDUC 251 - Community Organizing and Schools
1 unit(s)
This intensive examines the role that community organizations and community organizers play and can play in affecting school change. The intensive focuses on learning about past and current partnerships between various educational agencies and community organizations and community organizers. The intensive puts us in touch with community organizations and community organizers that launched campaigns for educational change in their communities to learn from their challenges and successes. Jaime L. Del Razo.
Not offered in 2022/23.
Course Format: INT -
EDUC 255 - Race, Representation, and Resistance in U.S. Schools Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 255 and URBS 255 ) This course interrogates the intersections of race, racism and schooling in the US context. In this course, we examine this intersection at the site of educational policy, media and public attitudes towards schools and schooling- critically examining how representations in each shape the experiences of youth in school. Expectations, beliefs, attitudes and opportunities reflect societal investments in these representations, thus becoming both reflections and driving forces of these identities. Central to these representations is how theorists, educators and youth take them on, own them and resist them in ways that constrain possibility or create spaces for hope. Kimberly Williams Brown.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
EDUC 256 - Bilingualism and/in K-12 Public Education Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as LALS 256 and URBS 256 ) Learning in schools where the language of instruction is new presents a challenge familiar to young immigrants and refugees across the globe. This affects their educational achievement, as well as their sense of inclusion and belonging in their new communities. This course examines the issue of education for English Language Learners through a field based experience. The hands-on component of the course is paired with readings that draw from bilingual education, critical theories of pedagogy, education policy, migration,, and education for social change. A group research and writing project is intended to highlight the academic needs of local ELLs, to examine the current instructional models for bilingual students. The course is open to all Vassar students interested in (a) community-based learning as a tool for social change; (b) learning about the experiences of bilingual students in Poughkeepsie schools; and (c) gaining practical experience researching bilingual education policy. Tracey Holland.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
EDUC 261 - Intergroup Dialogue on Race and Migration Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
In this course, students learn about, participate in, and critically reflect on intergroup dialogue with the intention of examining power and power structures in our experiences and the world around us concerning race and migration. This class brings together Vassar students and Poughkeepsie High school students to engage in critical dialogue. Intergroup dialogue is an educational model that brings together students from multiple social identity groups in a cooperative, small-group, learning environment. Intergroup dialogue often involves members of groups with a history of conflict or limited opportunities to engage in deep and meaningful discussion of controversial, challenging, or divisive issues. The goals of intergroup dialogue include: (1) understanding group beginnings and relationship building; (2) understanding social identities and the role of social structures, power, privilege, and institutions in creating and maintaining inequality; (3) developing intergroup and other communication skills; and (4) planning and enacting collaboration and coalition building. The course is organized around multi-disciplinary readings (e.g., historical, sociological, feminist, psychological, and personal narratives), experiential learning activities, weekly writing and summative reflections on race and migration. Kimberly Williams Brown.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: INT -
EDUC 263 - The Adolescent in American Society Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
This course examines the lives of American adolescents and the different ways our society has sought to understand, respond to, and shape them. Particular attention is paid to the relationship between educational policies/practices and adolescent growth and development. Empirical studies are combined with practical case scenarios as a basis for understanding alternative pathways for meeting the needs of middle school and high school learners. This course is required for secondary school teacher certification. Leonisa Ardizzone.
Prerequisite(s): EDUC 235 .
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
EDUC 264 - Community Schools Research & Practice Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Using schools as hubs, community schools bring educators, families, and community partners together to offer a range of opportunities, supports, and services to children, youth as well as their families and communities. This intensive focuses on learning about and conducting a PAR (participatory action research) project with a community school. Jaime L. Del Razo.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2022/23.
