Pennsylvania State University-Penn State Fayette- Eberly · Courses
EDTHP
65 courses with the subject EDTHP, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
EDTHP 115Education in American Society3
This course introduces students to the historical, political, philosophical, and sociological forces that have shaped the course of schooling in the United States. Through a semester-long analysis of a range of educational policies, practices, reforms, and developments, students will develop a stronger knowledge of American schooling and strengthen their skills in finding, interpreting, and presenting evidence in such a way so as to inform and guide both teaching and policy making.
EDTHP 115ACompeting Rights: Issues in American Education3
An examination of educational issues relevant to democratic citizenship; emphasis is on understanding the relationship among politics, schools, and society. EDTHP 115A Competing Rights: Issues in American Education (3) (GS;US)(BA) This course meets the Bachelor of Arts degree requirements.This course offers students a chance to practice solving skills necessary for active and responsible citizenship. Because the course requires students to engage in detailed analysis of contested issues, students will: acquire information about the history and governance of public schools; develop an understanding of ideologies underlying existing schools and proposed reforms; and, as a result, be better equipped to make informed choices as voters. Major topics include curriculum design; school accountability; education of minority populations; the conflict between students' rights and the need of a school to maintain order; and the teaching of values. The course will require extensive reading, discussion (in-class and/or on-line), writing, and field research, to include such activities as interviewing teachers and politicians, or attending a school board meeting. Readings may include editorials, proposed legislation, court decisions, chapters from texts, essays and scholarly articles, and material from web sites of interested organizations (such as the National Education Association, the Christian Coalition, or the American Civil Liberties Union). After readings, analysis and discussion, students will prepare and defend a position on each issue, either individually or in groups, formally or informally, in speech or in writing. Students will be graded on their ability to support a particular stance with credible evidence, and on their ability to articulate the ideology underpinning a stance. Therefore, the ability to identify credibility of sources is inherent to success in the course. In general, this course draws upon concepts and information from history, political science, economics and philosophy as well as from education. As a General Education course, it seeks to help students broaden their perspective on social issues; to offer them practice in informed decision-making; and to understand and accept the responsibilities of active citizenship. The course might be particularly useful to social science majors because it will reveal interdisciplinary connections, while it will also be useful to the wider student body as a form of civic education.
EDTHP 115SCompeting Rights: Issues in American Education3
An examination of educational issues relevant to democratic citizenship; emphasis is on understanding the relationship among politics, schools, and society. EDTHP 115S Competing Rights: Issues in American Education (3) (GS;US)(BA) FYS This course meets the Bachelor of Arts degree requirements. This course offers students a chance to practice solving skills necessary for active and responsible citizenship. Because the course requires students to engage in detailed analysis of contested issues, students will: acquire information about the history and governance of public schools; develop an understanding of ideologies underlying existing schools and proposed reforms; and, as a result, be better equipped to make informed choices as voters. Major topics include curriculum design; school accountability; education of minority populations; the conflict between students' rights and the need of a school to maintain order; and the teaching of values. The course will require extensive reading, discussion (in-class and/or on-line), writing, and field research, to include such activities as interviewing teachers and politicians, or attending a school board meeting. Readings may include editorials, proposed legislation, court decisions, chapters from texts, essays and scholarly articles, and material from web sites of interested organizations (such as the National Education Association, the Christian Coalition, or the American Civil Liberties Union). After readings, analysis and discussion, students will prepare and defend a position on each issue, either individually or in groups, formally or informally, in speech or in writing. Students will be graded on their ability to support a particular stance with credible evidence, and on their ability to articulate the ideology underpinning a stance. Therefore, the ability to identify credibility of sources is inherent to success in the course. In general, this course draws upon concepts and information from history, political science, economics and philosophy as well as from education. As a General Education course, it seeks to help students broaden their perspective on social issues; to offer them practice in informed decision-making; and to understand and accept the responsibilities of active citizenship. The course might be particularly useful to social science majors because it will reveal interdisciplinary connections, while it will also be useful to the wider student body as a form of civic education.
