Courses

Core Courses | Electives

The 32 credit hours required for the Master of Education degree are earned through successful completion of eight, 4-hour courses. Six of these courses are considered "Core Courses," and are taken by all GSE Online students. The remaining two courses are your "Electives," which allow you greater influence and direction over your education. Below, you will find an overview of the core courses, as well as a description of the electives that have been offered in the past.

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Core Courses

The following six courses are required of all GSE Online EdM students.

1. EPS 530: Globalization and Educational Policy (4 hrs)

Instructor: Dr. Nicole Lamers

This course is based on the assumption that it is no longer possible to interpret and analyze educational policies within their national contexts; and that global processes affect the ways in which educational policies are now developed. Surveying recent debates about globalization, the course shows how global institutions, such as transnational corporations, intergovernmental organizations, NGOs and the media affect the global circulations of educational policy ideas and ideologies. The course then examines, using case studies drawn from around the world, the extent to which the processes of globalization have created conditions of cultural homogeneity and global inequalities; and explores how such negative affects of globalization might be resisted.

Sample Student Projects:

• Globalization and Educational Policy in Turkey - M. Fitzpatrick, F. Rahman, & H. Esen
• Critical Essay on Globalization - F. Rahman
• Globalization and Culture: Global Mélange (Book Review) - S. Whitaker

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2. EPS 590 CMC: Global Perspectives in Curriculum (4 hrs)

Instructor: Dr. Cameron McCarthy

In this course we will centrally consider the impact and implications for modern curriculum theory and practice of the expanding economic, cultural and political networks of affiliation, association and interconnectivity across national borders around the world being generated apace in the new century. These practices and processes of interconnectivity have come to be collectively described by contemporary observers as "globalization." Dynamics associated with globalization as expressed in the intensification and movement of cultural and economic capital, mass migration, and the amplification and proliferation of images are now fully articulated to modern schooling and the social and cultural environments in which both school youth and educators now operate. This course focuses on the way globalization has precipitated the rearticulation and the refiguration of key terms that have served to make modern life and modern educational institutional processes and experiences intelligible to students, educational practitioners and researchers alike. These key terms that will be centrally addressed in the course are a) nation/state, b) culture, c) identity, d) economy, e) the organization of school knowledge.

Sample Student Projects:

• Strategic Use of Academic Technologies at Coventry University

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3. EPS 415 GSE: Information Technology Ethics (4 hrs)

Instructor: Dr. Nick Burbules

This course examines some of the key social, ethical, and policy dimensions of new technology use in schools, linking this discussion to the challenges and opportunities provided by globalization. Computers, the Internet, and other multimedia technologies introduce new challenges in thinking about the consequences of technology uses for the learning opportunities and outcomes of students. This course will explore such critical themes as access and equity issues, censorship, privacy, commercialization, new forms of literacy, online communication, and developing a "global community" through the Internet. It will also provide opportunities to investigate the ways in which schools are able to use technology to internationalize their curriculum.

Sample Student Projects:

• The NGO Bridge
• Corporations, Technology, and Education

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4. EPSY 590 GSE: Global Issues in Learning and Pedagogy (4 hrs)

Instructor: Dr. Adrienne Lo

This course examines how theories of teaching and learning have been influenced by globalization. We discuss the impact of and rationale behind comparisons of teaching and assessment across countries; psychological and anthropological models of teaching, learning, and assessment; and how ideas about culture have been used to explain differences in academic achievement.

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5. EPS 590 IDC: Identity and Culture in Globalized Contexts (4 hrs)

Instructor: Dr. Linda Herrera

This online course in the Global Studies in Education masters program considers how identities and cultures are constructed and contested within the context of local, national and global arenas and the implications of these for education. All forms of the media and the latest information technologies impact the formation of identities and cultures through the dynamics of globalization and immigration in the postmodern era. The course examines narratives of personal, gender, ethnic, national and immigration identities and the impact of new media on youth identities. Global movements of people (and capital) either voluntary or forced, challenge previously accepted notions of identity and culture, especially traditional belief systems and result in many people seeking certainty in an era that is subject to myriad changes. Therefore the course considers cultural studies and identity politics, notions of subjectivity, biopower, interculturalism and power relations.

Sample Student Projects:

• International Political Violence and the Next Generation: Moral Constitution in an Age of Permanent War - M. Peters

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6. EPS 590 PRJ: Educational Project in Internationalization (4 hrs)

Instructor: Dr. Nicole Lamers

This course is designed as a capstone project to enable students to apply some of the insights they have developed from earlier coursework. Students are able to follow interests developed during their GSE studies and are encouraged to develop a practical project linked either to their workplace or to a specific topic about education and internationalization or globalization. A project might be:

• a curriculum package designed to internationalize the curriculum or
• a small-scale survey about attitudes towards internationalization or globalized education, followed by a discussion of how issues that emerge might be tackled or
• a professional development program in internationalization for teachers and others or
• a policy on international education or
• an action research project that helps your colleagues understand some of the issues you have been exploring.

