Education, Inquiry & Justice (EDIJ)

This course offers students the opportunity to interrogate foundational and contemporary philosophies of education and current educational practices. In this course students will examine perennial philosophical questions and grapple with the philosophical underpinnings and assumptions of current education policies and practices. Central questions include: What is the purpose of education? Who should be educated? What should be taught? This course provides a solid foundation for students to critically examine contemporary education issues.

Full Title: Choice, Charters, and Chance: Exploring K-12 Schooling Options Urban districts’ school choice often sparks critical debates in the U.S. education reform arena. In this course, we will explore school choice policies, such as those of charter schools, selective enrollment schools, and vouchers, to highlight trends in student achievement and schooling outcomes. Using a number of sources, such as policy briefs, media outlets, and community narratives for select urban cities, we will investigate ways school choice advances and challenges equitable access to education.

Education, Liberation, and Literacy How do young people learn to read and write the world? This course combines theoretical reflection with practical tutoring experience with elementary-age learners to explore this vital question inspired by the foundational work of the critical educator, Paulo Freire. Along the way, we will engage with writing and literacy studies theory as well as works of culturally relevant children's literature that elucidate both the socio-political contexts and practical pedagogical choices that shape writing and literacy instruction for young learners. We will pay particular critical attention to the ways in which the teaching and tutoring of writing and literacy can reinforce and/or subvert unjust hierarchies of race, class, gender, and disability. We will also consider how the learning of reading, writing, speaking, and visual forms of composing are all interconnected. Putting our theoretical readings into practice, students in this course will tutor elementary age learners in reading and writing weekly at various sites in DC as part of the Center for Social Justice’s e^2DC (education x engage DC) sites, e.g., DC Reads project and others. NOTE: Because this is a CBL course, students enrolled should have availability to travel to community partner sites in DC either Monday/Wednesday or Tuesday/Thursday; there is some flexibility in time of day although many programs run “after school.”

How does education fit into broader social policy, both in the U.S. and internationally? In the U.S., schools are often seen as the primary engine of social progress and upward social mobility. How has education policy developed? Social policy encompasses a range of concerns from hunger and poverty reduction to housing concerns. This course examines education and schooling as a key part of social policy, exploring how education intersects with other policy arenas. In addition to interdisciplinary course readings drawn from history, sociology, and law, students will volunteer in a nearby public school that addresses many of these concerns.

EDIJ 253 provides a comprehensive overview of neurodevelopmental disabilities and evidence-based practices from an interdisciplinary and educational perspective. The course covers characteristics of disabilities, and the social, biological, economic, and policy factors that influence the trajectory of disabilities and service delivery to children with disabilities and their families. The course emphasizes inclusive, family-centered, community based, and culturally and linguistically competent services and supports. The content of the course is framed in a disability studies perspective, a perspective that views disability as a part of the human condition. EDIJ 253 investigates how services and supports are provided to assist children with disabilities to be included and participate fully in all educational environments and in the community. CBL optional.

CBL: The Art of Storytelling in Education Advocacy and Activism The ways education policies and initiatives are shaped hinge on narratives about communities, schooling outcomes, and the ways society expects students to engage in schools. Often these perceptions are influenced by media stories and data and research. However, storytelling can a powerful tool to reshape narratives to create positive social change in education advocacy and activism. In this course, students will learn how to become education advocates and activists through the use of storytelling. Students will work with organizations to better understand dominant narratives about historically disenfranchised communities in education. Through the use of asset- based framing, students will practice storytelling techniques designed to engage a wide-ranges of audience and change perceptions of communities for educational impact. By the end of the course, students will have a valuable advocacy skill set applicable to educational and social justice activism.

In this course, students will analyze narratives about schools, teachers, and students in popular media. Through the analysis, students will critically examine how these narratives connect with education policy and the socio-cultural context of public education in the US. We will explore how these portrayals help to shape the public imagination about schools, and we will imagine alternative narratives.

This CBL course examines the role social justice movements have played in shaping education reform policies and initiatives for justice. Drawing on historical and contemporary sources, students will analyze how movement leaders use rhetoric, strategy, and coalition-building to advocate for equitable education policies. The CBL aspect of this course is characterized as indirect service and is integrated into the course. Students will collaborate with non-profit organizations focused on education justice, applying course concepts to real-world projects through research, policy analysis, and communications work. This hands-on engagement bridges theory and practice, enabling students to reflect critically on how activism, policy, and community partnerships intersect to drive educational change.