This course uses an interdisciplinary approach to explore the policies and reforms that shape the nation's largest social institution: public schools. This course is designed for students interested in understanding broad issues in public policy and in exploring fundamental questions about the United States through the lens of public educational institutions. Drawing from multiple social science disciplines, the course analyzes how ideologies, institutions, and social groups have interacted to shape formal schooling. Both past and present school reforms are used to interpret the relations of schools to historic changes in legal norms, the distribution of power and resources in public institutions, and the access of different social groups to leadership and leverage in the political process of American society. The course has no prerequisites. The lectures, discussions, readings, and projects are designed for students interested in studying public policy and are intended to lead to informed interpretation of educational policy dilemmas.
This course examines the space within which parents, children and schools interact. We will look in depth and breadth at economic, social, cultural, and emotional factors that shape these relationships. Sociological perspective will be applied to examine children's and parents' experiences with schooling within the context of time and place. The course will cover a variety of topics, including parenting in historical perspective, social class differences in parental practices, race/ethnicity and education, education of immigrant children, school discipline, and others.
Intensive survey of contemporary leadership theory joined with practice, team-building skills, policy formation and influence, and service leadership. EDTHP 234H Honors Leadership Jumpstart (3) This is an intensive honors course for incoming First-Year students in the Schreyer Honors College with an interest in leadership. It provides introductory skills, perspective and background to prepare for and participate in a variety of leadership roles at Penn State and in the university community. Contemporary leadership theory joined with increasingly complex practice situations will be introduced. Content matter will include personal assessments, team building skills, organizational leadership, collaborative leadership, civics and diversity, policy formation and influence, and lessons about service learning and public scholarship. Considerable reading, writing, and discussion, as well as a first-year orientation project and a semester-long team service project will be required.
EDTHP 394Professional Development in Education and Public Policy3
This course develops professional skills and opportunities to prepare students for field placement and future employment or study. It focuses on the development of personal understanding of educational policy in a wide range of governmental, private, and civic organization with interest in educational policy, broadly defined. Students are provided opportunities to discover their policy interests, develop their professional communication and research skills, and advance their career planning.
EDTHP 395Real-World Policy Experience: Field Placement3
This course structures a summer field experience, research project, and service in an off-site educational policy organization or a university-based policy or research center. EDTHP 395 Field Experience in Education and Public Policy (3)This course structures a summer semester field placement for EPP majors in a non-profit, governmental, or civic organization with an educational policy component. Students gain hands-on, real-world experience implementing their Field Experience Plan (created in EDTHP 394) while serving internships in regional and national settings. Student-directed Field Placement Plans include identification of a policy issue relevant to the placement, implementation, evaluation, and analysis and can apply to broad topics such as diversity, multiculturalism, social justice, and educational equity in rural, suburban, and urban settings.
Origins, nature, scope, basic literature, and methodology of comparative education. Study of sample topics. CI ED 401 CI ED (EDTHP) 401 Introduction to Comparative and International Education (3) (IL) The course introduces undergraduate students to global issues in education and provides a survey of schooling practices used in various educational systems around the world. Students will have the chance to create an individual research project that will allow them to explore one country and one global educational issues in depth. Students are required to attend all classes, participate in the discussion sections, and take notes on the films shown. These films play an integral part in the course and provide students with views into classrooms and schools around the world. Students will also have access to international databases and be expected to make use of these databases in developing their projects. Finally, in-class discussions will focus on how comparative educational studies have been used by politicians to influence educational reform around the world.In this course, we will survey the state of public education in the world today. Each student will focus on one nation and provide a synopsis of educational practice in that nation. We will then move on to focus on global or cross-national issues such as how competition between "core" nations like Singapore and the U.S. drives reform (GOALS 2000 or No Child Left Behind). Other issues will include power differences between north and south, education for democracy, barriers to girls and women's education in developing nations, as well as education and national identity.
