Educational Studies is an interdisciplinary field of study that explores education from numerous perspectives—psychological, sociological, historical, political, and philosophical. In our courses, you will meet students from almost every major on campus—united by a common belief in the importance of our schools and education’s role in a democratic society. Students in Educational Studies courses interrogate educational theory, policies, and practices and explore how schools can become accessible, equitable, and supportive spaces for all. Educational Studies offers an interdisciplinary minor as well as general education courses open to all Carleton students. Several of our courses offer field experiences in local schools as well as opportunities to collaborate with a variety of community partners.
While Carleton does not offer teacher licensure, we encourage Carleton students to consider careers as K-12 practitioners, scholars, researchers, advocates, and policy makers.
About Educational Studies
Guided by the assumption that an understanding of educational values, policies, and practices is a legitimate and important part of liberal arts studies, Carleton offers a program of courses which, with the exception of student teaching, are open to all students. No major is offered; however, we do offer an interdisciplinary minor for those students who are especially interested in educational studies but not necessarily in public school teaching.
*Students may also qualify for 5-12 teaching licensure in the State of Minnesota in communication arts, mathematics, earth and space science, life science, and social studies. 7-12 licensure is offered in chemistry and physics. K-12 licensure is offered in world languages (French, German, Spanish) and visual arts. Earning licensure requires: completion of an approved Carleton major; other subject area courses not required by the Carleton major and/or specific courses within the major; a specified program of educational studies courses (see the Teacher Education Handbook); and student teaching in the major field, usually in a “13th Term.”
Students interested in pursuing teaching licensure should obtain a handbook from the department office and should consult with a member of the education faculty early in their sophomore year. Students are encouraged to make formal application for admission to the teacher education program during the spring term of their sophomore year. Carleton licensure students will complete the majority of their course work at Carleton, but there will be courses only offered at St. Olaf through the inter-registration process which are required for licensure. St. Olaf will submit Carleton student’s recommendation for licensure to the Minnesota Department of Education after completion of student teaching.
*Note: Teaching licensure at Carleton will no longer be available beginning with the Class of 2027.
Educational Studies Minor
The Educational Studies Minor provides an interdisciplinary approach to the study of education as an individual pursuit, an institutional venture, and a societal imperative. The minor aims to develop thoughtful, skillful and imaginative students of the psychology, social and cultural history, and politics of education. Students will pursue the study of education as a liberal art, one that both reveals the constraints of socialization and informs alternative visions of self and community. The minor is appropriate for students of all majors interested in the stewardship of education as a cornerstone of democracy.
Requirements for the Educational Studies Minor
All students will be required to take a minimum of seven courses: three core courses, three supporting courses and a senior seminar. Students interested in the minor are advised to begin their study during their sophomore year.
Core Courses:
- EDUC 110: Introduction to Educational Studies
- EDUC 234: Educational Psychology
- EDUC 338: Multicultural Education
Supporting Courses: Select one course from each of the three clusters; these courses must be from three different departments. The list below is not an exhaustive one. Please check the appropriate department pages for course descriptions and prerequisites and when courses are offered. We can neither control nor predict when courses from other departments are offered. If you have difficulty enrolling in a course for a particular cluster, please see the minor adviser to discuss other courses that might fulfill the requirement.
Cluster I Learning, Cognition and Development The purpose of this cluster is to provide additional perspective about how K-12 students develop physically, cognitively and socially. This cluster builds on the core course, Educational Psychology.
