Class Schedules

Course DescriptionEDUC 194 (will become EDUC 180) - Education & Society: The Philosophies, Politics, and Cultures of Learning! This is an introductory survey course that explores the discipline of Educational Studies as a humanistic endeavor across time and geography. In this course you will engage with multiple, and sometimes contradictory, philosophical perspectives about the purpose of education in a given society. You will have the opportunity to learn from all of the Educational Studies faculty members who each approach the discipline through distinct, yet overlapping, traditions, as well as guest speakers and practitioners. By the end of the course you should have a strong foundation through which to engage with Educational Studies as an academic discipline and an applied field of study and practice. The course will engage with formal, non-formal, and informal educational contexts through historical, sociological, and psychological lenses. Some of the core concepts that will be covered include:1) The evolution of educational theory; 2) A comparative analysis of educational philosophies and theories;3) An interrogation of the difference between schooling and education;4) Case studies of the impact of politics on educational theory and practice;5) The symbiotic relationship between ethics and education.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

An introduction to theory and research in educational psychology. Topics include learning theory, learner characteristics, intelligence, creativity, motivation, measurement and evaluation, and models of teaching appropriate for diverse learners from early childhood through young adulthood. Students are required to complete observations in classroom settings.

General Education Requirements:
Quantitative Thinking Q1

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This survey course will explore history, policy, and pedagogy as they relate to race, ethnicity, and culture as education. K-12 public education will be the primary focus with topics including desegregation, standardized testing, multi-cultural and ethnocentric pedagogy, the teacher's role and experience, and significant historical events in education. The course will culminate by analyzing current trends and future expectations in education.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course explores the peril and promise of urban public education. Critical issues to be explored range from poverty and economic inequality, to challenges faced by recent immigrants and historically oppressed populations, to religious and political intolerance, to bullying and school violence, to school bureaucracy, administration and governance, to teacher unions and professional ethics, to urban education reform initiatives promoted by corporations, think tanks and foundations in contrast to those emerging in response to teacher/parent/student/community activism.

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

The displacement of people across cultures and borders have specific and complex implications for education as a global project of social justice and equity. Understanding these as an intersectional network necessarily deepens our knowledge and skill as global educators. Using a critical historical comparative, international lens, this course seeks to explore the phenomenon of migration as a timely and critical educational space at the crossroads of globalization. Using Appadurai’s work on global ‘ethnoscapes’and ‘ideoscapes’, foundational texts on diaspora education practice, and the voices and stories of immigrant/refugee experience in educational spaces, this course seeks to explore the practice of education as a global flow that is dynamic and changeable, and as an archive of resistance and resilience frameworks. In this course students will write their own stories of being placed and displaced, and will connect with immigrant and refugee communities in the Twin Cities.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

Drawing from activist-scholar Teresia Teaiwa's concept of s/pacific to honor the specificities of Pacific Islander experiences, this course will explore various social movements across the Pacific region. Students will examine how Pacific Indigenous movements challenge colonialism, militarism, and environmental degradation through texts including scholarly work, oral histories, documentary films, and creative expressions. Focusing on the Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific, Mau Movement, Polynesian Panthers movement, and the 350 Pacific, the course will analyze the role of community education, language revitalization efforts, and activist pedagogies in shaping political and cultural change. An emphasis will be placed on Indigenous epistemologies, land-based learning, and the mobilization of education in pursuit of sovereignty.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

No other social welfare institution in the United States (U.S.) is associated more with culture transmission, citizenship, and notions of public than its education system. It is the only social welfare institution in the U.S. that is compulsory from childhood to young adulthood. However, despite the educational system being so much of our lives, it is also the one we know the least about historically. This course will look at the history of public schooling in the U.S. from its pre-European colonial origins to the present day. We will look at the ways in which notions of culture, citizenship, and the very idea of what it means to be "American" have been discussed, debated, contested, and institutionalized in what is viewed as "our most precious institution."

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course presents an overview of world language pedagogical methods and provides a forum for discussion on current trends and thinking in second language acquisition. Students who are curious about teaching a world language are given opportunities to observe world language educators as well as teach mini-lessons at Macalester College. Course taught in English and open to world language students having attained an intermediate level in the target language.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

In this seminar, we will study across genres and knowledge traditions to consider gender in and through captivity stories. Specifically, we will study in response to ongoing anti-colonial calls to exceed frameworks of: Indigeneity as reducible to subject of settler colonial studies (J. Kēhaulani Kauanui); carcerality as coterminous with prison (Ruth Wilson Gilmore); and resistance as featured solely by oppositional entanglement with empire (Cedric Robinson). How might we learn through capacious global Indigenous analytics, carcerality as a vast societal and ideological organizing colonial force, and refusal, resurgence, and self-determination as abundant epistemic and ontologic praxes beyond and outside the narrow dichotomies of empire? How does a global attention to captivity guide a political, intellectual struggle over and through colonial gender and gendering?

