Education, Inquiry, and Justice

The Program in Education, Inquiry, and Justice offers a minor in Education, Inquiry, and Justice to undergraduate students across the university.

The interdisciplinary minor in Education, Inquiry, and Justice recognizes the many ways the examination of education is alive and well at Georgetown in scholarship and in student service in the community. Through this rigorous program, students explore the complexities of education in the US with faculty across the curriculum who put education at the center of their research and teaching. The minor also is a collaborative effort between faculty and departments in Georgetown College and co-curricular programs at the Center for Social Justice, through which much of the important work in DC classrooms is organized. This focus on education is nourished deeply by Georgetown’s Jesuit tradition, which from its very beginnings has looked to education as a critical means to promote justice. The minor in Education, Inquiry, and Justice offers a chance to engage students in the study of education in collaborative and innovative ways.

The minor promotes the notion that education is not just a technical process of transmission or delivery, but a dynamic endeavor that plays an essential role in the development of the whole person—the intellectual, artistic, physical, affective, moral, social, and political capacities that make us human. Grounded in this conception of education, the minor adopts an interdisciplinary approach to core questions about the nature of education and human well-being. What is the purpose of education in a diverse democracy? How does change take place in educational systems? What are the implications of democracy for schooling? What does it mean to know and what is worth knowing? How does one learn, and what affects the learning process? Examination of these issues and more requires a variety of disciplinary approaches, so the minor builds on courses in philosophy, psychology, government, sociology, linguistics, and others.

Minor in Education, Inquiry, and Justice

Requirements for the Minor

In order to pursue a minor in Education, Inquiry, and Justice, students must apply at the beginning of the spring semester of their sophomore year. The minor in Education, Inquiry, and Justice consists of six courses. The list of courses below is not meant to be exhaustive; it is representative of past courses. Furthermore, not every course is taught each semester, and course content may change in ways that no longer align with the minor’s goals. Current lists of courses will be maintained by the Minor Director and the College Dean’s Office.

  • 1 Gateway Course
    • EDIJ-3200 Gateway: Sem in Urban Ed (fall semester only)
  • 1 Education Core Course
    • EDIJ-1500 Philosophy of Education
    • EDIJ-3510 Examining & Enacting Ed Research
    • GOVT-2252 Education Politics and Policy-Making
    • SOCI-3863 Education and Society
  • 1 Justice and Education Framework Course
    • GOVT-3227 Dept Sem: Democracy and Education
    • PSYC-4810 Children, Families, Law
    • SOCI-4119 Urban Inequality
  • 1 Learning and Human Development Framework Course
    • BIOL-4951 Rise and Teach I/ Science PedagogyICOS-2210 Intro to Cognitive ScienceLING-2050 How Languages Are Learned
    • PSYC-2610 Childhood and Adolescence
    • PSYC-3800 Community Psychology
    • PSYC-3620 Early Childhood Education
  • 1 Praxis Course
    • BIOL-4952 Rise and Teach  II
    • EDIJ-2951 Education, Equity and Advocacy
    • EDIJ-3230 Educating the Whole Child
    • EDIJ-2500 Children with Disabilities (w/ CBL)
    • ENGL-2960 Reading, Teaching, and Social Reflection
  • 1 Capstone Course
    • EDIJ-4970 Education, Inquiry, and Justice Capstone (spring semester for seniors only)

Applications

All students are encouraged to apply to the minor. The application for the minor opens early in the spring of students’ sophomore year.  Eligibility for acceptance into the minor will be based on overall academic performance, exploration of the field, and demonstrated commitment to education through relevant service and/or classroom experience. Students are encouraged to have taken at least one course within the minor requirements prior to application.

For more information on the minor, email edij@georgetown.edu or see http://edij.georgetown.edu/