Course Format: INT -
EDUC 270 - Undocumented, Unapologetic, Unafraid
1 unit(s)
(Same as LALS 270 ) This introductory immigration course is about undocumented people in the U.S. and will be situated within a historical, academic, legal, political, social, cultural, and economic context. The course will take a historical look at immigration law and legal enforcement, with a particular focus on the (mis)construction and criminalization of undocumented immigrants. By examining how the concept of undocumented/unauthorized immigration has been created, we will seek to understand the ways that this immigration status works to unjustly exclude and exploit undocumented people. Course content will consider the array of social institutions that are complicit in this work (e.g. schools, governments, agencies, industries, media, public opinion) and how undocumented people resist these forms of oppression and dominance that are exerted by these institutions and entities. An emphasis will be given to undocumented immigration from Latin America especially Mexico given the large percentage (~79% & 51%, respectively) of undocumented immigration that comes from that region however, it’s important to note that being undocumented is not relegated to just one race/ethnicity/nation of people. Also, a special focus of this course will examine how undocumented students navigate K-12 schooling experiences and pathways to college. Key topics will include but not limited to current legislation like DACA & DREAM Act; current campaigns like Comprehensive Immigration Reform and Undocumented, Unapologetic, and Unafraid campaigns; immigration industrial complex; the theoretical intersectionality of racism and nativism with other forms of oppression; and the global, capitalist, economic forces that create both the need to migrate and the need for immigrant labor. Jaime L. Del Razo.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2022/23.
Course Format: CLS -
EDUC 271 - Hello, Dear Enemy: Mounting an Exhibition of Children’s Experiences of War and Displacement
1 unit(s)
(Same as INTL 271 , LALS 271 , MEDS 271 and WFQS 271 ) At a time when the world is witnessing the largest displacement of people since WWII, due in significant measure to armed conflict, this course examines select case studies (both past and present) of armed conflict and their consequences for children. Journalists, photographers, and writers of children’s literature have done much to raise awareness about children and armed conflict, and to treat them in such a way that audiences develop understanding, empathy, and solidarity with children affected by armed conflict. A principal aim of the course is to study the topics of armed conflict and displacement through photography, photojournalism, and children’s literature, and then to mount exhibitions both on campus and a traveling exhibition in the Vassar Collaboratory. Our work is enriched by the study of human rights and humanitarian laws and policies concerning children affected by armed conflict, as well as by interaction with visiting artists, educators, and children’s rights experts from the United Nations and other international organizations. The course focuses on the impact of armed conflict on girls, and includes such topics as displacement, education, child soldiers, child labor, birth registration, and sexual violence. Tracey Holland.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2022/23.
Course Format: CLS -
EDUC 273 - Critical Ethnic Studies Curricula for Secondary Schools Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as AMST 273 and ASIA 273 ) In this intensive, Vassar students work with the professor on developing curricula for a new Grades 9-14 AAPI Digital Textbook that is being produced and published by UCLA’s Asian American Studies Center. The larger textbook uses AAPI history and experiences as a lens to understand American history, emphasize understanding the world through multiple perspectives, and demonstrate the ability to collaborate and resolve conflicts across many facets of difference and diversity towards shared goals for the common good. Chapters in the textbook are organized around the four foundational themes: Global Capitalism and Migration; Empire and War; Community Foundations and Activism; Race, Power and Identity. Our group is tasked with developing accompanying lesson plans and activities for the chapter on Chinese garment workers in New York. As well, we consider developing curricula for a similar nascent project on SWANA studies for high schoolers. Students are expected to travel to NYC for meetings with the historians writing the chapter. Maria Hantzopoulos.
Individual conferences with the instructor.
Course Format: INT -
EDUC 275 - International and Comparative Education Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 275 and INTL 275 ) This course provides an overview of comparative education theory, practice, and research methodology. We examine educational issues and systems in a variety of cultural contexts. Particular attention is paid to educational practices in Asia and Europe, as compared to the United States. The course focuses on educational concerns that transcend national boundaries. Among the topics explored are international development, democratization, social stratification, the cultural transmission of knowledge, and the place of education in the global economy. These issues are examined from multiple disciplinary vantage points. Leonisa Ardizzone.
Prerequisite(s): EDUC 235 or permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
EDUC 278 - Education for Peace, Justice and Human Rights
1 unit(s)
(Same as INTL 278 ) The aim of this course is to introduce students to the field of peace education and provide an overview of the history, central concepts, scholarship, and practices within the field. The overarching questions explored are: What does it mean to educate for peace, justice and human rights? What and where are the possibilities and the barriers? How do identity, representation and context influence the ways in which these constructs are conceptualized and defined and what are the implications of these definitions? How can we move towards an authentic culture of peace, justice, and human rights in a pluralistic world? In order to address these questions, we survey the human and social dimensions of peace education, including its philosophical foundations, the role of gender, race, religion and ethnicity in peace and human rights education, and the function and influence of both formal and non-formal schooling on a culture of peace and justice. Significant time is spent on profiling key thinkers, theories, and movements in the field, with a particular focus on case-studies of peace education in practice nationally and worldwide. We examine these case studies with a critical eye, exploring how power operates and circulates in these contexts and consider ways in which to address larger structural inequities and micro-asymmetries. Since peace education is not only about the content of education, but also the process, the course endeavors to model peace pedagogy by promoting inquiry, collaboration and dialogue and give students the opportunity to practice these skills through presentations on the course readings and topics.
