Courses

This course examines the strengths and critiques of various learning theories. As well as examining a variety of individual and sociocultural factors that impact cognitive, socioemotional, identity, and moral development.

This interactive, interdisciplinary course introduces students to key debates in K-12 schooling. Students will consider what schools are for, why we have them, and whether our school system lives up to its stated ideals. Students will scrutinize taken-for-granted practices and rituals that make up school life and ponder alternatives for how we do school. As they trace the evolution of our public schools, students will critically examine their own schooling histories.

This course will introduce students to a comprehensive developmental counseling and guidance program in schools. It will examine the ethical and legal practices, as well as, the current framework that is used to address challenges that students and staff face in today's schools. Students will develop the skills necessary to respond to these challenges in a way that will support academic/social growth, relationship building, and college/career readiness while promoting a positive school environment.

This course will examine the literacy development of middle and high school students. Students will explore a range of factors that influence the acquisition of literacy skills. Topics such as reading motivation, disciplinary literacy, diversity in student reading profiles, and equitable and inclusive literacy instruction will be explored.

This course examines the complexities and promises of fostering home-school partnerships. We will begin by examining who is considered a "good parent" and interrogate the universality of various ideals. We will problematize the kinds of parental involvement that schools reward and those that often go unnoticed, particularly within the context of race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. We will unpack a wide range of current topics regarding the distribution of power between families and educators in schools.

This course will examine the literature and law as it relates to special education and inclusion grades 5-12. This course focuses on best practices for teaching and learning in inclusive settings.

This interactive, interdisciplinary course introduces students to urban schools distinctive complexities, challenges, and possibilities. Students will develop nuanced understandings of the urban context and what this context means for students, teachers, families, and schools. Bringing this investigation to life, students will visit a range of urban school models in Worcester. Finally, students will explore existing urban school reforms and design improvement plans of their own.

This course will utilize readings, as well as film and television portrayals in order to examine and explore schooling in the United States. Some of the questions that will be addressed are:How does the media portray schools and those that learn and live within them?Whose stories are being told?What are educational best practices and how do they intersect with media portrayals?What are the impacts of tv and film school portraits on individuals, schools, communities?

Critical Race Theory (CRT) emerged through critical legal studies as a way of explaining racial disparities and systemic inequities. This course explores how Critical Race Theory informs our understanding of systemic inequities in American educational history and institutions. How do educators, institutional stakeholders, and communities advance anti-racist policies and practices? Students will address histories of colonialism, racism, power, privilege, and oppression while engaging counter narratives, lived experience, and spaces of resistance. Through critical dialogue and reflection this course examines complex values, systems, and inequities impacting American educational systems.

Students examine and demonstrate various teaching methods. Students will pursue questions concerning the middle and secondary school curriculum, discipline and motivation, and instructional materials. Secondary and middle school goals and principles are also examined. Methodological and curricular questions specific to the discipline will be illustrated and discussed. Includes a field-based experience.

A 30-hour, on-site period of observation and work in the public schools along with a weekly, one hour meeting with the Pre-Practicum instructor to debrief observations and prepare for full-time student teaching.

This course focuses on current theories and their applications related to the teaching and learning of English Learners (ELs). It will expand students' knowledge of how language functions within academic content teaching and learning, and how children and adolescents acquire a second language. Throughout the course, effective research-based strategies for teaching English Learners will be modeled. Teacher Education Program (TEP) students who complete this course will qualify for a Sheltered English Immersion (SEI) Endorsement.

A full-time practicum experience of supervised teaching in the high school, middle school, or upper elementary school. Open only to TEP students. This course fulfills the capstone requirement for the Education minor.

A seminar to accompany the Education 320 Practicum. Addresses issues arising in the practicum experience, as well as current topics in education in order to meet the professional standards for teachers. Open only to TEP students.

This course examines the political, philosophical, and pedagogical foundations of multicultural education. Through the analysis of sociocultural and sociopolitical variables such as race, ethnicity, language, gender and social class the course addresses issues of inequality in structures, policies, and practices in schools.

This interactive, workshop-style seminar introduces students to uses, possibilities, and dilemmas of qualitative research methods in education. Carrying out self-designed, semester-long research projects of college life with Holy Cross as their research site, students will gain practice conducting interviews, observations, and document analyses as well as analyzing, writing up, and presenting their findings. In the process, students will become critical consumers of qualitative research and careful researchers of college life. Topic varies per year.

This capstone seminar is designed for education minors at the end of their minor. Students apply and integrate their knowledge from previous coursework. The seminar will be organized through an essential question and topic. Previous topics have included: educational policy, adjusting to COVID, and student mental health and socioemotional learning. This course fulfills the capstone requirement for the Education minor.

Tutorial projects designed by students and faculty members. Admission determined by evaluation proposal.

Students may undertake an independent research project under the direction of a faculty member. Permission required.

How authority over the school system is and should be shared via a system of school governance is a vital question in a democracy. Importantly, this isnt just a question about bureaucratic efficiency or test score trends. Rather, questions of school governance are at their heart questions about whose claims deserve being heard and how power is shared. In the words of political scientist Joseph Viteritti, school governance appropriates power, authority, and access, and it apportions these precious political commodities among those who govern and those who are governed. Answering these questions well requires both careful research on how different policies shape educational outcomes as well as ethical reflection and discussion among citizens about what we value. Notably, there have been significant shifts in the policies regulating school governance in the US over the past few decades. From increased federal and state oversight of schools to the adoption of mayoral control over local school boards, authority has over schooling has been significantly redistributed among key education stakeholders. In this module, we will focus our attention on the shifting landscape of educational governance in the US and work to understand the key values and principles at stake in these policy debates. Through readings in philosophy and political science, case study discussions, and simulations, students will: (1) learn the shifting landscape of school governance in the US; (2) come to understand a set of philosophical concepts and frameworks for evaluating normative questions in education policy; and (3) develop in their ability to engage in the ethical analysis of education policy. The work well do together in this course will be guided by three essential questions: (1) What are the relationships between different education stakeholders now? And how have those relationships evolved over time? (2) How do we balance the value of democratic control of schools with other key values realized through schooling? (3) How should authority over schools be shared?