This course examines the global impact of education on human rights, health, economic development, political mobilization, religion, and environmental sustainability. The education revolution has significantly changed the world's population from one largely unschooled to one mostly schooled in just the last 150 years, yet the full impact of this major transformation is only now emerging through social science research. The course will explore, at both the individual and societal levels, how education changes many dimensions of global society in both positive and negative ways. It also focuses on the use and misuse of educational programs in social and economic development worldwide through Non-Government Organizations (NGO's), national governments, and multinational agencies.
Focus on the development and analysis of education policy, and policy's influence on schools. EDTHP 420 Education and Public Policy (3) This course examines the inherently political process in which educational policies are developed and implemented. It also considers how these formal policies interact with the practice of teaching and learning in U.S. schools. In this course, students will be expected to actively participate in classroom discusses and activities as we examine the development of policies and their implementation, with a focus on understanding pressing policy dilemmas in education today. Course evaluation includes quizzes, a midterm paper analyzing a policy issue, and a series of final exam essays.
EDTHP 426Economic Foundations of Education Policy3
This course is designed for undergraduate students interested in understanding the economic dimensions of education. Students will be shown how to apply economic models to fundamental questions of education policy. Concepts and principles such as returns to education, education production function, market failure in education, signaling model of education, and externalities of education will be introduced with a specific eye towards the application of those concepts to real world education policy issues. The concepts and methods of analysis addressed in this class would enable you to assess the validity of the arguments put forth by economists and education policy makers in various situations and hopefully make you a more discerning consumer of news and education policy topics. The main goals of the course are to (1) introduce students to the theoretical frameworks and empirical methods used by economists to understand and analyze core questions and problems in education; and (2) To teach students how to apply economic concepts, modes of analysis, and methods to analyze real-world education policy issues affecting the United States.
This course explores the concept of intelligence and its assessment from historical, psychological, educational and policy perspectives. EDTHP 427 Intelligence and Education Policy (3) In this course, we will focus on two main content areas. First, we'll explore the concept of intelligence and its assessment from historical, psychological, educational, and policy perspectives: What does intelligence look like in different cultures and at different points in history? What forces help to shape conceptions of intelligence? Second, we will consider the ways in which conceptions of intelligence influence students' opportunities to learn. For example, how are students assigned to higher-level or remedial classes and on what bases should admission to elite educational programs be allocated? What policies govern such decisions? The study of intelligence has been a controversial one. This course will touch on several controversies associated with the topic, including the "nature/nurture" debate and the "merit/affirmative action" debate. Readings and discussion will draw on opposing sides of these issues.
The United States is in the midst of a demographic transformation and by the middle of the 21st century, demographic projections suggest no one racial group will constitute a majority in the U.S. More than half of children under 5 are children of color, and the nation's K-12 public schools are also serving a majority of minoritized children. At the beginning of the 21st century, economic inequality grew, as well. Policies and laws that had been implemented to expand access to educational opportunity during the civil rights movement have been curtailed as a result of legal and political pushback. Yet, communities, educators, advocates and leaders continue to push for new strategies to fully realize protecting the civil rights of all students in the U.S. This course will help students examine the history of efforts to adopt policies and laws to advance civil rights in education as well as resistance to them.
EDTHP 434Honors Teaching Experience in Leadership Jumpstart1
Guided instruction and practical experience for teaching assistants to the Honors Leadership Jumpstart course (EDTHP 234H). EDTHP 434H Honors Teaching Experience in Leadership Jumpstart (1) This course trains and supports the teaching assistants (TAs) who work with the first-year students in the Leadership Jumpstart course (EDTHP 234H). The TAs help guide the first-year students through their course by assisting in the design, implementation, and evaluation of the course and the student projects, providing feedback for what worked and what did not work, and providing important perspective from when they were first-year students. The TAs are expected to be a role model, assist in the instruction of the course, assist in the functional elements of the course, be a confidant/mentor to new students, and occasionally serve as an evaluator of students' work. The TAs' grades will be based on attendance at all class sessions and interactive assistance and leadership during the EDTHP 234H course and on the TA's reflections on the course, its effectiveness to achieve the objectives, and possible improvements.