Prerequisite(s): EDUC 162 or EDUC 235 .
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2022/23.
Course Format: CLS -
EDUC 279 - Rethinking Gender in an Educational Context Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as WFQS 279 ) This course uses a feminist lens to examine the social and cultural context of education, the structure of schools and classrooms, and the process of teaching and learning. Issues of gender are inherently tied a variety of identities and subjectivities in ways that intersect and interlock. These intersecting and interlocking identities include, but are not limited to: race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, (dis)ability, socioeconomic class, and citizenship status. How does that impact immigrant and undocumented youth? Using a variety of methods including reflective self- inquiry the course will answer the following questions:
1. How do dichotomous understandings of gender shape students’ experiences in schools?
2. How is gender experienced differently depending on other intersecting identities? Are all “women” the same and do they experience gender oppression in the same ways?
3. How do schools and curriculum address issues of gender?
4. What is the relationship between gender, democracy and education?
5. What role do teachers play in identity development in schools?
6. How do schools begin to address violence against particular students (LGBTQ, Black students, Latino students and other students from underrepresented groups)? Kimberly Williams Brown.
Prerequisite(s): EDUC 235 or WFQS 130 .
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
EDUC 283 - Our Lives, Our World: Teaching and Learning About Human Rights Alongside Youth
1 unit(s)
In this course, Vassar students create a human rights club curriculum for high-school youth that teaches about and for human rights in their localized and global contexts. We consider how curriculum must be both a mirror of students’ own experiences and a window into the experiences of others, and use this as a catalyst for social change and action. Vassar students and the instructor then also implement the curriculum with HS youth in the spring. Maria Hantzopoulos.
One 3-hour period.
Not offered in 2022/23.
Course Format: INT -
EDUC 290 - Community-Engaged Learning Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 2 unit(s)
All candidates for certification must demonstrate competency in an intensive community-engaged learning experience at the elementary, middle school, or senior high school level prior to student teaching. The Department.
Course Format: INT -
EDUC 297 - Independent Reading Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 unit(s)
Student initiated independent reading projects with Education faculty. A variety of topics are possible, including educational policy, children’s literature, early childhood education, the adolescent, history of American education, multicultural education, and comparative education. Subject to prior approval of the department. The department.
Course Format: OTH -
EDUC 298 - Independent Study Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Individual or group projects concerned with some aspect of education, subject to prior approval of the department. May be elected during the regular academic year or during the summer.
Course Format: OTH -
EDUC 299 - Vassar Science Education Internship Program
1 unit(s)
The Vassar Science Education Internship Program provides opportunities for science students from Vassar College to intern with science teachers in area schools for course credit. Students have an opportunity to gain teaching experience, to explore careers in education, and to help strengthen science education in the Poughkeepsie area schools. Each intern works with a science teacher to design a project and to obtain laboratory and/or computer based educational exercise for their class, and to acquire laboratory and/or computing resources for sustaining a strong science curriculum. Interns participate in a weekly seminar on science education at Vassar College.
Enrollment is limited and by permission. Students wishing to pursue internships should meet the following criteria: four completed units of course work in the natural sciences or mathematics, with at least two units at the 200-level, a minimum GPA of 3.4 in science and math coursework, and 3.0 overall.
Not offered in 2023/24.
Course Format: OTH
Education: III. Advanced
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EDUC 300 - Senior Portfolio: Childhood Education Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
This senior seminar focuses on analysis of the student teaching experience. Through the development of their teaching portfolio, senior students examine the linkages between theory, current research, and classroom practice. This course should be taken concurrently with the student teaching practicum. Una Miller.
Course Format: OTH -
EDUC 301 - Senior Portfolio: Adolescent Education Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Same as EDUC 300 , but for students earning certification in Adolescent Education. Una Miller.
