Approaches urban schools and communities as sites of promise and innovation as well as sites for social and political struggle. Examines the significance of community organizing as a form of education and the role of community organizing to improve urban schools. Readings include an examination of organizing tactics from historical figures such as Saul Alinsky, Ella Baker, Myles Horton, and Dolores Huerta. Topics may include "grow your own" teacher initiatives, parent trigger laws, and culturally-sustaining educational programming. (Same as: URBS 1015)

Previous terms offered: Fall 2022, Spring 2020.

Why do you go to school? What is the central purpose of public education in the United States? Should public schools prepare students for college? The workforce? Competent citizenship? Who makes these decisions and through what policy process are they implemented? Explores the ways that public school reformers have answered such questions, from the Common School Crusaders of the early nineteenth century to present advocates of No Child Left Behind. Examining public education as both a product of social, political, and economic change and as a force in molding American society, highlights enduring tensions in the development and practice of public schooling in a democratic republic.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2023, Fall 2021, Fall 2020.

Explores higher education in the contemporary United States through a sociological lens, highlighting the ways that elite colleges and universities both promote social mobility and perpetuate inequality. Examines the functions of higher education for students and society; issues of inequality in college access, financing, campus experiences, and outcomes later in life; the history and consequences of affirmative action; how and why historically white colleges and universities have diversified their student bodies; the challenges and benefits of diversity and inclusion on campus; and other topics. Emphasis on writing sociologically for public and academic audiences (Same as: SOC 1028)

Previous terms offered: Fall 2021, Fall 2020.

What are the purposes of public education and what makes it public? Do schools serve an individual good or a collective good? Is Americas system of public education organized to serve these purposes? What is the public’s responsibility towards public education? How do current school reforms affect various stakeholders? The primary objective is to examine the cultural, social, economic, and institutional dilemmas confronting public schooling in the United States today. By approaching these dilemmas as unsolved puzzles instead of systematic failures, important insights are gained into the challenges confronting a democratic society historically committed to the public provision of education. Considers which theories and purposes of education motivate current reform efforts. Likewise, examines who shapes public discourse about public education and by what strategies. Employs a mixed approach of reading, discussion, and class-based activities to explore important educational issues including school reform and finance, charter schools, busing, vouchers, unequal educational opportunities and outcomes; and accountability, standardization, and testing.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2023, Fall 2022, Spring 2022, Fall 2021, Spring 2021, Fall 2020, Spring 2020, Fall 2019.

Species Extinction. Deforestation. Acid Rain. Climate Change. For a century and a half Americans have quarreled ardently over the causes and consequences of environmental decline. The frequency of these debates—and their ferocity—compels the question of how Americans came to know and believe, what they thought they knew and believed, about the natural world. This course investigates how educators and entrepreneurs, politicians and policy makers, used environmental education as a vehicle for promoting a wide array of cultural, political, and economic beliefs alongside, if not often in place of, fostering students’ understanding of the natural world. It examines many different forms of environmental education put into practice over the course of the long-twentieth century and demonstrates how teaching about nature was often harnessed to influence young people’s identities, behaviors, and beliefs.

Prerequisites: EDUC 1020 or EDUC 1101 or HIST 1000 - 2969 or HIST 3000 or higher.

Previous terms offered: Fall 2022.

An examination of the economic, social, political, and pedagogical implications of universal education in American classrooms. Focuses on the right of every student, including students with physical and/or learning differences, and those who have been identified as gifted, to an equitable education. Requires a minimum of twenty-four hours of observation in a local secondary school.

Prerequisites: EDUC 1101.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021, Spring 2021, Fall 2020, Fall 2019.

An examination of educational policy-making and implementation at the federal, state, and local levels. Particular attention is paid to the relationship between policy and school practice and the role practitioners play in policy-making. Policies explored include school choice, standards and accountability, No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, the Common Core, and Proficiency-Based Instruction.

Prerequisites: EDUC 1020 or EDUC 1101.

Previous terms offered: Fall 2019.

Examines the ways that formal schooling influences individuals and the ways that social structures and processes affect educational institutions. Explores the manifest and latent functions of education in modern society; the role education plays in stratification and social reproduction; the relationship between education and cultural capital; the dynamics of race, class, and gender in education; and other topics. (Same as: SOC 2206)

Prerequisites: Two of: SOC 1101 and SOC 2000 - 2969.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2022, Fall 2020.

