Course Spotlight: Internationalizing Education

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Professor Thomas Popkewitz

Course Description

“Internationalizing education” means both that education internationalizes our thinking and the ways we perceive the world, and that the field of education can be internationalized. The course will introduce students to various educational systems around the world, focusing on similarities and dissimilarities in what is taught. The course discussions will center on curriculum across cultures, and its relation to political systems and religions to build an understanding of diversity in societies and schools.  The topics will include local and indigenous knowledge; the role of international agencies in comparing nation’s school systems; the rise of private schools and universities; immigrations and the changing borders of society and cultures in the curriculum; questions of sexuality and gender diversity, diversity of families and social exclusions and inequalities in elementary and secondary schools. International and local speakers with multiple perspectives will be invited to explore issues of education as well as international opportunities for its study.  The class is organized as a seminar to cultivate critical thinking. Engagement in the course includes group and individual assessment, weekly readings, presentations, and experimentation.

Open to undergraduate students only.

Enrollment Details

Curriculum & Instruction 375: Internationalizing Education
Open to undergraduate students only.
3 credits
M 4-6:30pm, 495 Van Hise Hall
Fall 2015

About the Instructor

Thomas Popkewitz studies the knowledge or systems of reason that govern educational policy and research related to pedagogy and teacher education. His research includes historical, ethnographic, and comparative studies of national educational reforms and the education sciences in Asia, Europe, Latin America, Southern Africa, and the US. Scholarship. Popkewitz has written or edited approximately 30 books and over 200 articles in journals and as book chapters. Two of his books (Paradigms and Ideology in Educational Research and A Political Sociology of Educational Reform) have won awards for their contribution to educational studies.