CURRENT COURSES

Global Perspectives in Curriculum

In this course we will centrally consider the impact and implications for modern curriculum theory and practice of the expanding economic, cultural and political networks of affiliation, association and interconnectivity across national borders around the world being generated apace in the new century. These practices and processes of interconnectivity have come to be collectively described by contemporary observers as "globalization." Dynamics associated with globalization as expressed in the intensification and movement of cultural and economic capital, mass migration, and the amplification and proliferation of images are now fully articulated to modern schooling and the social and cultural environments in which both school youth and educators now operate. This course focuses on the way globalization has precipitated the rearticulation and the refiguration of key terms that have served to make modern life and modern educational institutional processes and experiences intelligible to students, educational practitioners and researchers alike. These key terms that will be centrally addressed in the course are a) nation/state, b) culture, c) identity, d) economy, e) the organization of school knowledge.

Instructor: Cameron McCarthy

 

Information Technology Ethics

This course examines some of the key social, ethical, and policy dimensions of new technology use in schools, linking this discussion to the challenges and opportunities provided by globalization. Computers, the Internet, and other multimedia technologies introduce new challenges in thinking about the consequences of technology uses for the learning opportunities and outcomes of students. This course will explore such critical themes as access and equity issues, censorship, privacy, commercialization, new forms of literacy, online communication, and developing a "global community" through the Internet. It will also provide opportunities to investigate the ways in which schools are able to use technology to internationalize their curriculum.

Instructor: Nicholas Burbules

 

Global Issues in Learning and Pedagogy

This class will explore a fundamental problem in educational psychology and the study of learning, which is that many of the basic traditional tenets of the field become problematic from an enlightened global perspective. But there have been efforts by sociocultural scholars in recent years to address this problem. We'll explore a number of these issues: (1) the question of defining and assessing learning based on a normalizing model versus one that acknowledges and deals with diversity, and (2) classic assumptions about "formal" and "informal" knowledge and the roots of those distinctions in privileged and dominant discourses, and (3) difficulties of trying to study learning from the perspective of cultural comparison without essentializing culture and nationality and thus reducing those things to research variables. We'll also look at learning and teaching from the perspective of the classroom as a cultural and international contact zone, and the difficulty of defining and teaching to a bounded notion like "culture" in a modern world of multifaceted identities and communities.

Instructor: Cynthia Carter-Ching

 

Globalization and Educational Policy

This course is based on the assumption that it is no longer possible to interpret and analyze educational policies within their national contexts; and that global processes affect the ways in which educational policies are now developed. Surveying recent debates about globalization, the course shows how global institutions, such as transnational corporations, intergovernmental organizations, NGOs and the media affect the global circulations of educational policy ideas and ideologies. The course then examines, using case studies drawn from around the world, the extent to which the processes of globalization have created conditions of cultural homogeneity and global inequalities; and explores how such negative affects of globalization might be resisted.

Instructor: Fazal Rizvi

 

Identity and Culture in Transnational Contexts

The course considers the manner in which national cultures and identities are constructed and contested within the context of local and transnational forces. In particular, this entails an examination of a variety of vital factors including: nationally sanctioned and contested ideologies, the role of class formation, and grassroots efforts that challenge and reconfigure definitions of national identity through their activities and representations. In addition, the the manner in which the media and information technology impact the formation of identities and cultures through the dynamics of globalization is explored. Key to this examination is the movements of both people (and capital) and how evolving processes of (im)migration challenge previous accepted notions of culture and identity, as variations of what were once considered coherent cultural belief systems and traditions are quickly emerging. Moreover, this course will consider cultures and identities in the context of unequal power relations and transnational mechanisms of exclusion and coercion at work in the construction of counter-identities and cultures of resistance around the world.

Instructor: Antonia Darder

 

Organizational Development in Education

Organizational change has emerged as a critical topic in education administration, and the ability to lead change at various levels is now a key competence for teachers and administrators alike. This course will help students develop an understanding of the external and internal forces that drive the need for change, of major models to understand how change unfolds at individual, group, organizational, and system-wide levels, and how organizational change might be facilitated and led. The course will focus on change in traditional and non-traditional educational settings and on change in a globalizing societal context.

Instructor: Peter Kuchinke

 

Open Source, Open Access, Open Education

The present decade can be called the "open" decade (open source, open systems, open standards, open archives, open everything) just as the 1990s were called the "electronic" decade (e-text, e-learning, e-commerce, e-governance). This course will introduce course participants to the emergent paradigm of Open Education (OE): first, by setting the scene briefly outlining the challenges of higher education represented by globalization, the knowledge economy and the development of e-learning; second, by reviewing and concept and contemporary forms of "openness", including open source, open access and the "open society"; third, by providing a grounding in the state of the field of open education, including related topics like copyright, licensing and sustainability; and, fourth, by encouraging you to think and act creatively about current practices and possible alternative practices in open education.

Instructor: Michael Peters

 

Study Abroad: Experience and Issues

This course will look at the potential of study abroad programs for internationalizing the curriculum. It will consider the benefits and pitfalls of study abroad programs and will develop a set of criteria for assessing their successful implementation. Additionally, the course will provide students an opportunity for going on a two to three week long study trip to a destination to be announced once negotiations have been completed. On this trip, students will participate in lectures and workshops and will visit schools and other educational institutions and may even seek to negotiate with local teachers a study abroad program for their own students. Although every effort will be made to secure funding for this option, GSE students should plan to meet much of the costs associated with this trip themselves. The students unable to participate or uninterested in this option will be offered an alternative on-line course, drawn from a list of courses on related topics offered by other departments, colleges or even universities abroad.

Instructor: Fazal Rizvi

 

School-Based Project in Internationalization

This course will give students an opportunity to pursue a project of their own, hopefully useful to their own school. The students will be encouraged to utilize some of the theoretical and practical ideas explored in the core courses to develop a policy on internationalization, or a set of workshop to promote internationalization, or a curriculum package in a disciplinary area, or indeed a study abroad or exchange program using technologies.

Instructor: Fazal Rizvi