Introduction to the examination of educational theory and practice from philosophical perspectives, classical and contemporary. CI ED 440 CI ED (EDTHP) 440 Introduction to Philosophy of Education (3) The major objective of EDTHP (CI ED) 440, Introduction to Philosophy of Education, is to broaden and deepen the students' understanding of the nature of education. Such a study involves exploring the ends as well as the means of education. It includes both an examination of some of the distinctive or defining characteristics of "educated persons" as well as the different elements of the learning experience (including curricula, pedagogies, and evaluative processes) that encourage the development of such persons. As part of developing an understanding of the educational enterprise, this course will introduce students to some of the important ideas and theories that comprise the rich tradition of educational philosophy. In the design of a course of this nature with constraints established by space, time, and the background of the student, it is necessary to confront the task of making judicious selections from the vast literary wealth accumulated over the centuries. In doing so, the decision made has been to focus primarily on the literary contributions of western philosophers of education. In the interest of making the sample varied and interesting, however, an effort has been made to include writings of some philosophers of education from different cultural contexts. The educational thoughts of A.S. Neill, John Dewey, Eliot Wigginton, Maxine Greene, Paolo Freire, Mohandas Karamchand Ganddhi, David Orr, Ivan Illich, and Wendell Berry, among others, will be explored in this class. The exposure to diverse, rich, and provocative ideas of the educators included for study here will, it is hoped, stimulate students to re-examine and further develop their own philosophy of education into a more comprehensive, coherent, and consistent one.
EDTHP 492Identities, Power and Perceptual Pedagogies in Teaching and Learning3
Students will perform inquires into the intersections of identities, power, and pedagogical formations in relation to urban teaching/learning contexts. AFAM 492 / CI 492 / EDTHP 492 Identities, Power and Perceptual Pedagogies in Teaching and Learning (3) In this course, students will take part in inquiries into the intersections of identities, power, and perceptual pedagogies, particularly as these phenomena pertain to methods of teaching and learning in urban contexts. To develop new knowledge and analytic skills, students will be introduced to perceptual and conceptual frameworks that assist deep engagements with youth- and teacher-centered case studies. These cases will depict actual lived experiences among racially and economically diverse students and teachers in urban contexts.
Education is one of the most important factors affecting major demographic shifts and processes worldwide, including the first and second demographic transitions. If, as the old sociological adage goes "demography is destiny," then our destiny is educationally transformed demography. Interdisciplinary research across demography, sociology, neuropsychology, and epidemiology is developing a strong research literature about how the thinking style, behavior, and attitudes of the educated human radically change fundamental dynamics underlying the world's population. The whole way in which we come to our jobs, spouses, and lifestyles; how many children we have and how we raise them; how long we are likely to live, and what will be our eventual demise are all heavily influenced by how much education we have had. The collective force of widespread education and its influence on rising cognitive abilities, scripts for living, and economic well-being are creating a distinctly new type of human population with major benefits and future challenges for a sustainable human population. At the same time, individuals' schooling is also influenced by demographic change. This seminar covers key concepts, theories, and methodological issues related to the intersection of demographical and cultural changes from the education revolution and their impact on subsequent demographic processes.
The interaction between educational theory and social structure, focusing on the role of practicing intellectuals in contemporary institutional settings.
EDTHP 520Perspectives on Contemporary School Reform3
Examination of contemporary U.S. school reform, with a focus on contrasting theoretical perspectives and the application of policy analysis principles. EDTHP 520 Perspectives on Contemporary School Reform (3) This course examines contemporary U.S. school reform, with several purposes, with a focus on contrasting theoretical perspectives and the application of policy analysis principles. It consists of the following objectives:1. To gain an appreciation of how school reforms develop, including the rationale behind them and how visions of school change become mediated by social and political contexts as they become policy. 2. To analyze what produces continuity and change in schools and classrooms, including why some reforms persist, why some fade, and why some recur. 3. To gain an understanding that the implementation of school reform is a product of the interaction between the larger context (social, economic, political, ideological, and environmental factors), the character of schools as institutions, and the actions of groups and individuals. 4. To gain and strengthen skills in analyzing a policy argument, its assumptions, and use of evidence in order to construct a coherent and compelling policy analysis of a school reform on your own.The course is an advanced seminar with approximately 15 students enrolled. The course will be offered once in every two-year (4 semester) cycle. Course evaluation includes policy analysis exercises, weekly written responses to readings, responsibility for leading the seminar, and a cumulative research paper examining and analyzing a school reform. Attendance and participation also are part of the course evaluation.