Explores the relationship between education and being/becoming human. Topics may be guided by the questions: What does it mean to be an educated person? How can education lead to emancipation? How might teaching and learning lead to the good life? What is our responsibility to teach the next generation? Readings may include works by Hannah Arendt, John Dewey, W. E. B. Du Bois, Plato, Jacques Rancière, among others.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2022.

This course introduces the foundations of adolescent development and educational psychology. We examine topics such as identity development, cognitive development, social and cultural approaches to learning, risk taking, resilience, and positive youth development for young people ages 10-19. Course concepts and theories will be grounded in empirical research and will be applied to understanding contemporary opportunities and challenges faced by adolescent learning in both school and out-of-school environments. Insights for the ways in which educators can design learning experiences to better serve students’ needs from a variety of backgrounds will be cultivated through a field placement working with students. (Same as: PSYC 2012)

Prerequisites: EDUC 1101 or PSYC 1101 or Placement in above PSYC 1101.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2023, Spring 2022, Spring 2021, Spring 2020.

What does it take to get admitted to a school, class, or program? From the time students enter the educational system, they encounter judgments about their worthiness for countless opportunities. What factors weigh in their favor? Who decides whether they deserve a spot? What does a fair admissions system look like? In this course, students will be introduced to the theory and practice of educational admissions in multiple contexts. While providing a broad overview, this course will also engage students in a deep exploration of contemporary and controversial topics that have a profound influence on the field, including: access and equity; bias and discrimination; standardized tests and “non-cognitive” variables; race and ethnicity in selective admission; academic tracking; and giftedness. By the end of the course, students will have a deeper understanding of the competing interests, ethical considerations, and social implications that factor into educational admissions.

Prerequisites: EDUC 1101.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2020.

A study of the impact of the American legal system on the functioning of schools in the United States through an examination of Supreme Court decisions and federal legislation. Analyzes the public policy considerations that underlie court decisions in the field of education and considers how those judicial interests may differ from the concerns of school boards, administrators, and teachers. Issues to be discussed include constitutional and statutory developments affecting schools in such areas as free speech, sex discrimination, religious objections to compulsory education, race relations, teachers’ rights, school financing, and the education of those with disabilities. (Same as: GOV 2024)

Previous terms offered: Fall 2021, Fall 2020.

Why do all Americans need to learn science and what are we doing to improve science education in our schools? With the release of the Next Generation Science Standards and in response to America’s poor standing on international assessments of math and science, there has been a shift in public interest and dialogue around why and how we teach science that is reminiscent of the late 1950s after the Soviet launch of Sputnik. Considers the goals of science education in the United States and explores research and policy related to science curriculum, teaching practice, and student learning.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2023, Spring 2022, Spring 2020.

Approaches urban schools and communities as sites of promise and innovation as well as social and political struggle. Examines the significance of community organizing as a form of education and the role of community organizing to improve, defend, and transform urban schools. Engages in major debates around urban education through readings and films. Features the perspectives of leading education researchers, policymakers, community organizers, and teacher scholars. Includes discussions of popular education, parent trigger laws, privatization, social movement unionism, and culturally-sustaining educational programming. (Same as: URBS 2272)

Previous terms offered: Fall 2020.

Explores higher education in the contemporary United States through a sociological lens, highlighting the ways that colleges and universities both promote social mobility and perpetuate inequality. Examines the functions of higher education for students and society; issues of inequality in college access, financing, campus experiences, and outcomes later in life; the challenges and benefits of diversity and inclusion; and other topics, with special attention across all topics to the case of African Americans. (Same as: SOC 2330, AFRS 2330)

Prerequisites: SOC 1101.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2023, Spring 2021.

What roles have colleges and universities in the United States played over time? This course examines the social, political, and economic tensions that transformed higher education from a collection of small, narrowly defined, postsecondary institutions in the eighteenth century into a vast, multipurpose educational enterprise in contemporary society. The course emphasizes writing as a process and incorporates instruction in research-driven writing leading to students completing a major research project. (IRBW)

Prerequisites: EDUC 1020 or EDUC 1101 or HIST 1000 or higher.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2022, Spring 2021.

Explores how adolescents’ literacies intersect with social identities, discourses, and power. Examines youths’ literacy practices including reading in schools, digital composing on social media platforms, and embodied performances through table-top roleplaying games. Particular attention is paid to how literacies are intertwined with systems of race, class, gender, and sexuality in schools and across communities. Draws on a range of analytic tools including those from education, anthropology, sociology, literary studies, linguistics, and computational studies as well as theories of aesthetics, semiotics, and criticality.

Prerequisites: EDUC 1015 (same as URBS 1015) or EDUC 1020 or EDUC 1101.

A study of what takes place in classrooms: the methods and purposes of teachers, the response of students, and the organizational context. Readings and discussions help inform students’ direct observations and written accounts of local classrooms. Peer teaching is an integral part of the course experience. Requires a minimum of thirty-six hours of observation in a local secondary school. Education 3302 must be taken concurrently with this course. In order to qualify for this course students must have Education 1101 and 2203; junior or senior standing; a concentration in a core secondary school subject area (English: four courses in English; foreign language: four courses in the language; life science: four courses in biology; mathematics: four courses in mathematics; physical science: three courses in chemistry, earth and oceanographic science, or physics and one course in one of the other departments listed; or social studies: two courses in history and two courses in anthropology, economics, government, history, psychology or sociology. Permission of the instructor.

Previous terms offered: Fall 2022, Fall 2021, Fall 2020, Fall 2019.

A study of the knowledge taught in schools; its selection and the rationale by which one course of study rather than another is included; its adaptation for different disciplines and for different categories of students; its cognitive and social purposes; the organization and integration of its various components. Education 3301 must be taken concurrently with this course. In order to qualify for this course, students must have Education 1101 and 2203; junior or senior standing; and a concentration in a core secondary school subject area (English: four courses in English; foreign language: four courses in the language; life science: four courses in biology; mathematics: four courses in mathematics; physical science: three courses in chemistry, earth and oceanographic science, or physics and one course in one of the other departments listed; or social studies: two courses in history and two courses in anthropology, economics, government, history, psychology, or sociology). Permission of the instructor.

Previous terms offered: Fall 2022, Fall 2021, Fall 2020, Fall 2019.

Required of all students who seek secondary public school certification, this final course in the student teaching sequence requires that students work full time in a local secondary school from early January to late April. Grading is Credit/D/Fail. Education 3304 must be taken concurrently. Students must complete an application and interview. Students with the following are eligible for this course: Education 2203, 3301 , and 3302; junior or senior standing; a cumulative 3.0 grade point average; a 3.0 grade point average in Education 3301 and 3302; and eight courses in a subject area that enables them to be certified by the State of Maine (English: eight courses in English; world language: eight courses in the language; life science: six courses in biology and two additional courses in biology, biochemistry, or neuroscience; mathematics: eight courses in mathematics; physical science: six courses in chemistry, earth and oceanographic science, or physics, and one course in each of the other departments listed; or social studies: six courses in history (at least two must be non-United States history) and one course each in two of the following departments: anthropology, economics, government, psychology, or sociology).

Previous terms offered: Spring 2023, Spring 2022, Spring 2021, Spring 2020.

Taken concurrently with Education 3303, Student Teaching Practicum. Considers theoretical and practical issues related to effective classroom instruction. Students with the following are eligible for this course: Education 2203, 3301, and 3302; junior or senior standing; a cumulative 3.0 grade point average; a 3.0 grade point average in Education 3301 and 3302; and eight courses in a subject area that enables them to be certified by the State of Maine (English: eight courses in English; world language: eight courses in the language; life science: six courses in biology and two additional courses in biology, biochemistry, or neuroscience; mathematics: eight courses in mathematics; physical science: six courses in chemistry, earth and oceanographic science, or physics, and one course in each of the other departments listed; or social studies: six courses in history (at least two must be non-United States history) and one course each in two of the following departments: anthropology, economics, government, psychology, or sociology).

Previous terms offered: Spring 2023, Spring 2022, Spring 2021, Spring 2020.

Draws together different theoretical, policy, and practice perspectives in education in the United States around a specific topic of inquiry determined by the instructor. Examines methodological perspectives in the field, e.g., quantitative, qualitative, and humanistic research. Students read original, contemporary research and develop skills to communicate with various educational stakeholders.

Prerequisites: Three of: EDUC 1101 and EDUC 2000 - 2969 or either EDUC 3000 or higher and either EDUC 2000 - 2969 or EDUC 3000 or higher.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2023, Spring 2022, Spring 2021, Fall 2019.

Seminar. Examines the theoretical and empirical analysis of education decision-making and the consequences of educational choices using an economic lens. Begins with the basic human capital model and expands on it to consider signaling, the interplay between ability and human capital, modeling expectations, and the many challenges of measuring the rate of return to educational investment. Educational policies from preschool to graduate studies are also considered, including the public funding of education, class size, and outcome testing. Examples are drawn from both developed and developing countries. (Same as: ECON 3535)

Prerequisites: Two of: ECON 2555 and ECON 2557 or MATH 2606.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2023, Spring 2021, Spring 2020.