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Education Studies

The study of education is critical to creating a more just world.

With a focus on research, practice, theory and experiential learning, the Education Studies Department enables students to understand and re-imagine education as a vital social process that extends far beyond schools.

We investigate the sociology, political economy, cultural foundations, philosophy and history of education. We mentor students as critical educators, transformative intellectuals and public pedagogues.

Students gain practical and research experience in educational settings, often studying abroad, and during their senior year conduct original research over our two- semester capstone course.

The Education Studies major is interdisciplinary and complements these majors or minors: psychology, communication, English, peace and conflict studies, and history.

ALUMNA PROFILE

KANDYCE ANDERSON ’15

Kandyce was an Education Studies major, history minor. She is a Doctoral candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Kandyce was awarded a Fulbright U.S. Student Fellowship to conduct research in New Zealand in the 2015-16 academic year. Her research, “Positive Affirming Spaces: Tools to Cultivate Sense of Self in Maori Youth,” landed her as one of only 10 students to be awarded Fulbrights to New Zealand.

Anderson was also a member of Kappa Delta Pi, the International Honor Society in Education.

Career & Graduate

CAREER OPTIONS

Academic research and teaching, higher education leadership, classroom teaching, education policy and political office, law, social work and youth development counseling, non-profit development and management, diversity leadership and education, community organizing, popular education and advocacy, arts education and community education, elder and adult education

GRADUATE INSTITUTIONS ATTENDED

Harvard Graduate School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Cincinnati College of Law, University of California at Berkeley, IPSL Institute for Global Learning, St. Lawrence University, Columbia University, Vanderbilt University

Professor Derek Ford with Savannah Wilcek reading a book

Faculty

Rebecca Alexander, Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley. Research interests include school and neighborhood segregation, migrant youth and families, community organizing and education. Received a grant to build collaborative border studies network in the Great Lakes Colleges Association. Organized participatory research project focused on understanding and responding to poverty in Greencastle.

Derek Ford, Ph.D., Syracuse University. Research interests are contemporary political movements, Marxism, postmodernism. Author of two texts: “Politics and Pedagogy in the ‘Post-Truth’ Era” (Bloomsbury, 2019) and “Education and the Production of Space” (Routledge, 2017). Assistant editor of the Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies.

Caitlin Howlett, Ph.D., Indiana University. Research interests include sexuality education, critical pedagogy, social justice education and queer theory. Published “Sex Education, Sex Work, and Education: The Need for Alternative Sexual Pedagogies in Philosophical Studies in Education.”

Sahar D. Sattarzadeh, Ph.D., University of Maryland, College Park. Research interests include critical comparative global ethnic and Indigenous studies in higher education; activism and social movements; human rights; science, technology and media; and knowledge production. Research associate at Chair for Critical Studies in Higher Education Transformation at Nelson Mandela University. Forthcoming publication: “The University-as-Machine ‘Must Fall’: Resistance/Resilience and the Case for Humanizing the Academy.”

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