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

This senior capstone course explores the question: How can we educate to promote change toward more just, compassionate, and sustainable approaches to living and learning in a rapidly changing and increasingly complex world? We will consider contemporary barriers to and opportunities for systemic education reform and social transformation on local, national and international levels. We will then work both individually and collectively, on campus and in the community, to analyze specific social issues and reform strategies in addition to conceptualizing plans for principled social action. Prerequisite(s): Permission of department chair.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This is an introductory survey course that explores the discipline of Educational Studies as a humanistic endeavor across time and geography. In this course you will engage with multiple, and sometimes contradictory, philosophical perspectives about the purpose of education in a given society. You will have the opportunity to learn from all of the Educational Studies faculty members who each approach the discipline through distinct, yet overlapping, traditions. By the end of the course you should have a strong foundation through which to engage with Educational Studies as an academic discipline and an applied field of study and practice. The course will engage with formal, non-formal, and informal educational contexts through historical, sociological, and psychological lenses.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This class invites you to reflect on your relationship to water, saltwater, and their protectors. Centered on two texts, Cooling the Tropics by Hi‘ilei Hobart and Theory of Water by Leanne Simpson, our class will explore theories of ice and water, and their implications for everyday living. Alongside these main texts, the course includes scholarship, storytelling, and community voices that help explore questions like who and where is moana? And why does knowing moana matter in our current times and for the times ahead?

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course examines the role of Education as global phenomena. The course encompasses a comparative view of education around the world, as well as its role in International Development. We take it further, by analysis and critique, to understand education as a force for change in an inter-dependent, globalized world. Specifically, we will examine ways in which policies and practice either enhance or diminish efforts towards change that is inclusive, just, sustainable and effective in relieveing suffering, while expanding potential and capacity in those affected by social change. We take the position that, in order to be effective, building trust becomes a key to connectivity between people, groups, organizations and ideas where education, development and change are theorized and practiced. We will construct possible education frameworks around the idea of building trust, by analyzing socio-cultural issues of power, voice, silence, and discourse. (4 credits)

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course provides an introduction to outdoor education as an opportunity to promote social justice and environmental sustainability in a globalized world. Informed by relevant philosophical, psychological, cultural and political-economic frameworks, in addition to critical issues in public education policy and practice, we will explore interdisciplinary approaches to outdoor environmental education appropriate for students across the K-12 continuum. We will utilize the Katharine Ordway Natural History Study Area (Ordway Field Station) as an outdoor classroom and will adapt curriculum from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and other outdoor education organizations to assist elementary school teachers and students in fulfilling Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards. Early in the semester, all students will participate in a weekend retreat at the Ordway Field Station. Weekly lab sessions will include field days during which course members design and implement educational experiences for elementary school children at Ordway, small group work days for preparing field day lesson plans, trips to local outdoor environmental education sites within the Twin Cities, and other experiential learning opportunities. Weekly seminar sessions incorporating readings, reflective writing, and individual and small group projects complement the experiential aspects of the course. As the semester progresses, each course member will develop a curricular unit aimed at teaching an important environmental issue to diverse adolescents attending urban public schools. The curricular unit is a significant undertaking that provides students with the opportunity to synthesize all aspects of the course material in a creative, pragmatic and integrative manner.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course provides an introduction to outdoor education as an opportunity to promote social justice and environmental sustainability in a globalized world. Informed by relevant philosophical, psychological, cultural and political-economic frameworks, in addition to critical issues in public education policy and practice, we will explore interdisciplinary approaches to outdoor environmental education appropriate for students across the K-12 continuum. We will utilize the Katharine Ordway Natural History Study Area (Ordway Field Station) as an outdoor classroom and will adapt curriculum from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and other outdoor education organizations to assist elementary school teachers and students in fulfilling Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards. Early in the semester, all students will participate in a weekend retreat at the Ordway Field Station. Weekly lab sessions will include field days during which course members design and implement educational experiences for elementary school children at Ordway, small group work days for preparing field day lesson plans, trips to local outdoor environmental education sites within the Twin Cities, and other experiential learning opportunities. Weekly seminar sessions incorporating readings, reflective writing, and individual and small group projects complement the experiential aspects of the course. As the semester progresses, each course member will develop a curricular unit aimed at teaching an important environmental issue to diverse adolescents attending urban public schools. The curricular unit is a significant undertaking that provides students with the opportunity to synthesize all aspects of the course material in a creative, pragmatic and integrative manner.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

