EDU 799: The Future of K-12 Education and Democracy

Credit Hours: 3

Estimated Hours Per Week: 20

Overview

This course begins with the a priori assumptions that a) both education and democracy are social goods that need our considerable attention, and b) the future of education and the future of democracy are inextricably related. In John Dewey’s landmark book, Democracy and Education, he asserts: “Particularly is it true that a society which not only changes but-which has the ideal of such change as will improve it, will have different standards and methods of education from one which aims simply at the perpetuation of its own customs.” The goal of this course is to help students find ways to improve K-12 education that strengthen democracy.

For democracy to thrive, K-12 education leaders must be innovative and persistent in their efforts to provide all students with personally meaningful learning opportunities that help them realize their greatest potential. There is so much to learn; textbooks and curriculum frameworks cannot hope to cover all the knowledge, skills, and aptitudes necessary for life now or into the future. Furthermore, because the knowledge, skills, and aptitudes needed to be happy and successful at home, at work, and in the larger world are constantly changing, lifelong learning is a necessity.

Solutions to education problems depend on competent leaders who use critical, thoughtful understanding to carefully plan for a brighter future. In this course, each student works with a leader or leadership team to develop a professional synthesizing project that explores an important education problem that K-12 leaders face currently and into the future. Students in EDU799 analyze and evaluate the purposes of education in a democracy; the history of an important education problem; potential solutions to the problem; and the ways in which the potential solutions impact democracy.

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

Analyze and evaluate the purposes of education in a democracy.
Analyze and evaluate the history of a specific education problem.
Analyze and evaluate potential solutions to the specific education problem.
Analyze and evaluate the ways in which the potential solutions impact democracy.
Write a synthetic plan to solve an important education problem.

ENROLLMENT

To enroll in this course, please complete the online application.

Required Texts
EDU 799 texts are available from the JIU/MBS bookstore