School of Education

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In the United States and Canada, a School of Education (also College of Education, Ed-School) is a division within a university that is devoted to scholarship in the field of Education, which is an interdisciplinary branch of the social sciences encompassing sociology, psychology, linguistics, economics, political science, public policy, and others, all applied to the topic of elementary, secondary, and post-secondary education.

For information about academic divisions devoted to this field outside of the United States and Canada, see Postgraduate Training in Education

Contents 1 Types of Programs 2 Faculty 3 Common Areas of Interest 4 Notable Schools of Education 5 Notable Education Scholars (Past and Present) 6 Criticism 7 References 8 See also

[edit] Types of Programs

Typically, a school of education offers research-based programs leading to Master of Arts (M.A.) or Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees, as well as professional teacher-education programs leading to M.A., Master of Education (M.Ed.), or Master of Arts in Teaching (M.A.T.) degrees.

Some schools of education offer advanced professional programs, leading to a Doctor of Education (Ed.D) degree. Often completed through part-time study by in-service teachers, an Ed.D. degree program can prepare teachers to move into leadership and administrative positions within the public-school system, as well as allowing teachers who wish to continue in their current positions to move into a higher position on their school's pay matrix.

In addition, some Education departments offer programs in school counseling and counseling psychology.

[edit] Faculty

Unlike most other academic departments, schools of education often draw much of their faculty from areas outside of the Education field itself. It is not uncommon for Education professors to have earned their doctorates in conventional social-science or natural-science fields, mathematics, or in the Humanities. This fluidity sometimes goes both ways, with scholars from the Education field taking positions in social-science departments and other academic divisions.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Common Areas of Interest

The issue of equitable access to education, particularly for low-income, minority, and immigrant communities, is central to many areas of research within the Education field.^[1][2]

[edit] Notable Schools of Education

• Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE), Harvard University

• Stanford University School of Education (SUSE, pronounced "SOO-zee"), Stanford University

• Teachers College (TC), Columbia University

[edit] Notable Education Scholars (Past and Present)

• John Dewey
• Jean Piaget
• Charles Beard
• George Counts
• Lisa Delpit
• Paulo Freire
• Linda Darling-Hammond
• Peter McLaren
• bell hooks
• Henry Giroux

[edit] Criticism

Given the vital importance of educating a nation's youth, people from all over the political spectrum have opinions about the nature of quality education. A contrarian movement, known by some as the Education Anti-Establishment, has been critical of the status quo within most schools of education. Prominent figures contributing to this school of though include Lisa Delpit, E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Diane Ravitch, Chester Finn, Thomas Sowell, and Lynne Cheney.^[3] Common assertions made by Anti-Establishment critics include:

• The typical school of education has a Left-wing political bias, favoring Socialist philosophies such as Paulo Freire's critical pedagogy and the "Teaching for Social Justice" movement. Many Ed-Schools are academically, professionally, and socially inhospitable toward students whose political views do not conform to the predominant Left-leaning ideology.^[4][5][6][7]

• The field's interest in educational equity sometimes crosses over the line between academic research and political activism.^[8]

• Research methodologies are not as rigorous as with other social sciences, leading to conclusions that are less reliable and more susceptible to idealogical bias.^[9]

• The pedagogy in teacher-education programs promotes the belief in a false binary opposition between "traditional" and "reform" teaching methods, negatively caricaturing the former, excessively praising the latter, and implying that several qualities are mutually exclusive between the two. For example, the literature commonly read by student-teachers creates the imaginary dilemma of choosing between "teaching for understanding" and having students learn "rote facts" and perform "drill-and-kill" exercises, denying the vital role that factual knowledge and persistent practice play in the learning process.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• Education
• Pedagogy
• Teacher