All projects require an introductory section that critically examines the literature and theories on the notion of either internationalization or globalization, depending on your topic.

Sample Student Projects:

• Reducing the Barriers to Education - R. Saum
• Globalization: Attitudes and Programming Among Programming Librarians - M. Fournier
• Evaluation of Internationalization of Education at International School of Beijing - K. How
• African Secondary Education
• Teaching Globalization and Canadian Studies through the Media - R. Dane-Poirier & K. Marciochi

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Elective Courses

In addition to the six core courses, students can choose from a suite of electives to complete the remaining 8-credit hours required for the degree. Currently, elective options include the following five courses:

A. HRE 530 GSE: Organization Development in Education (4 hrs)

Instructor: Dr. Peter Kuchinke

Organizational change has emerged as a critical topic in education administration, and the ability to lead change at various levels is now a key competence for teachers and administrators alike. This course will help students develop an understanding of the external and internal forces that drive the need for change, of major models to understand how change unfolds at individual, group, organizational, and system-wide levels, and how organizational change might be facilitated and led. The course will focus on change in traditional and non-traditional educational settings and on change in a globalizing societal context.

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B. EPS 590 OP: Open Source, Open Access, Open Education (4 hrs)

Instructor: Dr. Michael A. Peters

The present decade can be called the "open" decade (open source, open systems, open standards, open archives, open everything) just as the 1990s were called the "electronic" decade (e-text, e-learning, e-commerce, e-governance). This course will introduce course participants to the emergent paradigm of Open Education (OE): first, by setting the scene briefly outlining the challenges of higher education represented by globalization, the knowledge economy and the development of e-learning; second, by reviewing and concept and contemporary forms of "openness", including open source, open access and the "open society"; third, by providing a grounding in the state of the field of open education, including related topics like copyright, licensing and sustainability; and, fourth, by encouraging you to think and act creatively about current practices and possible alternative practices in open education.

Sample Student Projects:

• Spreading the Flame Before the Blaze can be Extinguished - L. Morgan
• Open Education and Global Digital Connect and Disconnect - G. Walker
• The Democratic Turn: Prosumer Innovation and Learning in the Knowledge Economy - D. Araya

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C. EPSY 590 SAX: Study Abroad, Experience and Issues (4 hrs)

The 2011 Study Abroad elective changes each year. Here is a sample description from a past tour:

The summer tour course will explore some of the critical issues and tensions in Taiwan and in the region. We will examine the diverse and complex local, regional and global processes that shape Taiwan as a nation state, amid ongoing tensions in its relationship with China (Peoples’ Republic of China - PRC), Japan, Korea and other Asian nations. Our principal goal is to foster an understanding and appreciation of Taiwanese history, cultures, identity and education. During the course, students will directly interact and enter into a dialogue with academics, local figures and officials. We will visit many cultural sites and museums, attend daily excursions, concerts and cultural events, and be involved in the everyday life of this vibrant Asian country, noting differences as we travel from North to South. The course generally meets online 6-8 weeks/lessons prior to the trip (tba), and then meets 2-3 times online after the trip to Taiwan. There are readings and written assignments associated with the course theme with one assignment to be completed before departure, and another after the trip.

Sample Student Projects:

• The Strays of Europe - C. Parmenter
• The Built Landscape of Istanbul: Identity and Modernity Collide - M. Pour-Previti

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D. EPS 530 ENT: Education, Entrepreneurship and Creativity in the Global Knowledge Economy (4 hrs)

Instructors: Dr. Michael A. Peters and Dr. Tina Besley

This new course aims to develop a critical understanding of the notions of entrepreneurship and creativity in education as important components in the global knowledge economy, to which the discipline of education has paid scant attention. Educators need to become far aware of the central role of education in the knowledge economy, as a vital component in a nation's economic well-being and comparative advantage. The World Bank has set out four pillars of the knowledge economy that all emphasize education as vital modernizing requirements for countries and since 2002 has conducted a series of annual forums on the knowledge economy. Education now plays multiple roles and becomes the primary driver for the economic system, linked to ICT as the medium, and innovation and creativity as the mainspring for productivity growth. The knowledge economy concept highlights human and social capital as the main resources for generational economic development, production and innovative capacity.

Sample Student Projects:

• Special Education in a Creative Economy: The Role of Persons with Disabilities - T. Lauter

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E. EPS 590 GCE: Global Citizenship Education (4 hrs)

Instructor: Dr. Michael A. Peters

This course explores the main theories and key concepts that shape the discourse of citizenship, including its historical development, its relationship to modernity and cosmopolitanism, its national and international formulations, and specifically the dilemmas of American citizenship, slavery and abolition, and the struggle for civil rights. The course also examines and reflects on the meanings of key principles and concepts such as human rights, democracy, nationalism and identity to discover how social, ideological and cultural issues interrelate with the history and teaching of citizenship. It examines the future of citizenship and recent challenges in relation to questions of gender, multiculturalism and globalization with a view to understanding and enhancing the role of global citizenship education.

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