Course Format: OTH -
EDUC 302 - Senior Thesis/Project Semester Offered: Fall
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Individual reading, research, or community service project.
Prerequisite(s): EDUC 384 .
Yearlong course 302-EDUC 303 .
Course Format: INT -
EDUC 303 - Senior Thesis/Project Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 unit(s)
Individual reading, research, or community service project.
Prerequisite(s): EDUC 302 .
Yearlong course EDUC 302 -303.
Course Format: INT -
EDUC 304 - Senior Thesis/Project Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Individual reading, research, or community service project.
One 1-hour period.
Course Format: INT -
EDUC 305 - Senior Thesis/Project Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
By special permission only. Individual reading, research, or community service project. Maria Hantzopoulos.
Prerequisite(s): EDUC 384 .
Course Format: INT -
EDUC 322 - Caribbean Spaces: Discourses of West Indian resistance, love and hope Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 322 and WFQS 322 ) Caribbean Spaces centers the English speaking West Indies and its diverse people, food and customs. I borrow the title from Carole Boyce Davies who says, “the claiming of Caribbean Space captures ontological ways of being in the world. It assumes movement as it makes and remakes the critical elements of Caribbean geography; landscape and escape, sky and sun, but also music, food and style.” Caribbean people are diverse, multifaceted and complex as a result of colonial histories, and modern struggles for self determination and governance. In this course, we explore a people who introduced the world to maroonage, and anti-colonial insurrection. A people who resist subjugation, love themselves into freedom and governance and a people who use “every mickle to mek a muckle.” This course explores themes of resistance, love and hope across the diaspora called the Caribbean through anti-slave narratives, independence and economic struggles, language and customs, education, tourism, sexuality, etc. Kimberly Williams Brown.
One 3-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
EDUC 336 - Childhood Development: Observation and Research Application
1 unit(s)
(Same as PSYC 336 ) What differentiates the behavior of one young child from that of another? What characteristics do young children have in common? This course provides students with direct experience in applying contemporary theory and research to the understanding of an individual child. Topics include attachment, temperament, parent, sibling and peer relationships, language and humor development, perspective taking, and the social-emotional connection to learning. Each student selects an individual child in a classroom setting and collects data about the child from multiple sources (direct observation, teacher interviews, parent-teacher conferences, archival records). During class periods, students discuss the primary topic literature, incorporating and comparing observations across children to understand broader developmental trends and individual differences. Synthesis of this information with critical analysis of primary sources in the early childhood and developmental literature culminates in comprehensive written and oral presentations. Julie Riess.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC 231 and permission of the instructor.
For Psychology Majors: completion of a research methods course.
One 3-hour period. and 4 hours of laboratory observation work.
Not offered in 2023/24.
Course Format: OTH -
EDUC 340 - Disability Studies in Education: Research, Policy, and Practice
1 unit(s)
In this course, we look at many different educational settings, both in and outside of school, from preschool through post-secondary education, to explore how ableism/anti-ableist practices influence policy and practice. Emanating from disability studies more broadly, disability studies in education (DSE) critiques the oppression of disabled students in educational settings, particularly special education, and advocates for the end of segregated education settings and the inclusion of disabled people in decisions made about them. Scholars who locate their work in DSE use multidisciplinary approaches when conducting and sharing research which allows participants to engage many different types of texts including qualitative and case study research articles, podcasts, comics, zines, music and more. Participants are required to participate/observe one hour a week in an educational setting. Erin McCloskey.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2023/24.
Course Format: CLS -
EDUC 350 - The Teaching of Reading: Curriculum Development in Childhood Education Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
The purpose of this course is to examine the nature and process of reading within a theoretical framework and then to examine and implement a variety of approaches and strategies used to promote literacy in language arts and social studies. Special emphasis is placed on material selection, instruction, and assessment to promote conceptual understandings for all students. Observation and participation in local schools is required. Erin McCloskey.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC 105 , PSYC 231 .
Year long course 350/EDUC 351 .
One 2-hour period; one hour of laboratory.
Course Format: CLS -
EDUC 351 - The Teaching of Reading: Curriculum Development in Childhood Education Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
The purpose of this course is to examine the nature and process of reading within a theoretical framework and then to examine and implement a variety of approaches and strategies used to promote literacy in language arts and social studies. Special emphasis is placed on material selection, instruction, and assessment to promote conceptual understandings for all students. Observation and participation in local schools is required. Erin McCloskey.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC 105 , PSYC 231 , EDUC 350 .