- CCST 100: Growing Up Cross-Culturally
- CGSC 130: Revolutions in Mind
- CGSC 130: Revolutions in Mind
- CGSC 130: What Minds Are What They Do
- CGSC 232: Cognitive Processes
- CGSC 236: Thinking, Reasoning, and Decision Making · not offered in 2024-25
- EDUC 262: Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy: Teaching and Learning in Diverse Classrooms · not offered in 2024-25
- EDUC 344: Teenage Wasteland: Adolescence and the American High School · not offered in 2024-25
- PSYC 210: Psychology of Learning and Memory
- PSYC 232: Cognitive Processes
- PSYC 250: Developmental Psychology · not offered in 2024-25
- PSYC 251: Lifespan Development
- PSYC 258: Social Cognition · not offered in 2024-25
- PSYC 366: Cognitive Neuroscience · not offered in 2024-25
Cluster II Social and Cultural Context of Schooling in a Diverse Society The purpose of this cluster is to provide an in-depth understanding of the broader historical, social and cultural context in which U.S. educational institutions are located. This cluster builds on the background knowledge provided by the core courses Introduction to Educational Studies and Multicultural Education.
- AMST 115: Introduction to American Studies
- EDUC 262: Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy: Teaching and Learning in Diverse Classrooms · not offered in 2024-25
- EDUC 340: Race, Immigration, and Schools · not offered in 2024-25
- EDUC 367: Culture Wars in the Classroom
- GWSS 110: Introduction to Gender, Women’s & Sexuality Studies
- HIST 116: Intro to Indigenous Histories, 1887-present
- HIST 122: U.S. Women’s History to 1877 · not offered in 2024-25
- HIST 123: U.S. Women’s History Since 1877 · not offered in 2024-25
- HIST 125: African American History I: From Africa to the Civil War
- HIST 126: African American History II
- HIST 203: American Indian Education · not offered in 2024-25
- HIST 228: Civil Rights and Black Power · not offered in 2024-25
- HIST 229: Working with Gender in U.S. History
- IDSC 203: Dialogue Across Differences
- POSC 302: Subordinated Politics and Intergroup Relations
- PSYC 384: Psychology of Prejudice
- RELG 140: Religion and American Culture · not offered in 2024-25
- SOAN 114: Modern Families: An Introduction to the Sociology of the Family · not offered in 2024-25
- SOAN 226: Anthropology of Gender · not offered in 2024-25
- SOAN 283: Immigration, Citizenship, and Belonging in the U.S.
- SOAN 288: Diversity, Democracy, Inequality in America · not offered in 2024-25
Cluster III Public Policy and Educational Reform The purpose of this cluster is to explore the public policy contexts, issues and questions that are most relevant to educational policy making and school reform. This cluster builds on the background knowledge provided by the core course Introduction to Educational Studies.
- ECON 246: Welfare Economics and Mechanism Design · not offered in 2024-25
- ECON 270: Economics of the Public Sector
- EDUC 225: Issues in Urban Education · not offered in 2024-25
- EDUC 245: School Reform: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow · not offered in 2024-25
- EDUC 250: Fixing Schools: Politics and Policy in American Education
- EDUC 330: Refugee and Immigrant Experiences in Faribault, MN · not offered in 2024-25
- POSC 122: Politics in America: Liberty and Equality
- POSC 273: Race and Politics in the U.S.
Senior Seminar:
- EDUC 395: Senior Seminar
Educational Studies Courses
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EDUC 100 Will This Be on the Test? Standardized Testing and American Education
How and why have standardized tests become so central to our educational system? This seminar will explore the following topics, among others–the invention of standardized tests and the growth of the testing industry; psychometrics (the science of mental measurement); and the controversies surrounding the use of standardized tests, including charges that they are culturally biased and do not positively contribute to student learning. Our analyses will be informed by a close examination of authentic testing materials, ranging from intelligence tests to the SAT.
- Fall 2024
- 6
- AI/WR1, Argument & Inquiry/WR1
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Student is a member of the First Year First Term class level cohort. Students are only allowed to register for one A&I course at a time. If a student wishes to change the A&I course they are enrolled in they must DROP the enrolled course and then ADD the new course. Please see our Workday guides Drop or 'Late' Drop a Course and Register or Waitlist for a Course Directly from the Course Listing for more information.
