This class draws upon the major historiographic schools of analysis--modern and postmodern--to better understand the philosophical and sociocultural assumptions about and consequences of public schooling. The purpose is to see how schooling has been shaped by various forces--both local and world-historical--from about 1870 to the present. 

In its focus on the historical factors that have largely determined the way public schools operate today, this class is designed to help the student understand what those factors are and how they have shaped public schooling in both practical and ideological ways over the last 150 years. With this understanding, he/she, having a broader and deeper view of schooling, will be a more informed and effective educational leader and change-agent at his/her school site--and beyond. 

Program Outcome

Link to Outcome 1: An enriched historical perspective enables the educational leader to help forge "a shared vision" in "collaboration with fellow educators and other stakeholders" since he/she comes to the discussion with knowledge of what has been tried--based on what assumptions and to what effect--in U.S. educational reform over the last 150 years. 

Link to Outcome 4: Central to the study of the history of U.S. education is an understanding of how public schooling has tended to empower some cultural groups and disempower others. Having a nuanced sense of the history of this cultural dynamic in the ideological construction of U.S. public schooling helps educational leaders become "culturally proficient agents for educational equity."  

Link to Outcome 5: The "political, philosophical, social, economic, legal and cultural contexts of education" are the very factors around which the study of U.S. education history revolves. EDLF 755 examines them in depth.