Year long course EDUC 350 /351.
One 2-hour period; one hour of laboratory.
Course Format: CLS -
EDUC 355 - The School-to-Military Pipeline
1 unit(s)
As an education department, we encourage our “students to think deeply and critically about the ways in which schools socialize as well as educate citizens” (“About Education Department”, https://education.vassar.edu/about/). This course relates to this previous statement by centering the role that schools play in assisting the military recruitment of its students into the U.S. Armed Forces, which is informed by the ways that “schools socialize as well as educate citizens.” As the largest and highest funded U.S. institution, the U.S. Armed Forces plays a direct and indirect role in the lives of all members of the campus community in the treasure of our country that includes not just money but lives lost and affected. Some of which included our student body, faculty, and staff. Thus, all students benefit from taking this course by examining how these two large U.S. institutions, schools and the military, work together to maintain “The School-to-Military Pipeline.” Jaime L. Del Razo.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
One 3-hour period.
Not offered in 2023/24.
Course Format: CLS -
EDUC 360 - Workshop in Curriculum Development Semester Offered: Fall
0.5 unit(s)
This course focuses on the current trends, research and theory in the area of curriculum development and their implications for practice in schools. Procedures and criteria for developing and evaluating curricular content, resources and teaching strategies are examined and units of study developed. Una Miller.
Prerequisite(s): Open to seniors only or permission of the instructor.
First six-week course.
One 3-hour period.
Course Format: OTH -
EDUC 361 - Seminar: Mathematics and Science in the Elementary Curriculum Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
The purpose of this course is to develop the student’s competency to teach mathematics and science to elementary school children. Lectures and hands-on activity sessions are used to explore mathematics and science content, methodology, and resource materials, with an emphasis on conceptual understanding as it relates to the curricular concepts explored. Special emphasis is placed on diagnostic and remedial skills drawn from a broad theoretical base. Students plan, implement, and evaluate original learning activities through field assignments in the local schools. In conjunction with their instruction of instructional methods in science, students also teach lessons for the Exploring Science at Vassar Farm program. Jaime L. Del Razo.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods; weekly laboratory work at the Vassar Farm.
Course Format: CLS -
EDUC 362 - Student Teaching Practicum: Childhood Education Semester Offered: Fall
2 unit(s)
Supervised internship in an elementary classroom, grades 1-6. Examination and analysis of the interrelationships of teachers, children, and curriculum as reflected in the classroom-learning environment.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC 105 , PSYC 231 ; EDUC 235 , EDUC 250 , EDUC 290 , EDUC 350 /EDUC 351 ; EDUC 360 , EDUC 361 may be concurrent.
Permission of the instructor.
Open to seniors only.
Ungraded only.
One or more conference hours per week.
Course Format: OTH -
EDUC 365 - Social Science Research Methods Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
This course introduces students to traditional research methods used in social science research with a special focus on the field of educational research. The course covers both qualitative and quantitative research methods, and places them both on a research methods continuum. By doing so, students learn how research method(s) can be employed at any part on the continuum, whether they are using qualitative or quantitative methodologies or a mixed-methods approach in their research design. The course combines classroom instruction, individual and group exercises, research instrument development, and a field research project (i.e., a course practicum) through which students acquire the knowledge and skills needed to be critical actors in the design, implementation, analysis, and use of research methods. Questions examined in the course include: What are research methods, and how are they developed, used, and analyzed in research projects? What are the relative strengths and limitations of research methods and research designs? What are standard approaches for assessing the quality of social science research and its implications in various fields? What are prominent research methods for collecting and analyzing qualitative and quantitative data? What are common threats to validity and what measures can researchers take to minimize their impact on a study? What are effective techniques for presenting research findings to a range of audiences? Jaime L. Del Razo.
One 3-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
EDUC 367 - Urban Education Reform Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as URBS 367 ) This advanced seminar examines American urban education reform from historical and contemporary perspectives to understand the recent impetus to push towards privatizing the public educational system. In particular, this course helps you think about the origins, philosophies, and implications of recent public school reform initiatives that are generally driven by neoliberal market-based ideologies, as well as the possibilities for resistance, agency, and change on both the micro- and macro-levels. Particular attention is given to both large-scale initiatives as well as grassroots community based efforts in educational change. Our class also partners with local youth from area high schools. For the last hour of class, these young people come to our class and you work with them on thinking through what changes they would like to see in their own schools and districts. This also involves helping them collect data and research at their sites. The Department.
