Education Studies Major
Goals for the Education Studies Major
- Students will engage in and understand the interdisciplinary study of education.
- Students will develop their skills as critical thinkers, analytic writers and skilled researchers through active experiences in course work, independent study, and supervised experiences in the field.
- Students will explore the variety of educational settings where teaching and learning occurs, such as schools, out-of-school settings, families, and communities.
- Through an analysis of past and present school reform efforts, students will examine the various purposes and goals of schooling as well as the role and function of curriculum, teaching, and pedagogy to serve those purposes, including democracy, freedom, and justice.
- Students will examine and understand how contextual factors such as social class, race, immigration, demographic shifts and rural/suburban/urban contexts have influenced educational policies and practices.
- Students will make connections between educational theory and practice while also acknowledging tensions that may occur between educational theory and practice.
- Students will apply their learning in communities of practice such as school classrooms and community agencies, where present educational problems and change efforts can be observed in their full contexts.
Requirements for the Education Studies Major
Students are expected to complete nine units of coursework, six of which must be completed at Wellesley College. The major consists of three primary requirements: education core coursework, a capstone experience, and an additional suite of courses taken within the education department. Supplemental documents to assist students in planning a course of study can be found on the education department website.
Students must complete:
One of the following three education core courses:
| EDUC 214 | Ecologies of Education: Youth, Family, Community, and Power | 1.0 |
| EDUC 215 | Educational Inequality and Social Transformation in Schools | 1.0 |
| EDUC 216 | Race, Class, and Ethnicity in Education Policy | 1.0 |
An education studies capstone experience
All education studies majors will be required to take a capstone experience, with guidance on the selection from their major advisor. Education capstone courses have a course number designation in the 330s. Students may choose from the following two options and must declare their intentions by the end of their junior year:
-
Option 1 : One course in the EDUC 330’s sequence: These capstone courses include critical inquiry into educational theory and practice, often include an experiential component, and require the student to develop skills in research and inquiry. Capstone courses are offered each year and vary depending on availability. Some examples of capstone courses include: EDUC 334: Seminar. Ethnography in Education: Race, Migration, and Borders; EDUC 335: Seminar. Urban Education: Equity, Research, and Action; EDUC 339 Seminar: Critical Perspectives, Practice, and Reflection in Teaching and Curriculum (restricted to students in the teacher certification program).
At least four and up to seven additional courses from the list of Education Research and Theory courses.
Students are required to take at least four additional Education Research and Theory courses to complete their major. These courses allow students to establish a foundation in the interdisciplinary study of education and develop an integrated understanding of educational policy, research, and practice.
Students may also select up to three Curriculum and Teaching courses (which focus on teaching methods and offer field-based experiences in classrooms) and/or three Education Electives courses.
Education Research and Theory Courses
|
Black Pedagogies in the Americas |
1.0 |
|
|
Black Girlhood Studies |
1.0 |
|
|
First-Year Seminar: Lessons of Childhood: Representations of Difference in Children's Media |
1.0 |
|
|
Abolitionist Study: Knowledge Production in US Prisons |
1.0 |
|
|
Seminar: Communicating and Teaching Chemistry |
1.0 |
|
|
Economics of Education Policy |
1.0 |
|
|
First-Year Seminar: From Abbott Elementary to Waiting for Superman: Representing School and Society on the Big Screen |
1.0 |
|
|
Theory and Practice in Early Childhood Care and Education |
1.0 |
|
|
Exceptional Learners: An Introduction to Special Education |
1.0 |
|
|
Schools and Society |
1.0 |
|
|
Social and Emotional Learning and Development: Theoretically Informed Practice for K-12 Education |
1.0 |
|
|
Ecologies of Education: Youth, Family, Community, and Power |
1.0 |
|
|
Educational Inequality and Social Transformation in Schools |
1.0 |
|
|
Race, Class, and Ethnicity in Education Policy |
1.0 |
|
|
Children’s Literature: Fostering Agency, Equity, and Academic Success |
1.0 |
|
|
Physics Pedagogy in Practice |
1.0 |
|
|
The Modern Black Freedom Struggle |
1.0 |
|
|
Practicum in Child Development |
1.0 |
|
|
Children in Society |
1.0 |
|
|
Seminar: Social and Emotional Learning and Development: Theoretically Informed Practice for K-12 Education |
1.0 |
|
|
Seminar: De-centering and Re-centering: Social Theory Across the Globe |
1.0 |
|
|
Adolescent Sexual Health Communication in the Real World |
1.0 |
|
|
Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing: Social Technologies and Adolescent Development |
1.0 |
|
|
Seminar: Centering Community: Critical Perspectives on Youth Work & Out-of-School Time Programs |
1.0 |
|
|
Seminar: Race, Migration, and Borders: The Ethnography of Immigrant Families |
1.0 |
|
|
Seminar: Urban Education and Emancipatory Research |
1.0 |
|
|
Seminar: Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design in Education |
1.0 |
|
|
Seminar: Critical Perspectives, Practice, and Reflection in Teaching and Curriculum |
1.0 |
|
|
Seminar: Advanced Research Methods in Education |
1.0 |
|
|
Seminar: Grassroots Organizing |
1.0 |
|
|
Education in Philosophical Perspective |
1.0 |
|
Teaching and Curriculum in Middle School and High School |
1.0 |
|
|
Practicum: Curriculum and Supervised Teaching |
1.0 |
|
|
Seminar: Educating English Language Learners |
1.0 |
Education Electives
|
Introduction to the Black Experience |
1.0 |
|
|
African American History 1500-Present |
1.0 |
|
|
Black Studies at Wellesley and Beyond |
1.0 |
|
|
From Mumbet to Michelle Obama: Black Women's History |
1.0 |
|
|
Introduction to Ethnic Studies |
1.0 |
|
|
Asian American Experience |
1.0 |
|
|
Race, Ethnicity, and Politics in America |
1.0 |
|
|
Introduction to Latina/o Studies |
1.0 |
|
|
Asian American Psychology |
1.0 |
|
|
Urban Studies and Policy |
1.0 |
|
|
Racial Regimes in the United States and Beyond |
1.0 |
|
|
How Immigration is Changing the U.S. and the World |
1.0 |
|
|
Histories of Asian American Labor and Immigration |
1.0 |
|
|
Rainbow Republic: American Queer Culture from Walt Whitman to Lady Gaga |
1.0 |
|
|
Afro-Latinas/os in the U.S. |
1.0 |
|
|
Beats, Rhymes, and Life: Hip-Hop Studies |
1.0 |
|
|
Political Anthropology |
1.0 |
|
|
Anthropology In and Of the City |
1.0 |
|
|
Media Publics: An Introduction to Civic Media |
1.0 |
|
|
Psychology of Language |
1.0 |
|
|
Intro to Game Design |
1.0 |
|
|
Artificial Intelligence |
1.0 |
|
|
Poverty and Inequality in Latin America |
1.0 |
|
|
Seminar: Advanced Economics of Education |
1.0 |
|
|
The Economics of Law, Policy and Inequality |
1.0 |
|
|
Intersections of Technology, Social Justice, and Conflict |
1.0 |
|
|
Out of Many: American History to 1877 |
1.0 |
|
|
The United States History since 1865 |
1.0 |
|
|
Native America |
1.0 |
|
|
Introduction to Linguistics |
1.0 |
|
|
Sociolinguistics |
1.0 |
|
|
Language: Form and Meaning |
1.0 |
|
|
Introduction to Historical Linguistics |
1.0 |
|
|
Bilingualism: An Exploration of Language, Mind, and Culture |
1.0 |
|
|
Seminar: African American English |
1.0 |
|
|
Introduction to the Study of Conflict, Justice, and Peace |
1.0 |
|
|
Qualitative Methods in the Social Sciences |
1.0 |
|
|
Seminar: Immigration Politics |
1.0 |
|
|
Neoliberalism and its Critics |
1.0 |
|
|
Seminar: Race in American Politics |
1.0 |
|
|
Beyond Prisons: Resistance, Reform, Abolition |
1.0 |
|
|
Introduction to Psychology |
1.0 |
|
|
Developmental Psychology |
1.0 |
|
|
Social Psychology |
1.0 |
|
|
Cognition |
1.0 |
|
|
Cultural Psychology |
1.0 |
|
|
Research Methods in Developmental Psychology |
1.0 |
|
|
Seminar: Language Acquisition |
1.0 |
|
|
Seminar: Adolescent Psychology: Bridging Research and Practice |
1.0 |
|
|
Seminar: Child and Adolescent Psychopathology |
1.0 |
|
|
Clinical and Educational Assessments |
1.0 |
|
|
Seminar: Prejudice and Discrimination |
1.0 |
|
|
Seminar: Social Imagination |
1.0 |
|
|
Seminar: Development of a Theory of Mind |
1.0 |
|
|
South Asian Diasporas |
1.0 |
|
|
Modern Families and Social Inequalities: Private Lives and Public Policies |
1.0 |
|
|
Social Inequality |
1.0 |
|
|
Seminar: Family and Gender Studies |
1.0 |
|
|
Gender, Race, and the Carceral State |
1.0 |
|
|
Feminist Methods |
1.0 |
|
|
Seminar: Crossing the Border(s): Narratives of Transgression |
1.0 |
|
|
The Social Construction of Inequalities: Race, Gender, Class and Sexuality |
1.0 |
|
|
MIT EC. 717 |
D-Lab: Education and Learning |
0.75 |
|
MIT 11.124 |
Introduction to Education: Looking Forward and Looking Back on Education |
0.75 |
|
MIT 11.125 |
Introduction to Education: Understanding and Evaluating Education |
0.75 |
Honors in Education Studies
The only route to honors in the major is writing a thesis and passing an oral defense of the thesis. To be admitted to the thesis program, a student must have a grade point average of at least 3.5 in all work in the major field above the 100 level; the department may petition on the student’s behalf if the student’s GPA in the major is between 3.0 and 3.5. See Academic Distinctions.
Advanced Placement Policy in Education Studies
Students may not count AP credits toward the fulfillment of the education studies major, education studies minor, or teaching and learning studies minor.