- Jeff Snyder 🏫 👤
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EDUC 110 Introduction to Educational Studies
This course will focus on education as a multidisciplinary field of study. We will explore the meanings of education within individual lives and institutional contexts, learn to critically examine the assumptions that writers, psychologists, sociologists and philosophers bring to the study of education, and read texts from a variety of disciplines. What has “education” meant in the past? What does “education” mean in contemporary American society? What might “education” mean to people with differing circumstances and perspectives? And what should “education” mean in the future? Open only to first-and second-year students.
- Fall 2024, Winter 2025, Spring 2025
- 6
- IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies SI, Social Inquiry WR2 Writing Requirement 2
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Student has Sophomore Priority.
- Anita Chikkatur 🏫 👤 · Jeff Snyder 🏫 👤
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EDUC 225 Issues in Urban Education
This course is an introduction to urban education in the United States. Course readings and discussion will focus on various perspectives in the field in order to understand the key issues and debates confronting urban schools. We will examine historical, political, economic, and socio-cultural frameworks for understanding urban schools, students and teachers. Through course readings, field visits and class discussions, we explore the following: (1) student, teacher and researcher perspectives on urban education, (2) the broader sociopolitical urban context of K-12 schooling in cities, (3) teaching and learning in urban settings and (4) ideas about re-imagining urban education.
Not offered in 2024-25
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EDUC 234 Educational Psychology
Human development and learning theories are studied in relation to the teaching-learning process and the sociocultural contexts of schools. Three hours outside of class per week are devoted to observing learning activities in public school elementary and secondary classrooms and working with students.
- Fall 2024
- 6
- SI, Social Inquiry
- Deborah Appleman 🏫 👤
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EDUC 242 The Future is Now: Education and Technology in the 21st Century
This course will examine the increasingly prominent role that technology is playing in education, inside and outside of schools. How is technology transforming teaching and learning? What are the potential costs and benefits of relying on technology to provide educational opportunities? Is technology re-wiring our brains? And who needs brains when we have Google and ChatGPT? This course will examine the following topics, among others: digital literacy, virtual reality, cyborgs and artificial intelligence.
- Spring 2025
- 6
- SI, Social Inquiry
- Jeff Snyder 🏫 👤
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EDUC 245 School Reform: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
This course explores major issues in the history of school reform in the United States, with an emphasis on the twentieth century. Readings and discussions examine the role of education in American society, the various and often competing goals of school reformers, and the dynamics of educational change. With particular focus on the American high school, this course looks at why so much reform has produced so little change.
Not offered in 2024-25
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EDUC 250 Fixing Schools: Politics and Policy in American Education
How can we fix American public schools? What is “broken” about our schools? How should they be repaired? And who should lead the fix? This course will examine the two leading contemporary educational reform movements: accountability and school choice. With an emphasis on the nature of the teaching profession and the work of foundations, this course will analyze the policy agendas of different reform groups, exploring the dynamic interactions among the many different stakeholders responsible for shaping American education.
- Fall 2024
- 6
- IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies SI, Social Inquiry
- Jeff Snyder 🏫 👤
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EDUC 262 Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy: Teaching and Learning in Diverse Classrooms
This course focuses on the importance of integrating students’ cultural backgrounds in all aspects of learning. We will study various theoretical perspectives on culturally relevant, responsive, and sustaining pedagogy and will explore several school sites that incorporate that perspective into their approach to teaching and learning. Students will design and teach culturally sustaining curriculum from their own disciplinary background in K-16 setting.
Not offered in 2024-25
- 6
- IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies SI, Social Inquiry
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): EDUC 100 – Argument and Inquiry or EDUC 110 – Introduction to Educational Studies with a grade of C- or better.
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EDUC 325 Democracy, Schools, and Power
One of the foundational elements of an ideal democratic society is an educated and informed public. Simultaneously, the maintenance of power in society demands control over what and how the public is educated. This class examines how schools in the U.S. serve both as sites of promoting democratic life and ideals as well as reproducing social, political, and economic oppression. Throughout the class, we will explore the relationships, tensions, and contradictions between schools, power, and democracy with the goal of answering whether schools can protect and save democracy.