Prerequisite(s): EDUC 235 or permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
EDUC 369 - Social Citizenship in an Urban Age
1 unit(s)
(Same as HIST 369 and URBS 369 ) During a 1936 campaign speech President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared that in “1776 we sought freedom from the tyranny of a political autocracy.” Since then “the age of machinery, of railroads; of steam and electricity; the telegraph and the radio; mass production and mass distribution—all of these combined to bring forward a new civilization and with it a new problem … . For too many of us the political equality we once had won was meaningless in the face of economic inequality.” Therefore, the President concluded, government must do something to “protect the citizen’s right to work and right to live.” This course looks at how Americans during the twentieth century fought to expand the meaning of citizenship to include social rights. We study efforts on behalf of labor laws, unemployment and old age insurance, and aid to poor mothers and their children. How did these programs affect Americans of different social, racial, and ethnic backgrounds? How did gender shape the ways that people experienced these programs? Because many Americans believed that widening educational opportunities was essential for addressing the problems associated with the “new civilization” that Roosevelt described, we ask to what extent Americans came to believe that access to a good education is a right of citizenship. These issues and the struggles surrounding them are not only, as they say, “history.” To help us understand our times, we look at the backlash, in the closing decades of the twentieth century, against campaigns to enlarge the definition of citizenship. Miriam Cohen.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2023/24.
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EDUC 372 - Student Teaching Semester Offered: Fall
2 unit(s)
Adolescent Education Supervised internship in teaching in a middle, junior, or senior high school, grades 7-12. Examination of the interrelationships of teachers, children, and curriculum as reflected in the classroom-learning environment.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC 105 ; EDUC 235 , EDUC 263 , EDUC 290 , EDUC 373 ; EDUC 392 . (Ungraded only.)
Permission of the instructor.
Open to seniors only.
Course Format: OTH -
EDUC 373 - Adolescent Literacy Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
This course combines literacy research, theory, and practice in the context of adolescent learning. We engage in case study research about the cultural, semiotic, and identity literacies our students produce in contrast to the literacies that are sanctioned and mandated in formal schooling. We define literacy broadly, and consider reading, writing, visual literacy and multimodal literacy– including new technologies. We look at how (im)migration status, race, ethnic heritage, and linguistic identity intersect with youth literacy production. Finally, we explore how literacy training is constructed through methods and curriculum with a special emphasis on diversity. The Department.
Prerequisite(s): EDUC 235 or permission of the instructor.
One 3-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
EDUC 375 - Science, Spirituality, and Peace Education: Addressing Climate Change Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Climate Change is arguably the most pressing issue of our day. Utilizing the three core values of peace education as our starting point (Planetary Stewardship, Humane Relationship, Global Citizenship) this course examines global responses to climate change through the lens of peace education and global religions and spirituality. We explore the science of climate change and how polarizing the topic can be thanks in no small part due to variations in educational practices (among other influences). We also explore how various religious traditions conceive of nature, stewardship and climate change and their “call” to address it. Finally, we engage with case studies of real environmental efforts from around the world in both formal and informal educational settings. Leonisa Ardizzone.
Prerequisite(s): EDUC 162 or EDUC 235 .
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
EDUC 380 - Civic Engagement in U.S. Education
1 unit(s)
This seminar focuses on the issue of civic engagement in U.S. schools, with a particular focus on how youth demonstrate critical consciousness, develop critical civic empathy, and foster a sense of global citizenship. We discuss both the possibilities and challenges of enacting social change from youth-centered learning spaces, and special emphasis is placed on understanding how learners can draw from multiple languages and modalities to engage with current events and participate in social action. This class explores how students can move beyond understanding the fundamental principles of government to engage in diverse forms of meaning-making and strengthen their civic literacy capacities in curricular and extracurricular settings. This course involves regular collaborations with students. Ah-Young Song.
Prerequisite(s): EDUC 235 .
One 3-hour period.
Not offered in 2023/24.
