This course takes a historical approach to examining educational policy in the U.S., focusing particularly on the interaction between federal policy and local and state contexts, to help students explore and answer these key questions: why and how did schooling became a public, state function in the U.S.? how have U.S citizens answered the question of who governs schools, and at what scale? How has education policy interacted with and been shaped by racism, sexism, classism, and heterosexism? Part I of the course focuses on cross-cutting historical questions about the idea and evolution of education policy and governance in the U.S. Part II examines examples of federal policy in education – including those that have attempted to address poverty through and within education, to address segregation by racial category, to support bilingual education, to meet the needs of students with disabilities, to establish standards for academic achievement, and to foster school choice.
Faculty. Permission by instructor required. Required of doctoral students in the semester following successful completion of certification examinations.
An examination of the city’s educational institutions from the perspective of the different school populations who attended them over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Considers the development of American education in the context of American social and intellectual history.
Understanding the development of schooling in US cities, with an emphasis on social, economic, and spatial changes in the metropolitan environment and their interactions with schools.
Permission of instructor required.
What is the purpose of higher education, and how has its purpose changed over time? In this course, we will investigate this fundamental question by contextualizing how religious, cultural, political, and international dynamics have contoured American higher education since the origins of the first colonial colleges to its present-day policies and issues.
An exploration of informal and formal education from slavery to the present.
This research seminar, open to students from any program, supports research on the history of Teachers College as an academic institution. The last history of TC was published in 1954. New histories are vitally needed now. Fresh evidence, more recently published scholarship, and alternative perspectives make this endeavor an excellent opportunity for students to engage in historical research.
This seminar takes a historical perspective to explore learning through experience changed with the rise of mass schooling, increasing urbanization and industrialization, and the revolution in technology and communications. Special attention will be given to initiatives aiming to promote learning through experience amidst the ever-expanding built world and the standardization and regimentation of formal education. The seminar examines the history of efforts to foster learning settings that integrate direct experience, spontaneity, creativity, adventure and play more fully into the education of children and young adults.
Discussion of research and teaching topics in history and education. Permission of instructor required.
Methods, principles, and problems of historical research and interpretation. Designed for students throughout the College undertaking systematic inquiries on historical topics.
Permission of instructor required.
Faculty. Individual advisement on doctoral dissertations. Fee to equal 3 points at current tuition rate for each term. For requirements, see section in catalog on Continuous Registration for Ed.D./Ph.D. degrees.
Program Director: Thomas James
Teachers College, Columbia University
334-E Horace Mann
Program Manager: Malgorzata Kolb
Phone: (212) 678-3751
Email: mlk2004@tc.columbia.edu