FORM1051 · Education
Lynch School of Education & Human Development
As products of schooling, we find it natural, invisible, inevitable. And yet, modern mass schooling is a relatively recent and-with a little distance-rather strange invention. To defamiliarize this peculiar institution, this course weighs the affordances and limitations of formal and informal education, considers the historical forces that led to the rise of compulsory schooling, and explores the felt experience of being schooled. Through reading and discussion of primary texts in the social sciences and humanities, we examine the official purposes and hidden curriculum of schools, asking questions such as: Does schooling aim to socialize or to individualize? How can it serve both liberal and vocational aims? How do schools shape character and social interaction? What sort of knowledge is valorized in school? Who sets the curriculum in pluralistic society? and, Is schooling a force for social change or social reproduction? We will consider how schools might be reimagined to deal with the great educational challenges of the day. What civic education is needed to deal with entrenched inequality, surging xenophobia, fraying democracy, and the post-truth condition? How does the heedless embrace of deformative technologies set new challenges and tasks for schooling? How must education evolve in light of the climate emergency? As students, you need to understand the institution that shaped you. As citizens, you need to think about how we can reimagine school and society.
Course experience
Averages use the original five-point historical evaluation scale.
Organization
4.5 / 5
How well the course was organized
Challenge
4.3 / 5
How intellectually challenging students found it
Attendance
4.4 / 5
How necessary attendance was
Assignments
4.5 / 5
How helpful assignments were
Weekly effort
~3.5
hours per week
Estimated from the original workload response buckets. Individual sections may differ.
Instructor options
Ratings below reflect only recovered evaluations connected to this course.
Part Time Faculty, Department of Formative Education
4.8 / 5
4.7 / 5
Instructional/Leadership Coach, The Roche Center for Catholic Education
4.6 / 5
4.2 / 5
Director, Formative Leadership Education, Education Leadership and Higher Education · LSOE
4.5 / 5
4.3 / 5
Professor, Department of Formative Education
4.3 / 5
4.1 / 5
Associate Professor, Counseling, Developmental & Educational Psychology
3.8 / 5
3.5 / 5
Student perspective
Recovered and new anonymous comments are shown as written and may reflect different course formats.
May 9, 2025 · Historical comment
Super nice guy. Participation matters, but he is very understanding. Grading can be a bit vague, but there are no tests, and homework is manageable. It was an interesting class, but got a little repetitive, in my opinion.
Across time
Section-level results available in the recovered archive.
Spring 2025
4 sectionsFall 2024
2 sectionsSpring 2024
5 sectionsFall 2023
2 sectionsSpring 2023
4 sectionsFall 2022
1 section