What is the purpose of education? What does it mean to be educated? What knowledge, skills, abilities, customs, and values are deemed important enough to pass on from one generation to the next? What are the institutions, policies, and cultural dynamics that control the shaping of minds? In what ways do race, ethnicity, gender, culture, religion, geography, social desirability, access, costs, and benefits inform who is educated, and how? This course introduces students to education in an interdisciplinary context by exploring education’s relationship to culture, politics, socio-economics, social science, and/or practice. Students in this course will become familiar with basic theories and practices of education, varieties of learning styles/modalities, and be introduced to a range of educational systems in the U.S. and across the world.
