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Educ 200 Analyzing Schools
This course
introduces the study of schooling within an
interdisciplinary framework. Drawing upon sociology, we
investigate the resources, structures, and social
contexts which influence student opportunities and
outcomes in the United States and other countries.
Drawing upon psychology, we contrast theories of
learning, both in the abstract and in practice. Drawing
upon philosophy, we examine competing educational goals
and their underlying assumptions regarding human nature,
justice, and democracy. In addition, a community learning
component, where students observe and participate in
nearby K-12 classrooms for three hours per week, will be
integrated with course readings and written assignments.
NOTE: Each student must reserve one three-hour block of time in their weekly schedule (anytime between 9am - 3pm weekdays) for a community learning placement in a neighborhood Hartford public school, to be arranged by the instructor during the first week of the course. Enrollment limited to 32.
Fall 2007 syllabus with Professor Andrea Dyrness
Spring 2008 syllabus with Professor Jack Dougherty
Educ 215 Education and Social Change Across the Globe
Through a comparative framework, this course examines the relationship
between education and social change in various regions of the world.
How do governments use schooling to produce certain kinds of citizens,
and how do grassroots movements use education to resist these agendas?
What role does education play in promoting democracy versus social and
economic inequality? This course is highly recommended for students who
are preparing to attend or returning from study abroad programs,
particularly the Trinity Global Learning Sites. Assignments will
require students to draw upon personal reflections and research to
contribute to the comparative framework.
Enrollment limited to 30.
Fall 2006 syllabus with Professor Andrea Dyrness
Educ 216 Education and Technology (no longer offered)
Schools and colleges have invested billions of dollars in
computer technology, but how do we evaluate its
effectiveness and hidden costs? Who designs technology
and how does it reflect their values and beliefs? Who has
access to computers and how are they actually used in our
society? Students will explore these questions,
critically evaluate software products, and engage in
community learning placements to research how technology
has shaped the context of schooling.
Fall
2002 syllabus (PDF file) with Professor Barbara Henriques
Educ 300 Education Reform: Past
& Present
How do we explain the rise
and decline of education reform movements? How do we
evaluate their level of “success” from
different sources of evidence? Drawing upon primary
source materials and historical interpretations, this
course examines a broad array of elementary, secondary,
and higher education reform movements from the
mid-nineteenth century to the present, analyzing social,
material, and ideological contexts. This
intermediate-level seminar explores a topic common to all
branches of educational studies from both theoretical and
comparative perspectives. Prerequisite: Ed 200 or
permission of instructor. Enrollment limited to 24.
Spring 2008 syllabus with Professor Jack Dougherty
Educ 307 Latinos in Education: Local Realities, Transnational Perspectives
This course investigates the education of Latinos, the largest and
fastest growing minority group in the United States. By examining both
the domestic and transnational contexts, we explore these central
questions: How do cultural constructions of Latinos (as immigrants and
natives, citizens and noncitizens) shape educational policy and
teaching practices? What views of citizenship and identity underlie
school programs such as bilingual education, as well as Latino
responses to them? This course fulfills the related field requirement
for Hispanic Studies majors. It also will include a community learning
component involving a qualitative research project in a Hartford school
or community organization.
Prerequisite: Educ 200 or ANTH majors or INTS/LACS majors or HISP
majors or permission of instructor. Enrollment limited to 20.
Spring 2007 syllabus with Professor Andrea Dyrness
Educ 308: Cities, Suburbs, and
Schools
How did city dwellers' dreams of better schooling, along
with public policy decisions in housing and
transportation, contribute to the rise of suburbia in the
twentieth century? How do city-suburban disparities
affect teaching and learning in classrooms today? What
promise do Sheff v O'Neill remedies for racial
isolation, such as magnet schools at the Learning
Corridor, hold for the future? Students will investigate
these questions while developing their skills in oral
history, ethnographic fieldwork, and geographical
information system (GIS) software. Community learning
experiences will be integrated with seminar readings and
research projects. Prerequisite: Ed 200 or Psyc 225 or
the Cities Program or permission of instructor.
Enrollment limited to 20.
