Courses in the Program of Comparative and International Education

The following course descriptions are available. Please check the Class Schedule or contact the program for course availability for each semester:

Program Courses:

ITSF 4013 Literacy and development
This course examines common assumptions about the relationship between literacy and cognitive and/or social, political and/or economic development.

ITSF 4014 Urban situations and education
An introduction to the anthropological study of the sociocultural patterns of populations residing in urban settings, with emphasis on domestic, ethnic, class, and educational relationships.

ITSF 4015 Introduction to computers, language, and literacy
Sociocultural implications of computer use in education; viability of software use in the light of language learning theories; evaluation of electronic materials for use by bilingual, ESL, and native- and foreign-language learners. Materials fee: $20.

ITSF 4018 Anthropology and development in Africa
This course considers issues and problems of development in sub-Saharan Africa. It examines specific development projects from different theoretical and empirical perspectives.

ITSF 4025 Languages, society, and schools
This course studies the role that languages play in different societal contexts. It examines the language policies of different societies and looks at how these policies are enacted or not in different institutional contexts by diverse speakers. In doing so, the course pays attention to diverse language ideologies as well as to the relationship between language and identity. Languages and literacies in schools, especially educational language policy in multilingual contexts, receive special consideration.

ITSF 4034 Dynamics of family interaction
An introduction to communication patterns inside families, with a special emphasis on both their complexity at the interpersonal level and their simplicity within the social structure of a community. Class time is dominated by cross-cultural data on family structure and videotape analyses of communication patterns within American families.

ITSF 4051 Education and economic development
This course examines the links between education and various aspects of economic Development. Topics include the impact of human capital accumulation on economic growth, the educational attainment of men and women in developing countries, the effects of schooling on labor force participation, wages and fertilities, and the issues of school finance and educational policy in the Third World.

ITSF 4054 Education and strategic planning
Educational planning within the context of national economic planning; the methods, assumptions, validity, and usefulness of the major approaches; examples mainly from the less developed countries.

ITSF 4055 Resource Allocation in Education
This course reviews the literature on school effectiveness with respect to the allocation of resources. It addresses and analyzes education production functions and cost-effectiveness analysis in educational decision-making.

ITSF 4090 Issues and institutions in international educational development
This course explores theoretical approaches to the study of education in international development and uses these approaches to consider current topics and debates in the fields of international and comparative education. This course also introduces students to institutions involved with educational development in diverse global settings, such as the United Nations and the World Bank. This course is also offered at the doctoral level (ITSF 6581).

ITSF 4091 Comparative education
Introduction to theories in comparative education, cross-national comparative analysis, educational indicator research, educational transfer and borrowing, and the relation between culture and education. This course is also offered at the doctoral level (ITSF 6580).

ITSF 4092 Qualitative research and evaluation in international education
The study of qualitative methodologies appropriate to various kinds of educational programs, issues, and problems in diverse research settings.

ITSF 4093 Preparation of instructional materials for developing countries
Problems, issues, and approaches in the preparation of written and other instructional materials for developing countries.

ITSF 4094 Educational planning in international educational development
Point allocation to be determined by topic each time course is offered. Topic courses explore issues related to the socioeconomic and cultural context of educational planning and policy studies. They consider the relation to specific issues of various approaches to planning and their attendant outcomes. Topics vary and may include any of the following, Education in the Middle East, Educational Development in the Muslim World, Emergency Education, Gender, Education, and International Development, Human Rights, International Education Policy, and Education in Post-Conflict Settings.

ITSF 4096 Strategic planning and organizational change in international and national educational settings
The seminar uses theories and methods of social network analysis for examining regional and global policy networks. Besides reading and discussing sociological texts and policy studies literature, we will conduct collaborative empirical analyses of policy networks and policy entrepreneurs. Willing-ness to conduct empirical research (content and reference analyses) is a condition for participating in this seminar.

ITSF 4097 International and comparative studies in educational finance
Educational finance in international settings. Financing role of international development agencies. International and comparative studies in educational finance.

ITSF 4098 Educational Development and Policies in China
Historical and national development contexts of educational development in China. Key policy issues in education by level and across levels.

ITSF 4155 Evaluating Educational Privatization & School Choice
This course addresses the increasing emphasis on market-type choice systems including educational vouchers, for-profit educational firms, and charter schools. It places great emphasis on the theory of emerging empirical evidence underlying these developments in education.

ITSF 4190 Communicative practices: intercultural perspectives
A topical course exploring language as situated social practice and focusing on communication within and across national boundaries. Domains examined include schooling, work, community, and the public arena. Both spoken and written modes are considered.

ITSF 4195 Academic literacies
This course is designed to help students develop the professional knowledge and skills necessary for effective communication through such genres as research projects, conference presenta-tions, contributions to journals, grant proposals, and evaluation reports.

ITSF 4603 Human and social dimensions of peace
Focuses on issues and problems of human rights, global ethics, gender issues, and various aspects of structural and cultural violence. Offered in distinct versions in fall and spring; one emphasizing ethical issues and the other gender perspectives. Another course in human rights may be substituted for the concentration in peace education.

ITSF 4611 Education for global security
Explores issues of peace and violence from various perspectives, among them global security culture and militarism. Emphasizes alternative security systems such as disarmament, international and gender justice, ecological and human security.

ITSF 4613 Fundamental concepts in peace education
This course provides a grounding in the evolution theory and pedagogy of peace education. It draws from the international literature of the field as it has been developed over the past three decades, and reviews teaching practices relevant to various cultures and learning settings.

ITSF 4614 The United Nations as peace educator
This course reviews and assesses the work of the world organization and how it facilitates the learning necessary to an integrated global society. The area of emphasis and problem of focus vary from semester to semester.

ITSF 5000 Methods of inquiry: Ethnography and participant observation
The methods of the behavioral and social sciences as they relate to ethnography and participant observation. Emphasis on the role of theory, characteristics and relative efficiencies of various research techniques, and the importance of integrated research design.

ITSF 5001 Ethnography and participant observation: fieldwork, analysis, reporting
Permission required. ITSF 5000 or equivalent required. Emphasis on the issues arising out of ethnographic research as they arise during a pilot project from entry into the field to the writing of the results.

ITSF 5002 Ethnography and participant observation: Comparative and qualitative analysis
Permission required. ITSF5000 or equivalent required. Issues of comparative and quantitative analysis of data generated by ethnographic/participant observation inquiries.

ITSF 5003 Communication and culture
Introduction to major theories of human communication and culture as they relate and build on each other.

ITSF 5005 Interdisciplinary study of the family
Critical examination of the interaction of internal and external forces and their effects upon individuals and families, drawing upon perspectives of various social science disciplines.

ITSF 5007 Race, class and schooling: Ethnographic approaches
Professor Bartlett. This course examines the role of schooling in the formation of race and class structures across the Americas, including Latin America, the Caribbean, and the United States.

ITSF 5023 The family as educator
Permission required. Analysis of the family as educator and its interrelations with schools and other educational institutions. Emphasis on inquiry deriving from educational practice and behavioral science theory.

ITSF 5026 The family and television
Permission required. An analysis of the impact of television on the family's educative functions, with special attention to the process by which the family mediates television.

ITSF 5090 Education and Demographic Change
This course examines the relationship between education and demo-graphic change in international educational development. It focuses on historical and cul-tural changes in the areas of fertility, migration, mortality, and sustainable development.

ITSF 5120 Education in community settings: Museums
Permission required. A review and an analysis of educational issues and opportunities in various community settings. Special fee: $5.

ITSF 5121 Education in community settings: Community centers
Permission required. A review and an analysis of educational issues and opportunities in various community settings. Special fee: $5.

ITSF 5122 Education in community settings: Correctional institutions
Permission required. A review and an analysis of educational issues and opportunities in various community settings. Special fee: $5.

ITSF 5123 School counseling for the bilingual/bicultural child and family
See the Department of International and Transcultural Studies for course description.

ITSF 5519 Research in language and literacy
Research in such areas as spatial, temporal, textual, and social deixis in language, with particular attention to culturally variant norms and their implications for educational practice. Materials fee: $20.

ITSF 5520 Research in language and literacy II
Research in the varieties of language used in literate expression, with particular attention to culturally variant norms and their implications for educational practice. Materials fee: $20.

ITSF 5580 Postcolonial studies of education
Prerequisites or corequisites: ITSF 4090 and ITSF 4091. This course explores the impact of missionary, colonial education, and neo-colonial education on school reform both in dependent countries and in former colonial countries.

ITSF 5590 Education and the development of nations
Prerequisites: ITSF 4090/6580 or ITSF 4091/6581. This seminar explores the politics of education in international and transcultural contexts. Course topics include educational equity and quality as well as the role of international donors in transplanting particular “best practice” or reform packages from one national context to another.

ITSF 5691 Colloquium on international education and the United Nations - Goals and content: Major world developments and their implications for education
The course presents the history as well as the current strategies and initiatives of various international organizations. The general introduction attempts to highlight, from a critical perspective, the logic of donors and the rationale for external assistance. Several trends will be analyzed in greater detail: knowledge banks, demands for good governance, post Cold War studies, south-south transfer, and the War on Terror and U.S. assistance. To enable a comparative perspective, international organizations discussed in this course are not restricted to U.N. organizations but also include development banks, international NGOs, bilateral assistance programs as well as other international organizations. A few representatives of international organizations are invited as guest speakers.

ITSF 5692 Colloquium on international education and the United Nations: Theory and teaching techniques: New trends in international education
Permission required. Enrollment limited. Through class interchange and use of United Nations human and material resources, participants develop innovative teaching materials suitable for their own educational systems.

ITSF 6125 Research issues in communicative practices
A critical review of selected research directions and paradigms for the analysis of spoken and written communication.

ITSF 6520 Seminar in families and communities as educators
Permission required. A research seminar in the family and the community as educational systems.

ITSF 6580 Advanced seminar in international education I
This course will focus on the history, methods and theories in the field of international and comparative education.

ITSF 6581 Advanced seminar in international education II
This course will focus on issues, institutions, and applications in the practice of international and comparative education.

ITSF 6590 Doctoral seminar in international and transcultural studies
Permission required. Presentation of research in progress and examination of professional roles.