Black and Latinx Educational Histories and Voices will examine the historical, cultural, political, and socio-economic factors that shape the schooling experiences of our two largest minority populations: Black (including African Americans, West Indians, African immigrants), and Latinx/Afro-Latinx communities. In terms of educational policy discourse such as desegregation, bilingual education, and affirmative action measures almost no other groups have been discussed together than Black and Latinx students. Black and Latinx students are increasingly resegregated together in our urban schools and have been over-named groups in school accountability measures such as No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top. This course looks at the shared, threaded, and disconnected histories of Black, Latinx, and Afro-Latinx experiences in U.S. schools. Examination of the tensions, historical parallels, and historical discontinuities between said groups will contribute to a deeper understanding of the contemporary educational landscape and the very purpose of U.S. public schooling.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course is designed to be an introduction to the broad field of natural resource interpretation. This is an action-focused class meant for students interested in building skills related to group facilitation, communication, performing interpretive talks and walks focused upon cultural and natural resources, developing interpretive displays/messaging, and designing interpretive programs for a variety of audiences. The class will also cover the theories, values, and outcomes affiliated with providing group problem solving and interpretive experiences. Students will be introduced to Freeman Tilden’s 6 principles of interpretation and visit state interpretive sites and outdoor education centers to observe how practitioners in the field use Tilden’s principles to guide their work. There will be no quizzes or written exams in this course. Instead, students will be required to demonstrate their understanding of course material through homework assignments, in class activities, and through designing and implementing their own interpretive programs.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

This course introduces students to cross-cultural collaboration and community engagement in educational settings. Students explore how communities build belonging, connection, and shared meaning across differences. The course takes a project-based and strength-based approach. Students will reflect on their strengths - teaching, communication, language, artistic, technical, or organizational - including insights from the CliftonStrengths assessment, and apply them to a real-world project.In Fall 2026, students will partner with the American Russian Center, a non-profit serving diverse and multiethnic Russian-speaking communities in the Twin Cities, including Russians, Ukrainians, Kazakhs, Jews, Uzbeks, and others from across the post-Soviet space. Through this partnership, students will design and implement projects such as creating language activity kits, facilitating an intergenerational learning event, designing a family literacy night, and more.This unique course bridges academic studies and community engagement while building skills in teamwork, communication, and project design. Open to all students; no knowledge of Russian is required.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This advanced research seminar explores the politics and policy of K-12 education in the United States. Several theoretical lenses are explored and competing perspectives are advanced. The workload will be intense, akin to a graduate level course. Students will compose a 20-25 page original research paper on an education topics of their choice. Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing; previous coursework in American politics or public policy as well as research methods is recommended.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course provides opportunities for students to engage with research methods that promote inclusive, egalitarian, exploratory social inquiry aimed at enriching the quality of learning and life in schools and civic spaces. Pedagogical in addition to formal research applications are addressed, as are implications for development and change on personal to organizational to societal levels. Ethical dimensions of engaging children and youth, in schools and community settings, as research participants and as researchers, are also carefully considered.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

Have you ever been asked to design a class or a workshop? What kinds of educational environments lend themselves to deep learning and intrinsic motivation? In this class we will explore the concepts and techniques of dynamic curriculum design that extend beyond just thinking of fun activities to do. Interdisciplinary Curriculum Design Lab is for students from any major who are interested in creating learning environments for classrooms, political organizations, religious spaces, social clubs, professional settings, or other formal and non-formal contexts. We will explore curriculum theory, learning psychology, arts-integration, assessment design, and cultural sustainability through education. We will experiment with a variety of curricular models, practice teaching, and engage in peer and self-assessment. This course is ideal for students who are actively involved in curriculum design in real world contexts. There will be opportunities to be placed in local schools and community programs as part of the course. Instructor permission is required to register.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This senior capstone course explores the question: How can we educate to promote change toward more just, compassionate, and sustainable approaches to living and learning in a rapidly changing and increasingly complex world? We will consider contemporary barriers to and opportunities for systemic education reform and social transformation on local, national and international levels. We will then work both individually and collectively, on campus and in the community, to analyze specific social issues and reform strategies in addition to conceptualizing plans for principled social action. Prerequisite(s): Permission of department chair.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials