Welcome Message from Our Chair
Dr. Jeffrey Henig, Professor of Political Science and Education
Program Coordinator, Politics & Education Program
Chair, Department of Education Policy & Social Analysis
Dear Current and Prospective Students, Faculty, and Alumni,
If curriculum and classroom teaching are the meat and potatoes of schooling, education policy is the supply line that determines whether the basic ingredients are available, affordable, fresh, and of high quality. The faculty and programs that have come together in TC’s new Department of Education Policy & Social Analysis (EPSA) focus on how governments, markets, and societal conditions shape schooling and the broader enterprise of creating a population that is informed about the challenges and opportunities it confronts, able to critically analyze its needs and interests, and prepared to work together to make a better world.
EPSA embraces the value of drawing on several disciplines. It houses separate and venerable programs in Economics and Education, Politics and Education, and Sociology and Education and a notable group of legal scholars. Both scholarly research and policy application, however, often call for communication and collaboration across the disciplines and to prepare students to operate in that environment, the department offers an interdisciplinary program (Leadership, Policy & Politics). The department’s core areas of expertise include early childhood education, charter schools and vouchers, home schooling, K-12 education reform, higher education policy, law and education, and the role of nonschool factors (such as demographic change, public health, and human services) in affecting education achievement and equity. [Read the full Welcome Message]
