Education Studies Major
Major Description
The Major in Education Studies (EDST) helps students understand education and its relationship to society. Students will critically analyze educational institutions, practices, and theory—from early childhood through adulthood—using local, national, and global lenses. Foundational courses provide a background in the philosophy, history, and psychology of education, and further study illuminates aspects such as human development and cognition, pedagogy, curriculum design, methodologies, and sociocultural approaches. Rounding out their academic work, students in the major will gain direct insight through a hands-on practicum experience.
Admission to the Major
Students intending to major in Education Studies should submit a major request through their WesPortal. It is best to do this as early as possible so that you can receive emails and updates about the major that will help you with academic planning. Students who will declare at the canonical time (spring of sophomore year) should enroll in EDST105, Foundations of Education Studies, which will be taught in the spring semester every year.
Education Studies is a linked major. It can only be declared and completed in addition to a primary major. There are no restrictions on the choice of a primary major. Students are encouraged to declare the Education Studies Linked Major in the spring of the sophomore year. Late declarations of the Major will be accepted through the spring of the junior year, and students may be admitted to EDST105 as space allows during the drop/add period.
Major Requirements
Students must take a minimum of 10.5 credits plus a practicum experience equivalent to at least .5 credit, for a total of 11 credits. Some courses can count toward different requirements, but students need to choose which requirement is being fulfilled by which course: an individual student cannot use the same course to fulfill multiple requirements toward the Major.
The courses may be completed in any order consistent with their prerequisites.
Students can use the same course to fulfill requirements in two academic programs (for example, a cross-listed course in ITAL and EDST could count toward both the EDST Minor and the ITST Major) if that is acceptable to the other department.
These are the requirements for the Major in Education Studies:
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Cohort Courses | ||
| EDST105 | 1 | |
| EDST301 | Senior Seminar in Education Studies | 1 |
| Foundations Course | 1 | |
| Breadth Requirement | ||
| Category 1: Cognition, Development, & Science of Learning | 1 | |
| Category 2: Social & Structural Analyses of Education | 1 | |
| Category 3: Research Methods & Data Analysis | 1 | |
| Foundations Electives | 3 | |
| Broader Contexts | 1 | |
| Pedagogy | .5 | |
| Practicum | .5 | |
| Total Hours | 11 | |
Course Petitions
Students can petition to substitute a different course to meet any Education Studies requirements by completing this petition form. The petition form asks students to justify the substitution and, for non-Wesleyan courses, to upload a syllabus or other supporting information. Students will be notified if their petition requests are approved. Once approved, they can request the override in their Minor or Major Certification page in WesPortal.
Course Lists and Archive
Courses that have specific prerequisites that must first be completed are indicated with an asterisk.
Cohort Courses
Students must take two courses, one just after declaring the Major and one in the fall of senior year, that will (1) function to build a cohort in the College of Education Studies, (2) help students make sense of the interdisciplinary contributions to Education Studies, and (3) help students understand the faculty, research, and resources in Education Studies at Wesleyan.
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| EDST105 | 1 | |
| EDST301 | Senior Seminar in Education Studies # | 1 |
- !
Gateway course - normally taken in sophomore spring; can be taken junior spring for students who enter the Education Studies Major late.
- #
Taken in the fall of senior year.
Core Course
Students must take one core course in Education Studies that broadly covers the field.
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Core Course | ||
| EDST230 | Schools in Society | 1 |
| PSYC/EDST253 | Educational Psychology | 1 |
| SOC/FGSS244 | Feminist and Queer Theories of Social Reproduction | 1 |
Breadth Courses
Students must take one course in each of three core areas of Education Studies. There are multiple options across the curriculum for each category.
Category 1: Cognition, Development, & Science of Learning
Category 2: Social and Structural Analyses of Education
Category 3: Research Methods & Data Analysis
Elective Courses
Students round out their Education Studies coursework with electives, in any combination of courses in the Foundation or Breadth categories.
Broader Contexts Course
Students take one course that addresses broad theoretical influences on how systems of knowledge or schooling are understood, constructed, transmitted, and changed. This course should sharpen students’ ideas about what is taught, why it is taught, and how it is taught in the current U.S. or other contexts.
