This is the capstone course and culminating experience for the Education Studies minor. Participants should have completed most or all of their Education Studies coursework before enrolling. During the course, students work with a mentor teacher to examine instructional practice and student learning in a classroom setting. Students learn about action research, and develop a study in their school-based classroom, identifying relevant questions, collecting and analyzing data, and developing practical implications.

The central topic of this course is the ways teachers view learning, instruction, classroom organization, and motivation. This course takes a micro-analytical approach focusing on classroom interactions and how a teacher plans for a range of student interests, experiences, strengths, and needs.

This course focuses on the ways in which educators, politicians, and the public view the state of American schools. Broad philosophies of education guide an analysis of schools, which include historical lenses as well as the current literature on classroom reforms. This course contrasts central issues of schooling as seen from the "outside" political domain and the "inside" experience of students. In particular, the course addresses how issues of race and social class as well as economic inequality surround current debates over the best way to improve schools in the 21st century.

The goal of this course is to investigate the actions and ideas of change makers in education, spanning this past century, to venture answers to these overarching course questions:
-What are schools for in our democracy and what does that purpose mean for students and teachers?
-What actions and ideas, on the part of individuals and/or groups, facilitate change in American schools?
-In our labors for just schools and communities, how can we ensure that we leave no one behind?

Teaching reading has never been politically neutral because reading instruction, when it is done well, requires that we read something. Underlying this course is an assumption that the selection of what students read should consider the promotion of American ideals of liberty and justice for everyone. Together students think about the messages children’s and young adult books send and how to select books that promote social justice. Students read children’s and young adult books that include people from different racial groups, and books that open up ideas of gender and sexuality.

The history of legislated and de facto everyday white supremacy in public schooling and social life has created a highly segregated teaching force. Most U.S. teachers are white, middle-class, monolingual females who grew up in predominantly white communities. Teachers of color are dramatically under-represented in the teaching force, and children of color have very limited representations of their racial identity throughout their schooling experience. The central work of this course is to center race as a lens for understanding miseducation in American schooling.

This course is designed to allow individuals interested in schools to develop a greater understanding of economic inequality and to examine what teachers can do to provide the best possible education for students impacted by economic inequality. The course considers how social and educational policies have resulted in schools that are not equally resourced.

Teaching students to read is a fundamental task of teachers in every class and grade level. This course examines the nature of reading and provides an introduction to well balanced reading instruction in grades K-12. Through readings, writing, discussion, and time spent in schools, students are introduced to the nature of reading, how young people learn to read, and instruction that fosters lasting literacy. Successful completion of this course requires a commitment to spend regular time in schools, participating in the teaching of reading or writing.

Schools, and other social institutions strongly influence, impact and police the construction of identity. This course examines the nature of schooling and the socializing power of schools, using gender as its primary lens for analysis and considering how gender interacts with other facets of identity including race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status. Through readings, writing, discussion, and time spent in schools, students examine the hidden and official curriculum schools use to teach about gender identity and norms.