This course bridges theoretical statistics coursework and practical research with real, large-scale data sets. The course emphasizes hands-on data preparation and analysis using statistical software. More specifically, the course will give an overview of national and international data resources that are available for educational researchers, survey the most widely used data analysis techniques in educational research, and use statistical software and large-scale datasets to produce useful results for educational policy research.
The aim of the course is to help students view the educational system and students' educational decisions through the lens of economics. We will discuss the methods that economists commonly employ to study education and read recent empirical articles that examine the impact of educational policies and practices. At the end of the semester, we will discuss insights from the field of behavioral economics, which builds on the standard economic model to better understand decision making. This course also surveys the empirical literature on the economics of education which is organized into several broad topics, including human capital and economic return to education, school choice and college access, and education production. Finally, the course covers a variety of econometric methods that are widely used in the economic study of education. These methods include regression models (e.g., ordinary least squares, discrete choice models, Multi-level modeling, panel data models, etc.) and commonly used techniques to deal with self-selection and causal inference (e.g., quasi-experimental methods).
EDTHP 524Comparative Education Research Using Large-Scale Data3
This course is designed to give students an overview of large-scale international assessment databases and to demonstrate how these databases can be utilized to investigate critical issues in education from a comparative perspective. A number of empirical studies using large-scale international assessment databases will be reviewed, and these analyses will be replicated via computer labs. Students will develop a good understanding of large-scale international assessment databases and will learn to apply an appropriate method to address a particular topic of interest. Students will also develop a wide range of research skills necessary to independently conduct comparative research, including but not limited to formulating a research question, conducting a literature review, analyzing empirical data, and interpreting results. Although the focus is mainly on datasets relevant to education and education policy research, the skills taught in the course are broadly transferable to other social sciences including sociology.
This course considers testing, the reasons that policymakers have widely adopted testing, and implications of testing for educational equity. EDTHP 527 Testing and Educational Equity (3) Results from standardized testing reveal that there are large disparities in test scores that parallel racial and ethnic lines in the U.S. For almost two decades, American policymakers have embraced increased testing in K-12 education as a means of reducing these disparities.The objectives of this course are to help you to understand why testing policies have proliferated, to explore how such policies might or might not affect academic achievement, and to think critically with regard to the policies' impact on students from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds.In essence, the course's central question is this: In what ways might testing policies ameliorate or increase disparities across racial and ethnic groups?
EDTHP 534Childhood and Education in Sociological and International Comparative Perspective3
The course objective is to use an international comparative lens and sociological perspective to examine the social, cultural, political and economic forces that shape childhood and the role education plays in this process.
Provides students with an overview of dominant sociological theoretical perspectives on schools, schooling, and education in modern society. SOC (EDTHP) 538 Sociology of Education (3) This graduate course in the Sociology of Education covers the major sociological theories and empirical research on the role of formal education in society. The object of the course is to have the student become conversant with the main lines of sociological research applied to education and social development at the individual, community, and societal levels. Since sociology of education has had considerable impact on educational policy over the past 50 years, a second goal of the course is to understand this relationship and avenues for future research and policy analysis from a sociological perspective. This course is a central topic in the general study of social stratification and hence in pursuit of the Ph.D. in the Educational Theory and Policy and the Sociology program. The format of the course is a didactic seminar with extensive written assignments as the usual form of evaluation.