Not offered in 2024-25
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EDUC 330 Refugee and Immigrant Experiences in Faribault, MN
This course will examine the intersection of immigration and education at all levels in rural communities in the U.S. with a site-specific focus on Faribault, MN. Through readings, primary document analyses, discussions, written assignments, and virtual dialogues with community collaborators, students will understand the challenges and opportunities in Faribault for people with refugee and immigrant backgrounds and for educators and community members working with those communities to create supportive contexts (including educational, social, economic, political) that meet the needs and aspirations of those communities.
Not offered in 2024-25
- 6
- IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies SI, Social Inquiry
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): One 100 or 200 level Educational Studies (EDUC) course with grade of C- or better.
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EDUC 338 Multicultural Education
This course focuses on the respect for human diversity, especially as these relate to various racial, cultural and economic groups, and to women. It includes lectures and discussions intended to aid students in relating to a wide variety of persons, cultures, and life styles.
- Spring 2025
- 6
- IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies SI, Social Inquiry
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): One 100 or 200 level Educational Studies (EDUC) course with grade of C- or better.
- Anita Chikkatur 🏫 👤
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EDUC 340 Race, Immigration, and Schools
This course explores the important role that public schools have played in the American national imagination as the way to socialize students about what it means to be American and to prepare them to participate as citizens in a democracy. Focusing on two periods of high rates of immigration into the United States (1890-1920 and 1965-present), the course examines how public schools have attempted to Americanize newly arrived immigrant children as well as to socialize racial minority children into the American mainstream. While most of the readings will focus on urban schools, the course will also consider the growing immigrant populations in rural schools through readings and applied academic civic engagement projects.
Not offered in 2024-25
- 6
- IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies SI, Social Inquiry
-
Student has completed any of the following course(s): One 100 or 200 level Educational Studies (EDUC) course with grade of C- or better.
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EDUC 344 Teenage Wasteland: Adolescence and the American High School
Is adolescence real or invented? How does the American high school affect the nature of American adolescence? How does adolescence affect the characteristics of middle and high schools? In addition to treating the concept historically, this interdisciplinary course focuses on psychological, sociological, and literary views of adolescence in and out of the classroom. We will also analyze how adolescence is represented in popular culture, including television, film, and music.
Not offered in 2024-25
- 6
- SI, Social Inquiry
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): One 100 or 200 level Educational Studies (EDUC) course with grade of C- or better.
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EDUC 367 Culture Wars in the Classroom
This course examines past and present school controversies, including school prayer, banned books, and student protests. Who controls the curriculum? How do we teach contentious issues such as evolution, racism, and climate change? To what extent do teachers and students enjoy the right to free expression? These are the kinds of questions “Culture Wars in the Classroom” will explore, as we consider the purpose of public education in a diverse, multicultural nation.
- Winter 2025
- 6
- IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies No Exploration
- Jeff Snyder 🏫 👤
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EDUC 385 Schooling and Communities: A Practicum for Teacher Candidates
This course permits licensure candidates to become more familiar with their student teaching sites through frequent observation and interaction. The course provides an opportunity to work directly in schools and community organizations related to schools and to reflect on that experience in a classroom setting. Recommended Preparation: Acceptance into Teacher Licensure Program and registration for fall student teaching.
- Spring 2025
- 6
- No Exploration
- Deborah Appleman 🏫 👤
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EDUC 395 Senior Seminar
This is a capstone seminar for educational studies minors. It focuses on a contemporary issue in American education with a different topic each year. Recent seminars have focused on the school to prison pipeline, youth activism, intellectual freedom in schools, and gender and sexuality in education. Senior seminars often incorporate off campus work with public school students and teachers.
- Spring 2025
- 6
- No Exploration
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Student is an Educational Studies minor.
- Deborah Appleman 🏫 👤