Education StudiesMajor Requirements

The Education Studies major requires the completion of eight courses: five courses as described below, plus three additional courses to be chosen in consultation with the student’s advisor. The comprehensive assessment in the major will be met by completing these required courses. Majors electing to write a thesis are required to take three additional course credits across the year devoted to the completion of the honors thesis.

• The required foundational course: AMST 352/EDST 352/HIST 352/SOCI 352, Purposes and Politics of Education
  
• One course on Cognition, Teaching, and Learning. Possibilities include the following: 

  EDST 120/ENGL 120, Reading, Writing, and Teaching
  EDST 335/PHIL 335, Theory of Knowledge
  EDST 227/PSYC 227, Developmental Psychology
  EDST 206/PSYC 206, Psychology of Play
  CHEM 200, Being Human in STEM

• One course on School, Society, and Policy. Possibilities include the following:

  ECON 419, Education and Inequality in the United States
  AMST 201/EDST 201, Social Construction of American Society
  AMST 308/EDST 308, Gender, Feminisms, and Education
  AMST 326/SOCI 326, Immigration and the New Second Generation
  EDST 337/SOCI 337, Dilemmas of Diversity: The Case of Higher Education 
  EDST 332/POSC 332, Political Economy of Development
  EDST 437/POSC 437, Disabling Institutions
  COLQ 332, Cities, Schools and Space
  MATH 205/HIST 209, Inequality

• One course on Education and Culture. Possibilities include the following:

  EDST 120/ENGL 120, Reading, Writing, and Teaching
  AMST 200/EDST 200/SOCI 200, Race, Education and Belonging
  EDST 208/POSC 208, Power and Politics in Contemporary China
  AMST 203/EDST 203/SOCI 203, Youth, Schooling, and Popular Culture
  EDST 301/PHIL 301, Education for Liberal Democracy
  EDST 346/FREN 346, Enfants Terribles
  
  
• One Research Methods Course (Quantitative or Qualitative) in any department. Ideally, this course should be chosen in anticipation of the research methods to be employed in capstone or thesis work. This course must be approved both by the major advisor and by the professor teaching the course. This requirement of a course that provides specific training in appropriate research methods is distinct from the requirement that all majors have some exposure to both quantitative and qualitative approaches to Education Studies.
  
  
• Three additional courses chosen in consultation with the advisor to create a concentration within the major. Concentrations could be thematic or disciplinary in orientation. Examples of possible concentrations include—but are not limited to—Education Policy; Education and Psychology; Higher Education; Urban Education; Race and Education; Comparative International Education; Arts Education; Math Education; or the Anthropology, Sociology, Philosophy, Economics, or History of Education. 

  To ensure that students have exposure to qualitative and quantitative research approaches, global breadth, and the opportunity to conduct independent research, while completing the eight total courses, students must

  • Take at least one course that exposes students to reading and interpreting qualitative scholarship. 
  • Take at least one course that exposes students to reading and interpreting quantitative scholarship. 
  • Take at least one course that exposes students to education from a global or comparative perspective. 
  • Take at least one 300- or 400-level course that results in the production of a significant research project or paper (20 pages or its equivalent) related to education. 

The capstone event for Education Studies majors involves participation in a public symposium showcasing significant projects related to each student’s concentration.

Exceptions to the major requirements outlined above will be considered only by petition to the program.