Educational theory and practice in relation to contemporary movements in philosophy. CI ED 541 CI ED (EDTHP) 541 Contemporary Philosophies of Education (3) This graduate seminar explores a range of contemporary philosophies of education viewed from the perspective of different varieties of postmodernism. The study of modern and postmodern western thought is combined with explorations of eastern thought including viewpoints that are emerging today in both the northern and southern hemispheres. While focusing on contemporary educational ideas, it traces their roots in classical and non-modern philosophical sources. This look at the present in terms of the past reveals the paradigm shift presented by contemporary postmodern educational thought. In doing so, considerations for the issues of race, class, gender, ecology, multiculturalism and the regeneration of diverse incommensurable cosmovisions, severed or overlooked by some educational philosophers, are explored in their reintegration by contemporary postmodern philosophers of education.
Examination of civil rights policies and educational equity in the U.S. from the perspectives of law, social science, accountability policy. Civil Rights and Education will examine civil rights policies and educational equity in the United States from the perspectives of social science, education policy, and law. The aims of the course are to build students' understanding of the key principles of civil rights policies and the sources of contention in civil rights, and to enhance students' capacity for participating in issues of civil rights and education through project-based work. We will begin by considering what it means to have an opportunity to learn and how it has been defined. The course will then consider legal and policy developments since the "Brown" decision that have both expanded and constrained the opportunity for certain groups of students. The course is primarily focused on national developments, but does include a focus specifically on educational opportunity in Pennsylvania. The course concludes by considering recent civil rights developments and prospects for the future. Cross Listings: EDLDR 542 will be added as a cross-listed course.
Examines the educational policy process world-wide and the influence on schooling of children, youth, and adults in national education systems. CI ED (EDTHP) 550 Comparative Education Policy Seminar (3) In this course students will learn how educational policy is made around the world and what influence this policy has on the schooling of children, youth, and adults in national systems of education. Students will examine recent trends in educational policy that have originated at the international level. Methods of policy research and evaluation will also be examined. The main goal of the course is to give students an understanding of international processes in policy formation and detailed knowledge of current education policy trends worldwide.
EDTHP 553Educational Mobility in Comparative Perspective3
Role of education in social mobility, using quantitative, qualitative, and historical methods; focuses comparatively on Britain, East Asia, and South America. CI ED 553/SOC 553/EDTHP 553/HI ED 553 CI ED 553. (SOC 553, EDTHP 553, HI ED 553) Educational Mobility in Comparative Perspective (3)Sociologists interested in higher education have attended to the relationships between postsecondary institutions and other institutions, as well as the impact on higher education of general social and demographic processes. Many of the classical ideas in sociological theory, including those of Max Weber and Emile Durkheim, have surfaced in recent debates over the nature of higher education. Sociologists in the U.S. have explored such questions as: the gatekeeping function of higher education; the impact of universities on stratification; and the socializing environment for women and minorities. This seminar introduces some of the classical theorists and contemporary researchers of the sociology of higher education. All seminar participants will be required to write a sample research proposal, based on the readings from the seminar.
The research theories and policies useful for understanding the schooling processes and outcomes of immigrants' children. EDTHP 555 Migration and Children's Education (3) This course focuses on the theories and policies pertaining to the educational achievement, attainment, and engagement of immigrants' children. Immigrants' children include foreign-born children (first generation) and native-born children of foreign-born parents (second generation). The course includes a survey of empirical research on the educational differences (the generational gap) between three groups: first-generation, second-generation, and higher generations. The course aims at helping education researchers and school leaders understand the mechanisms through which generational gaps are created and maintained by examining a host of family, community, and particularly school factors. Key school factors include: bilingual policies, tracking, ability grouping, special education placement, and segregation. Although the focus is primarily on children of contemporary legal and undocumented immigrants in the United States, this course also addresses the schooling of children in countries that send immigrants to the United States, as well as immigrants' children in other receiving countries of the world, such as East Asian and Western European countries.