"Place, Race, and Educational Reform." There are education reform initiatives and public discourse that suggest equity-centered schooling should be a mechanism to address racial disparities in the United States. Integral to understanding this proposition is interrogating the ways that schools and their locale use historical, institutionalized, and racialized knowledge across generations of policies, practices, and stakeholders (students, teachers, parents, and administrators) to govern schools. These different knowledge shape today's education successes, failures, and challenges and are essential to interrogating the ideation, implementation, and evaluation of education reform as initiatives that either forges or dismantles education inequity. Thus, this course investigates the relationship between race, schools (as place), and education reform efforts at federal, state, and local levels and by multiple groups of education stakeholders.

This is a designated CAS CURE (Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience) class. This course examines how public schools in the United States are funded and the consequences of unequal resource allocation. Students will analyze historical and contemporary funding structures, explore disparities across districts and states, and evaluate the impact of legal, political, and grassroots movements for equity. By digging into the economics and politics of public education—from funding formulas to landmark court cases—students will uncover how money, and the lack of it, shapes opportunity. Together, we will ask what it would take to build an education system that truly resources justice for all.

Realizing the American promise of equal access for all children to high quality education has been an ongoing struggle, even as the definitions of equal and everyone have broadened and shifted over time. Advocacy, defined here as “organized efforts and actions based on the reality of what is and a vision of what should be," has long played a central role in the evolution of equitable, universal education. In this course students will examine historical trends and pertinent theoretical frameworks to explore ways that educational advocacy organizations have defined what is and worked to advance their respective goals for what should be regarding educational equity. A major component of this course involves students engaging in field-based learning as partners with a non-profit community group, organization, or institution that advocates for educational equity. Through work with their advocacy partners, students will have the opportunity to conduct in-depth research and complete a project on a specific topic as they work to advance their host organization’s efforts. In-class learning experiences for this course include professor and student-facilitated discussion, lecture, multi-media presentations, and guest speakers.

Priority given to EDIJ students. As the gateway course for the Program in Education, Inquiry, and Justice (EDIJ), EDIJ 3200 Seminar in Urban Education (CBL) is a general introduction to education in urban schools. This course will use articles, books, discussions, podcasts, and videos to pry open the processes of education and explore the systemic, interrelated nature of learning and teaching in schools. As a 4-credit community-based learning (CBL) learning course, students in EDIJ 3200 volunteer at a pre-selected DC public school a minimum of 40 volunteer hours (minimum 4 hours a week for 10 weeks evenly distributed across the semester) during the school day (typically 8:30am -3:30pm). The focal question that guides this course is: In what ways do schools reproduce or interrupt inequity in urban communities?

Educating the Whole Child is an intensive, experiential* CBL course. This course will give you the opportunity to experience firsthand education enacted with teachers and students in local public schools. Building upon a central tenet of education at Georgetown, ‘education of the whole person’, this course examines the extent to which a “whole child” view of education is at work in K-12 schools. Amid today’s push for college and career readiness and higher academic standards for all, how are schools educating the whole child? How do schools ensure that students are prepared to function effectively in society? What could education of the whole child look like? In this course you will examine these and other questions facing education today. Through readings, discussions, videos, and school based observation and volunteering, you will examine the education of the whole child in today’s public schools. *As a 4 credit CBL course, students volunteer in DC area public schools 4 hours per week for 10 weeks during the school day (typically 8:30-3:15). Most students schedule one day per week to complete the CBL required hours. Others go two days per week and serve 2 hours each day. Please note that transportation to and from the schools via public transportation typically takes an additional 45 minutes each way. CBL sites will be assigned during the first weeks of class.

Course takes place in Cape Town, South Africa. Students may enroll by application only. Visit studyabroad.georgetown.edu to apply and for further information.