Fall 2007 syllabus with Professor Jack Dougherty
See also Cities, Suburbs, and Schools website
Educ 309 Race, Class, and
Educational Policy
How do competing theories
explain educational inequality? How do different policies
attempt to address it? Topics include economic and
cultural capital, racial identity formation,
desegregation, multiculturalism, detracking, school
choice, school-family relationships, and affirmative
action. Student groups will expand upon the readings by
designing, conducting, and presenting research
projects as part of the community-learning component for this seminar. Enrollment limited to 20.
Spring 2007 syllabus with Professor Jack Dougherty
Educ 315 Higher Education in America
America has developed
one of the largest and most diverse systems of higher education in the world,
with curricula that range from the study of Greek, Latin and antiquity to the
decorating of cakes. Despite this diffuseness, American higher education enjoys
an enviable global reputation and each year the number of students from around
the world applying to colleges and universities in the United States far
surpasses the number of American students seeking to matriculate abroad. This
course will examine the forces that shaped the development of American higher
education from its origins to the present, and then focus on several salient
issues (such as diversity, student misbehavior, academic freedom, and athletics)
that vex and enrich modern institutions. Students will be required to conduct a
field research project that analyzes a current issue and compares how two or
more institutions have reacted. Pre-requisite: Educ 200 or permission of
instructor. Enrollment limited to 20.
Spring 2006 syllabus with Dean of Students Fred Alford
Educ 317 Alternative Education (no longer offered)
This course examines alternatives to mainstream
education, such as charter and magnet schools, Montessori
programs, home-schooling, and for-profit enterprises.
What historical and political factors led to the rise of
the alternative movement? What social and cognitive
issues do they raise about quality teaching and learning?
What effects have these alternative models had on the
broader educational system? The course will include a
community learning component to offer students first-hand
knowledge about Hartford-area alternative models and how
they are implemented. Prerequisites: Ed 200 or permission
of instructor. Enrollment limited.
Fall 2001 syllabus with Professor
Barbara Henriques
Educ 318: Special Education
How are children labeled (or mislabeled) as having
learning and developmental disabilities, autism, or
attention deficit disorder? How have definitions and
diagnoses of learning disorders changed over time? How
does the law seek to ensure the accommodation of the
needs of individuals with learning disabilities? Students
will critically analyze current research on disorders,
examine special education case law and advocacy, and
explore issues through community learning placements and
interviews with teachers and parents.
Prerequisite: Ed 200 or Psyc 295 or permission of
instructor. Enrollment limited to 24.
Fall 2007 syllabus with Visiting Professor John Foshay
Educ 320: Anthropology and Education
The anthropology of education has a rich history of investigating the links between culture, learning, and schooling. Anthropologists studying education have sought to illuminate learning and educational achievement as social processes and cultural products that cannot be understood apart from the socio-cultural contexts in which they occur. In this upper-level seminar, we will explore selected works in the anthropology of education -- both classic and contemporary -- in order to understand the unique contributions anthropology makes to the study of education, and in particular, the experience of minority groups in education. We will explore topics such as race, gender, and language in education and how they have been addressed by anthropologists. Students will have an opportunity to read critically a variety of detailed ethnographic and qualitative studies focusing on formal schooling and informal education in the United States and in other countries. Reviewing these studies, we will explore the central questions: What is a cultural analysis of schooling? What unique insights does ethnography -- anthropology¹s signature method -- offer into key educational problems? And finally, how can a cultural analysis of schooling inform efforts to create a more socially just educational system?
Prerequisite: A C- or better in Ed 200 or Anthropology 201 or permission of instructor. Enrollment limited to 20.
Spring 2007 syllabus with Professor Andrea Dyrness
Educ 322: Comparative
Education -- Japan and the United States (no longer offered)
How have social and political factors shaped schooling in Japan and
the United States, particularly as economic competition between the two nations
has increased in recent decades? In turn, how do Japanese and U.S. schools
express their vision of what it means to be an educated citizen? Students will
critically examine how racial, class, and gender discrimination have influenced
educational policies and practices in both nations, as well as the extent and
efficacy of school reform efforts addressing diversity and globalization.
Prerequisite: a prior course in Educational Studies or International Studies, or
permission of the instructor.
Fall 2004 syllabus
(PDF) with Visiting Instructor Eugenie Kang
Educ 350 Teaching and Learning
This seminar will explore theoretical, policy, and practical issues of teaching and learning. Who should teach in public schools, and what kind of preparation is necessary? What type of curriculum should be taught, and how do different interest groups shape that decision? How should we assess the quality of student learning? Finally, how do debates on all of these questions influence the nature of teachers’ work and classroom life? For the community learning component, students will design, teach, and evaluate curricular units in cooperation with neighborhood schools and after school programs. Prerequisite: Ed 200 or juniors/seniors from any major with permission of instructor. Enrollment limited to 20.
Fall 2007 sylllabus with Professor Jack Dougherty
Educ 400 Senior Research Seminar
To fulfill the senior exercise
requirement, students carry out an independent research
project which builds upon acquired skills and evolving
interests. The weekly seminar provides a thematic focus
as well as a continuous forum for both support and
critical feedback from peers, in preparation for a public
presentation of the student's work at the end of the
semester. Each year, the seminar will be organized around
a broad theme in educational studies. Ordinarily taken in the fall semester of
the senior year, with the option of continuing as a
one-credit senior thesis (Educ 497) in the spring
semester.
Fall 2006 syllabus with Professor Andrea Dyrness
See students' research projects located in
Research
Educ 497 Senior Thesis
Open to senior
majors in spring semester, who have received B+ or better
in Ed 400, as a continuation of their independent
research projects. By arrangement with professor.
First-Year Seminar - Borders and their Trespassers: (Im)migration, Human Rights, and Imagined Communities with Professors Andrea Dyrness and Anne Gebelein
This course will consider the border politics involved in the making of local and (trans) national communities. Using the U.S./Mexican border and the Trinity/ Hartford border as our two primary loci of inquiry, we will explore the rights and reception of those who cross borders: not only geopolitical, but also linguistic, racial, economic, and cultural ones. Examining immigration policy and admissions policy, law enforcement along the border, media representations of migrants and natives, and the stories of border crossers, we will attempt to understand the forces that expand and constrain membership rights in these intersecting communities. How are borders constructed and contested by groups on both sides of the border? How are rights of belonging and membership transformed by migrants and “trespassers”? Border politics will be considered from an anthropological perspective (Prof. Dyrness) and from a cultural studies perspective (Prof. Gebelein), allowing us to consider a wide variety of scholarly work in fiction and nonfiction, contemporary media, and border studies. Fall 2007 syllabus
First-Year Seminar - Resistance
and Rebellion: Student Protest in American Higher
Education with Professor Jack Dougherty
Why have student protests periodically
erupted on college campuses over the past two hundred
years? How have the methods, motivations, and broader
meanings behind these movements changed, or remained the
same, over time? What were the long-term outcomes of
student protests? And how does our memory — or
ignorance — of these events influence campus life
and politics in the present? During the first half of the
seminar, we will probe these issues while reading
accounts of rebellion at Princeton in the early 1800s,
Fisk University in the 1920s, Berkeley in the 1960s, and
others. In the second half, we will research the 1968
Trinity student protest for African-American student
scholarships, by examining archival evidence and
conducting oral history interviews with participants. In
addition to writing research papers and making oral
presentations, our seminar will produce a public history
exhibit on the events of 1968 for the Trinity campus
community.
Trinity 1968 public history
exhibit
Fall 2000 syllabus
First-Year Seminar - Learning: The
Human Experience with Professor Barbara
Henriques (no longer offered)
How do we learn, how do we facilitate/hinder learning,
and how can we use learning to enhance our development as
individuals and as a society? These questions, along with
questions students bring to the course, will create the
central focus of this first-year seminar. Using a variety
of materials and resources we will explore a variety of
issues related to learning. Issues will include:
education and development, ways of knowing, human
adaptation, genetics and the environment, culture,
perception, the complex mind, choice and responsibility,
symbolization and meaning, the self and liberation from
the self, creativity, and social institutions. The
seminar will discuss issues of equity as they relate to
opportunities for learning, humans as agents of social
change and humans and the future of learning in our
society. Readings, films, interviews and field trips will
provide the material for our discussions. The seminar
experience will emphasize the development of analytical
reading, thinking and writing skills in an effort to
nurture and construct an engaging learning environment
for both the individuals in the section and the section
as a whole. Fall 2001 syllabus
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Last updated
April 3, 2008
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