Reviews theory and current sociology research on student access, achievement, and governance in postsecondary education, with applications to policy analysis. EDTHP (HI ED, SOC) 557 Sociology of Higher Education (3) Sociologists interested in higher education have attended to the relationships between postsecondary institutions and other institutions, as well as the impact on higher education of general social and demographic processes. Many of the classical ideas in sociological theory, including those of Max Weber and Emile Durkheim, have surfaced in recent debates over the nature of higher education. Sociologists in the U.S. have explored such questions as: the gatekeeping function of higher education; the impact of universities on stratification; and the socializing environment for women and minorities. This seminar introduces some of the classical theorists and contemporary researchers of the sociology of higher education. All seminar participants will be required to write a sample research proposal, based on the readings from the seminar.
EDTHP 565Causal Inference in Educational Policy Research3
This course is designed to help students develop a broad familiarity with the kinds of research designs (e.g., cluster randomized trials) and statistical methods (e.g., propensity score matching, instrumental variables, regression discountinuity) that are helpful in drawing causal inferences in educational policy research.
EDTHP 585Research Design: Implications for Decisions in Higher Education3
A capstone course on research design and analytical approaches to support decision-making in administration and policy-making. EDLDR 585 / EDTHP 585 / HIED 585 Research Design: Implications for Decisions in Higher Education (3) By the end of this course you should be able to: (1) Define and explain the following concepts/tools of social science research: The scientific method-Theory and its role, Constructs and variables, Hypotheses and relations, Experimental designs, Quasi-experimental designs and Ex post facto designs. Sampling theory and designs-Survey designs and methods, Approaches to data collection, Measurement reliability and validity, Quantitative analytical designs, and Ethical practices. (2) Apply these concepts/tools in designing a study relating to educational research. (3) Effectively critique both the theoretical bases and methods of a journal article or report of research or policy analysis. (4) Prepare a sound research proposal.
EDTHP 586Qualitative Methods in Educational Research3
Exploration of the theoretical framework undergirding qualitative research and its attendant practices and techniques. EDLDR (EDTHP, HI ED) 586 Qualitative Methods in Educational Research (3) This course is the introductory course in the EPS qualitative research methods sequence. This is the first course in a three-course sequence departmental sequence intended to take students from basic knowledge of qualitative methods through mastery of advanced topics. This course was designed specifically to 1) orient students to the various types of qualitative methods most widely used in educational policy research and their theoretical underpinnings; 2) provide training in basic qualitative research techniques; 3) introduce students to basic research design; 4) provide systematic practice (and feedback) in evaluating qualitative research that would allow students to become sophisticated consumers of qualitative studies; 5) prepare students for the Level 11 course. The course will begin with a brief review the development of qualitative methods in related fields (anthropology, sociology, linguistics) and quickly move on to an overview of qualitative methods in education. Students must have read the material prior to class in order to take part in in-class exercises and discussions. We will focus on key issues such as validity, interpretation and representation. Students will be asked to read studies, assess the general quality of the work, and provide a critical evaluation. Students will study specific methods of qualitative field research, and most weeks we will practice and discuss a particular research technique (e.g. participant observation, focus group interviews). These practice sessions will be informed by relevant readings. Students will practice developing coding schemas as well as get a quick overview of qualitative data analysis (QDA) packages. Finally, in small groups, students will design a basic qualitative study to be presented as a final product in the course.
The political economy and bureaucratic politics of educational organizations, with special attention to the policy making, implementation, and evaluation processes.
EDTHP 588Qualitative Methods in Educational Research II3
Advanced study of methods involved in executing and analyzing qualitative research in education. EDLDR (EDTHP, HI ED) 588 Qualitative Methods in Educational Research II (3) The course will provide practical experience with methods of qualitative data collection, data management, and preliminary data analysis that extends and deepens students' understanding of qualitative research in education. The class, limited to 15 students, will take as the focus with inquiry a common "site" around which projects of individual and group interest will be designed. Sessions will take place in "workshop" blocks during which students will present and critique the work of the project. Readings will be interspersed with the practicing of methods. The final project for the course will be the compilation of a synthesized data set that could serve as the basis of further analysis.
Supervised, research-oriented, off-campus, nongroup instruction, including field experiences, practicums, or internships. Written and oral critique of activity required.