Students must take 1 credit in the Broader Context category. There are many courses that will satisfy this requirement.
Pedagogy & Practicum
Students must complete two aspects of a practicum experience: pedagogy and practice.
- Students must take a minimum .5 credit course focused on pedagogy; there are several .5 and 1 credit courses with this focus offered at Wesleyan. Pedagogy courses are listed below.
- Students must also complete a teaching practicum/in-school experience with a minimum of 20 hours of student contact. The practicum experience does not need to be credit-bearing, as long as the 20 hour requirement is met.
- Students can meet both the pedagogy and practicum portions of the requirement separately, or they can meet them with a single 1-credit course (i.e., a service learning course that provides 20 hours of student contact and covers elements of pedagogy). Apart from service-learning courses, many options exist to fulfill the practicum requirement through JCCP programs, summer programs, teaching apprenticeships, and internships while studying abroad. Some ideas are listed below.
- If the practicum experience is something other than one of the approved listed courses listed below, students must submit a petition to get the experience approved in advance. Keep in mind that the experience must be fully documented with at least 20 hours of student contact.
Student Learning Goals
- Understanding the foundations of Education Studies including history, theory, and philosophy of key movements and approaches (e.g., formal and informal education; experiential education; privatization movements; canon; relationship between schools and education)
- Understanding of, and ability to apply, critiques of educational systems, policies, and practices from the lens of equity, opportunity, power, and transformative justice (e.g., civil rights; global education; gender; race; class; and disability)
- Understanding the science and psychology of learning as a framework for examining education
- Understanding of the relationship between culture and education, and between different cultures and their education systems (e.g., multiculturalism and multilingualism; globalization; goals of education within a culture or country; comparative studies of education systems, immigrants’ experiences in unfamiliar systems)
- Understanding education as an art as well as a science or system (developing a practical art of teaching, imagining critical generative interventions and experimental approaches to education including embodied arts practices or relationship making)
- Practice applying one or more methodological approaches to research questions in education (e.g., quantitative and experimental methods; qualitative data collection; archival research; data science and ‘big data’ approaches; historiography; pedagogical research)
- Practice working in and connecting theory to real-world educational settings (e.g., educational practice, advocacy, critique).
Study Abroad
Many study abroad programs are appropriate for Education Studies majors and offer courses that could be used in the service of the major.
The Education Studies homepage maintains a list of study abroad programs that are relevant to Education Studies and that offer courses students could use to fulfill major requirements. Students are encouraged to study abroad if that makes sense for their educational goals, but are not required to do so. Education Studies faculty are supportive of study abroad experience for many reasons, particularly the broad cultural perspective that it affords.
Prizes
Four Education Studies fellowships will be awarded to students each year for faculty-supervised research.
Transfer Credit
Core and Cohort courses must taken at Wesleyan. All other course requirements can be fulfilled with transfer credits. Courses that fit logically into one of the Category 1, 2, or 3 courses will count toward those requirements. Courses that do not fit logically into Category 1, 2, or 3 but cover content relevant to Education Studies will count toward electives. There are no restrictions on how many transfer credits can count toward the major.
The College of Education Studies is pleased to sponsor credit transfer requests for students who have taken Education Studies courses elsewhere. Students who wish to transfer credit in Education Studies courses at other institutions should email the chairs with their request, a completed transfer credit form from the registrar, and a syllabus of the course.
Honors
Following Wesleyan’s guidelines for Departmental Honors, students in Education Studies must meet two requirements to be eligible for Departmental Honors in Education Studies.
- Either a minimum GPA of 85.0 in Education Studies OR endorsement of two Core faculty in Education Studies; and
- Completion of a Thesis that is determined by the thesis advisor and the second reader to meet the standards for honors or high honors.
Students should submit a declaration of interest to the department chair(s) in the spring of their junior year.
Capstone Experience
Students have many opportunities for capstone experiences within the Major: (1) senior Honors Theses; (2) individual and group tutorials supervised by Education Studies faculty; (3) annual fellowships to conduct mentored research in Education Studies; (4) a capstone Senior Seminar to weave together the threads of the interdisciplinary program of study; and (5) internships, fellowships, and practica to try out academic theories in real world settings.