Education Studies Minor

Students in the education studies minor study education as a multidimensional and interdisciplinary area of study. Across courses in the minor program, students have an opportunity to understand the social, political, historical, and cultural contexts that have shaped schooling practices and educational experiences. Students explore the competing tensions and inherent challenges within educational environments and develop a clear analysis of the role of equity, diversity, and access.

Requirements for the Education Studies Minor

The education studies minor consists of five courses across three dimensions:

  1. Students will take at least one of the following education core courses: EDUC 120, EDUC 214, or EDUC 215.
  2. Students will choose four additional courses from the Education Research and Theory course list. Students may, in consultation with their advisor, select courses that reflect an area of concentration.
  3. Within the five-course minor program, students must take at least one 300-level education course from the Education Research and Theory course list.

Upon consultation with their advisor, students may substitute one of the required courses from the Education Research and Theory list with a course in the Curriculum and Teaching Courses list or the Education Electives list. No more than one 100-level course (beyond EDUC 120) may be included in the minor.

Note: Not all of these courses are offered every year; some may be limited to majors in these fields.

Teaching and Learning Studies Minor

The teaching and learning studies minor centers on understanding students’ processes of learning and development and on exploring the work of teaching, including creating and enacting school curriculum. Its underlying values are: relating to students, their cultures, and their communities with appreciation and care, acting to promote democracy and justice, and interweaving academic teaching with the growth and development of young people.

Students may choose to prepare themselves for the teaching profession, one of the most rewarding and challenging of all professions, in collaboration with other talented, dedicated Wellesley students. Fieldwork, a part of most courses for the minor, will facilitate engagement with the many dimensions of teaching and work with students and will encourage learning through continual reflection and discussion.

Requirements for the teaching and learning studies minor

The requirements below allow students to chart a meaningful path. Faculty are available to support students through all stages of planning and decision-making.

The teaching and learning studies minor consists of five courses across two dimensions chosen from the following:

  1. Students will take one to three of the following courses, which provide grounding for the study of education: WRIT 114, EDUC 110, EDUC 116, EDUC 117, EDUC 120, EDUC 200, EDUC 201, EDUC 213, EDUC 214, EDUC 215, EDUC 216, EDUC 234, EDUC 236, EDUC 245, EDUC 313, EDUC 334, EDUC 335, PSYC 248, PSYC 321, MIT 11.124, MIT 11.125 or other approved course;
  2. Students will take two to four of the following courses in the critically-understood practice of teaching: EDUC 200, EDUC 201, EDUC 234, EDUC 300, EDUC 339, EDUC 303, EDUC 322, EDUC 325, or PSYC 207 (or PSYC 208). Students who have taken earlier courses that are no longer offered (EDUC 304, EDUC 305, EDUC 310, EDUC 314) may include those courses within this dimension of the minor.