Academics
Educational Studies Minor
The Education Department and the Education Advisory Council have been discussing an Educational Studies Minor for a number of years. There has been much interest in this possibility, but the state review and questions about available resources delayed any detailed investigation. Last year, the time was right to revisit the possibility of an Educational Studies Minor in a highly focused manner.
The Educational Studies Minor is different from the Education Major in terms of its goals and requirements. Unlike the current Education Major, an Educational Studies Minor will not lead to teacher certification upon graduation. Instead, this interdisciplinary minor is designed for students who have a strong interest in educational issues but do not wish to complete a teacher certification program at the undergraduate level. The minor may be of particular interest to students who are considering careers or graduate programs in higher education, social work, educational policy, law, religious service, or private school teaching. This minor also may interest students who wish to teach abroad following graduation and students who wish to engage in cross-curricular research projects.
Educational reform is a critical component of a liberal arts education, and Educational Studies provide an avenue toward educational reform. Our students, if they are to be informed citizens who can participate meaningfully in a democratic society, should be prepared to engage in public discourse about educational policy at local, state, and national levels. Furthermore, to be responsible global citizens, students must understand the social, political, cultural, and economic complexities of educational issues in the U.S. and abroad. In this respect, an Educational Studies Minor is tethered in a seamless manner to the College’s mission statement, which, for example, suggests that “education enobles the individual” and that we seek to enable students to become “citizens of the global community.” A program in educational studies resonates with our mission statement because it would provide avenues for students to critically analyze the purposes of education and understand how these are or are not actualized in both the United States and on a more global level. A liberal arts curriculum is truly incomplete without the inclusion of Educational Studies by virtue of education’s strong relationship to other disciplines and in terms of its crucial importance to society. An Educational Studies Minor will not only provide opportunities for interested students to have an additional area of concentration but will also provide elective courses for students college-wide that are not currently available.
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EDUCATIONAL STUDIES MINOR Students must take six courses to complete this minor, as follows: Visit the Education Department |