This list is a selection of our course offerings. For a complete list of our courses, please visit WesMaps.
EDST 101: Introduction to Education Studies
This seminar will provide a space for newly declared education studies majors and minors to come together to develop as a cohort through learning about each other’s educational backgrounds and scholarly interests. In addition, students will come together as a learning community to learn more about the areas of research…
EDST 140L: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages
This course explores theories and teaching methods related to learning English as a second language (ESL). Students will critically examine current and past “best practices” for teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) and the seminal theories they are based on. In addition, we will discuss the various needs…
EDST 210: Educational Gaming Lab: Project-based, Game-based Pedagogy Approaches
In the past two decades, crowdfunding and renewed interest in games (board games, role-playing games, digital games, and instructional games) have created an increased and diverse gaming production, which has become the subject of several studies, articles, and projects related to all areas of education, from hard sciences to language…
EDST 221: Decolonizing Education
Who determines what is true and worth knowing? How has the construction of knowledge and academic traditions from across the globe been impacted by such phenomena as (post)modernity, (neo)colonialism, and (neo)liberalism? Why do any of the questions above matter to your own personal history, beliefs, and identity? This course will…
EDST 230: Schools in Society
What role have schools played in the evolution of American Society? What role could/should they play, going forward? This course takes a topical approach to these questions. We will explore the relationship between schools, democracy, and social progress; take a close look at race and racism in America’s schools; learn…
EDST 253: Educational Psychology
This course will focus on three major topics and how they relate to current educational policy debates. The first topic will be an examination of the fundamental purpose of school. We will discuss theoretical and empirical perspectives on why schools exist and ways in which school purpose varies by school…
EDST 301: Senior Seminar in Education Studies
The senior seminar will provide a space for seniors in the education studies major, as a learning community, to reflect on and deepen their knowledge and understanding in core areas of education studies. Students will be expected to bring in relevant material from their other courses; to learn and discuss…
EDST 310: Practicum in Education Studies
This seminar is intended to help students develop the skills to learn from experience in educational settings, through rigorous reflection, analysis, scholarly inquiry into educational questions, and action/implementation of new ideas. It is designed for students with previous coursework in education, experience in educational settings, or both. Students will be…
EDST 311: Community Impact Practicum: Building Capacity to Support Educational Enrichment
In this practicum course, students will build an intellectual and practical framework to guide their volunteer work in educational settings in the local community. What does it mean to “help”? How do we assess the needs of community partners and build the knowledge and skills that will allow us to…
EDST 341G: Case Studies in Educational Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship, innovation, and reform are a defining part of the fabric of K-12 education in the US and other places, presenting opportunities and risks. For the first two months of the course, we will be visited each week by one or more experts who have led or studied innovative or…
SOC/FGSS 244: Feminist and Queer Theories of Social Reproduction
This course will introduce students to the study of social reproduction and power with an emphasis on feminist, queer, and transnational approaches to inquiry and action. We will begin by exploring key methodologies and theoretical framings for understanding contemporary “American” cultural, social, and political formations both within and beyond the…