Course Format: CLS -
EDUC 381 - Critical Inquiries into Refugee Resettlement and Education Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as INTL 381 ) A goal of this course is for students to critically analyze notions of refugee resettlement and resettlement education in relation to the colonial and historical processes that re/produce and re/construct refugees. The course offers opportunities to explore refugee governance in both countries of protection and third countries of resettlement. Drawing on diasporic feminisms, black studies, and black feminist thought, students analyze and critique existing gendered and racialized resettlement policies and practices and move towards possibilities for reimagining resettlement anew. The course utilizes resettlement policy texts, documentaries, and primary documents to investigate resettlement educational programming in the US and in selected countries. The course seeks to explore these questions and more: How can refugee resettlement and education draw on refugees’ forms of knowing and legibility? What pedagogical possibilities open up when resettlement policies and practices are interrogated through the lenses of diasporic feminisms, Black studies, and Black feminist thought? How might the long-standing gendered and racialized policies and practices of the global refugee regime be ruptured? Mariam Rashid.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
EDUC 382 - Reframing Literacy for the 21st Century Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
This course attends to the ways in which a traditional conception of literacy as based solely on reading and writing can be broadened to address the strengths and needs of diverse students and their multiple literacy practices in the twenty-first century. Particular attention is given to critical literacy and multiliteracies, with consideration for the ways in which different literacies (e.g., media literacies, digital literacies, multimodalities) can conflict or intersect with school-sanctioned literacy practices. Students understand literacy concepts in context through regular collaborations with high school students. In addition to assigned course readings, students participate in a book club and compare different literacy theories of their choice from various scholarly traditions. The Department.
Prerequisite(s): EDUC 235 or permission of the instructor.
One 3-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
EDUC 384 - Advanced Seminar Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
This course explores various approaches to research methods in the field of education, with emphasis on qualitative approaches. The course provides an overview of the different types of educational research, the varied philosophical groundings that drive particular methodological approaches, and discussion on data collection and analysis. Jaime L. Del Razo
Prerequisite(s): EDUC 162 or EDUC 235 .
One 3-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
EDUC 386 - Ghetto Schooling Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as LALS 386 and SOCI 386 ) In twenty-first century America, the majority of students attend segregated schools. Most white students attend schools where 75% of their peers are white, while 80% of Latino students and 74% of black students attend majority non-white schools. In this course we will examine the events that led to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka and the 60-year struggle to make good on the promises of that ruling. The course will be divided into three parts. In part one, we will study the Brown decision as an integral element in the fight against Jim Crow laws and trace the legal history of desegregation efforts. In part two, we will focus on desegregation policies and programs that enabled the slow move toward desegregation between 1954 and the 1980s. At this point in time, integration efforts reached their peak and 44% of black students in the south attended majority-white schools. Part three of the course will focus on the dismantling of desegregation efforts that were facilitated by U.S. Supreme Court decisions beginning in the 1990s. Throughout the course we will consider the consequences of the racial isolation and concentrated poverty that characterizes segregated schooling and consider the implications of this for today’s K-12 student population, which is demographically very different than it was in the 1960s, in part due to new migration streams from Latin America, Asia, and the Caribbean. Over the last 40 years, public schools have experienced a 28% decline in white enrollments, with increases in the number of black and Asian students, and a noteworthy 495% increase in Latino enrollments. Eréndira Rueda.
One 2-hour period.
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EDUC 392 - Multidisciplinary Methods in Adolescent Education Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
This course is designed to engage prospective middle and high school educators in developing innovative, culturally relevant, and socially responsive curricula in a specific discipline, as well as in exploring ways to branch inter-disciplinarily. In particular, students strive to develop a practice that seeks to interrupt inequities in schooling and engender a transformative experience for all students. The first part of the course explores what it means to employ social justice, multicultural, and critical pedagogies in education through self-reflections, peer exchange, and class texts. The remainder of the course specifically looks at strategies to enact such types of education, focusing on methods, curriculum design, and assessment. Students explore a variety of teaching approaches and develop ways to adapt them to particular subject areas and to the intellectual, social, and emotional needs of adolescent learners. There is a particular emphasis on literacy development and meeting the needs of English Language Learners. Una Miller.
Prerequisite(s): EDUC 235 .
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
EDUC 399 - Senior Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Special permission.
Course Format: OTH
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