In Democracy and Education II, we will take the relationship between democracy and education from the realm of theory and discussion to the place where the rubber meets the road >> in real schools and school communities, among students, teachers, administrators, parents, community members, and government officials. We will travel on two investigative paths simultaneously, driven by two sets of questions: • What is the democratic process around American K-12 education? Who is part of that process, and how is the process in evidence on the ground in the business of schooling? • What do we teach about democracy in K-12 schools? Why and how do we teach it, and what results do we expect? Since K-12 education is happening here and now, these investigations will take place in real time. This course has a CBL component. You will use schools across the District of Columbia as your laboratory. You are expected to attend a DC City Council meeting and at least one other DC community meeting that we will discuss further on. In particular, this course reflects a partnership with Two Rivers Public Charter School in northeast DC. You will learn from TR faculty and students both in class and on the Two Rivers campus.

Discover how communities and activists are reimagining education—and gain tools to challenge inequities and build a more just system. We’ll examine how U.S. education policy has opened doors and reinforced barriers around race, class, gender, and language, explore key moments in history and current debates, and study the people and movements working to transform schools into engines of justice and liberation.

Students will be introduced to the research methods pertaining to the field of education. In this course, students will: create and implement an individual research proposals by collecting data from research participants using their IRB-approved proposals and instruments; analyze and interpret the data; learn about the ethical challenges data interpretation has undergone in education research and the implications of research in education policy and implementation practices; and explore multiple ways to disseminate their results from data visualization to public reports and academic papers to make valuable contributions to the education field. This course replaces the EDIJ 210 and 310 sequence.

Since Maria Montessori first developed her teaching methods for disadvantaged and disabled children in Italy in the early 20th Century, Italy has promoted inclusive participatory early childhood education. In this program, you will compare and contrast early education models across the globe, beginning with two popular Italian models, Montessori and Reggio Emilia. Other early childhood education models such as the Step-by-Step model, used throughout Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and the Scandinavian models will be examined providing a comprehensive analysis. Through site visits, lecture, discussion, and participation in a UNESCO co-sponsored one-day symposium, students will develop a uniquely crafted, global understanding of the early education of disabled children.

Formal education has long been an arena of political contestation. Because education is a valued resource for both individual advancement and a democratic institution, schools have been the battleground for struggles for political and social rights. Schools face constant pressure over curriculum, organizational structure, and resources. This course analyzes the politics of education policy in the United States using key historical and contemporary case studies. We explore the role of key institutions, actors, and contextual influences as they have shaped U.S. education, challenged social inequalities more broadly, and how shifting technology and new social movement groups and strategies are transforming the current educational landscape.

Mental Health and the Whole Student: Supporting Student Well-Being in K-12 Schools (CBL) Student mental health is one of the most urgent issues facing schools today—so what can schools and educators actually do to help? This course explores the connections between research, theory, and practical, school-based strategies that promote belonging, resilience, and emotional well-being. Through a community-based learning experience in DC public and public charter schools, you’ll interrogate educational justice issues related to how schools can support whole student growth, learning, and development for striving communities. Ideal for students interested in education, psychology, public health, or social justice.

Educational institutions in the 21st century are increasingly connected through international organizations, formal partnerships, and comparative assessment. How do various types of actors – international non-governmental organizations, states, private corporations, and philanthropy – intersect in shaping education at the global, national, and municipal levels? By taking a comparative lens, we draw on a wide range of cases from various parts of the world. In the first part of the course, students will develop an understanding of education in nation-building and rebuilding after armed conflict. Next, we will examine the rise of international networks and organizations that engage in agenda-setting to structure norms and practices. Finally, we focus on the nexus of education, migration and social cohesion. How do school systems meet the challenges of adapting to the arrival of students from new cultures? We consider new opportunities for education and migration pathways. This course explores educational policies and practices around the world through a comparative lens and by using case studies.

As a culminating experience in the minor in Education, Inquiry, and Justice, this course will provide you the opportunity to reflect on, synthesize, analyze and apply what you have learned in the EDIJ minor. You will engage in self-evaluation, examine the intersection of current trends in US education reform and issues of social justice, articulate and address a question central to education and justice, and envision how what you’ve learned could positively impact U. S. education. Much of this course will be directed by student inquiry with the second half of the course functioning as a workshop for ideas and proposals. In addition, this course is designed to provide opportunities for you to: • develop skills in reflective practice, • develop critical thinking and analysis skills, • apply an inquiry lens to a current education-related, • critically exam your own views and those of your peers, and • articulate a vision for your future work.