Collaboration with Other Units

February 16, 1995

A central mission of the EPS Department is to provide courses in social and philosophical foundations for the College's teacher certification programs and the masters of education programs. This requires the Department to collaborate with other departments around programs and goals that are central to the College's overall mission. For instance, the College is now engaged in redesigning its teacher education programs and the EPS Department will collaborate with Curriculum and Instruction to offer innovative and high quality teacher education courses. At particular times such efforts demand that we develop new courses or redesign old ones. For example, during the summer of 1995 Professor Alston will offer a new course on the Philosophy of Middle School Education to meet new mandates in this area. Also, Professor Burbules has developed with Professor Bruce of Curriculum and Instruction a team-taught course on constructivism. In recent years we have offered special sections of EPS 402 as part of the graduate program for doctoral cohorts in EOL. In the Fall of 1995, we will also offer a special section of EPS 402 for the new doctoral cohort in Vocational and Technical Education.

Within the College we collaborate with EOL faculty to offer a strong program in Educational Policy Analysis and joint degrees in law and education. Outside the College the Department collaborates with the Medical Scholars Program, Afro-American Studies, and Women's Studies. For example, every other summer the Afro-American Studies and Research Program offers a summer institute for high school history teachers on pedagogical strategies to include African and African-American content into the teaching of standard history, civics, and world history courses. Each summer two or three of our faculty teach in the program and one is a member of its core faculty. Another campus-wide project is the Department's collaboration with various units to reform undergraduate education. Members of our faculty played key roles on the major committees and the Department has developed three new courses to meet Writing Composition II and General Education Requirements.

Recent efforts by the College to acquire the national Center for the Study of Disadvantaged Students also evidence the Department's ability to collaborate with various academic units in behalf of a major grant. We view this as the beginning of other opportunities to secure similar projects. Our strengths in social science and policy analysis provide a foundation for substantial collaboration to secure major projects. Likewise, the leadership our faculty played in organizing and supporting the Dean's retreat on cultural diversity demonstrates the ways in which EPS faculty can collaborate with other units to achieve goals that are central to the mission of the college. Finally, our faculty are collaborating with other faculty to spearhead the College's efforts to develop a new interdisciplinary program in technology and learning.