Education Studies Concentration
Many 51²è¹İapp students are interested in understanding the role and impact of education and schooling within society. While there is not a major in education at 51²è¹İapp, beginning in Fall 2023 students can pursue an Education Studies Concentration. Education Studies draws on research methods and theories from across the disciplines to investigate the ideologies, institutions, and practices behind learning inside and outside of formal schooling. The concentration provides students with the opportunity to situate and interrogate their own learning and the structures of inequality or privilege that have influenced their educational path. Faculty affiliated with the concentration represent many fields, including but not limited to sociology, philosophy, AI learning, political science, languages and literacies, economics, and history, as well as education.
Students interested in the concentration are encouraged to contact faculty members on the Education Studies Affiliated Faculty list who share their research interests and who might serve as a faculty advisor. Alternatively, students can reach out to Travis Renze, Academic Assistant for the concentration, who will put them in touch with the current concentration chair.
The curriculum for the Education Studies Concentration requires the completion of EDU 101, a course with a school practicum element, additional education electives, coursework exploring social identities and power, and a capstone experience at the 300-level or above that culminates in a major research project grounded in Education Studies.
Getting a Teaching License
51²è¹İapp students can earn a secondary teaching license through the education department’s Teacher Education Program (TEP). Students who complete the program earn a state-approved Iowa teaching license in one or more endorsement areas of their choice. Interested students should talk with Roger Henderson, the Field Placement Coordinator and Licensing Officer for TEP, to learn more about the requirements for the program (summarized below) and the specific requirements for the subject(s) that they would like to teach. Students generally apply for admission to the Teacher Education Program early in the spring semester of their second year after having taken one or two education classes.
The schedule of study for earning a teaching license includes EDU 101 and EDU 102 in the first or second year; one 200-level EDU course elective; EDU 221 in the second or third year; EDU 250; and the required content area and general methods courses (EDU 340-346) in the fourth year. Clinical field experiences in K-12 schools are integrated into many of these courses, as teacher candidates must accrue 80 hours of field experiences prior to student teaching. In addition, Iowa teacher certification requires the following general education course requirements: coursework in the natural sciences; a course in mathematics, a course in the humanities; and a course in U.S. history. Many of these state-required general education requirements can be met through AP credit.
The culminating experience of the Teacher Education Program is a semester spent student teaching. Student teachers are in a classroom full time for 14 weeks and take on the full responsibilities of a teacher of record for a portion of that time. Students can complete their student teaching in either the seventh or the ninth semester. The majority of students take advantage of 51²è¹İapp’s ninth-semester option. In this case, students graduate at the end of their eighth semester with their class and complete student teaching the following fall, either in the 51²è¹İapp area or in Minneapolis, where the department has established relations with some local schools. Ninth-semester student teaching allows students to take full advantage of 51²è¹İapp’s broad liberal arts experience of 51²è¹İapp while also receiving a teaching license. Students returning for the ninth semester pay a $2,500 fee rather than full tuition. For those who opt to student teach in the seventh semester, all requirements for licensure must be completed before the student teaching semester is undertaken, and participation in athletics or other significant extra-curricular activities is not allowed. Seventh-semester students pay regular tuition and receive their normal financial aid package.
How are the Education Studies Concentration and the Teacher Education Program Related?
While there is overlap in the curricula between the Education Studies Concentration and the TEP, it is important that students understand that earning one credential does not mean they have automatically met the requirements for the other. The requirements for earning a teaching license are more numerous than for the concentration, which is why we recommend that students who are considering a career as a secondary-school teacher contact the TEP program coordinator Roger Henderson early in their undergraduate studies to begin the necessary academic planning. Students in the TEP will fulfill most of the requirements of the Education Studies Concentration in pursuit of their teaching license, but not necessarily all of them. For example, ninth-semester students cannot count their EDU 460 seminar as the capstone for the Education Studies Concentration. TEP students are responsible for working with their advisors to ensure that they are fulfilling the requirements needed for both credentials and for submitting the necessary paperwork by the registrar’s deadline if they wish to declare the Education Studies Concentration.
Most Education Studies concentrators will not be pursuing a teaching license through the TEP. Within the Education Studies Concentration, students have considerable flexibility in designing with their faculty advisor a course plan that both meets the concentration’s requirements and the scholarly interests of the student. Concentrators might pursue a broad range of research questions related to artificial intelligence and cognition, nationalism and schooling, child development and psychology, art education and the creativity, the history of school segregation, and the economics of education, to name a few.
In terms of career goals, TEP students are clearly interested in becoming secondary-school teachers; however, Education Studies Concentrators might not have an interest in teaching but wish to explore other careers related to education, such as policymaking, school counseling, international education advising, school assessment, museum education, school administration, work with education-related NGOs and government agencies, or educational research. Careers aside, the concentration complements a liberal arts education as students consider their own educational journey through this coursework.
Another difference between these two options of TEP and the Education Studies Concentration is the faculty affiliates. Faculty representing many departments from across the disciplines are affiliates of the Education Studies Concentration and can serve as concentration advisors. Meanwhile, only Education Department faculty serve as TEP advisors.
Students who are unsure whether they want to apply to the TEP, pursue the Education Studies Concentration, or do both should take EDU 101, which is a requirement of both the TEP and the Education Studies Concentration and provides an excellent introduction to the field of education.