SAEN Courses

In fall quarter, five current issues broadly related to education and society are discussed and debated among students and faculty. In winter quarter, topics pertaining to gender and education, particularly in developing countries, are explored. In the spring, the seminar revolves around race and ethnicity in higher education. Through an examination of these topics, students are able to share and develop their varied interests in educational research, policy, and practice.

Theories and perspectives from the social sciences relevant to the role of education in changing, modifying, or reproducing structures of gender differentiation and hierarchy. Cross-national research on the status of girls and women and the role of development organizations and processes. (SHIPS)

Required of juniors and seniors in the honors program in the School of Education. Student involvement and apprenticeships in educational research. Participants share ongoing work on their honors thesis. Prerequisite: consent of instructor. May be repeated for credit once.

Education I: Introduction
Required for M.A. students in ICE and IEAPA. Orientation to the M.A. program and research project; exploration of resources for study and research. (SHIPS/ICE)

Education II: Master's Monograph Proposal
Required for M.A. students in ICE and IEAPA. Development of research skills through theoretical and methodological issues in comparative and international education. Preparation of a research proposal for the M.A. monograph. (SHIPS/ICE)

Education III: Data Collection and Analysis
Required for M.A. students in ICE and IEAPA. Practice in data collection and analysis. Preparation of the first draft of the M.A. monograph. (SHIPS/ICE)

Conclusion of the M.A. program in ICE and IEAPA; required of M.A. students. Reviews of students' research in preparation for their master's monograph. (SHIPS/ICE)

Focus is on authors who establish claims that the purposes, functions, impacts, and social roles of schooling promote human capital, citizenship, social reproduction, values transmission, social mobility, class equality, racial equality, social stratification, disciplinary power, and the pursuit of individual interests. Historical and sociological approaches.

(Graduate students register for EDUC 212X or SOC 229X). Combination of social science and historical perspectives trace the major developments, contexts, tensions, challenges, and policy issues of urban education.

Theory and practice. Focus is on how education may be seen as a human rights issue and a tool to educate citizens about their human rights. The history of human rights and the spread of the international human rights regime in terms of organizations and treaties. Issues include street and working children, language rights, and women’s right to education.

The effects of schools and schooling on individuals, the stratification system, and society. Education as socializing individuals and as legitimizing social institutions. The social and individual factors affecting the expansion of schooling, individual educational attainment, and the organizational structure of schooling.

Required for students in the POLS M.A. program; others welcome. Focus is on 20th-century U.S. Intended and unintended patterns in school change; the paradox of reform that schools are often reforming but never seem to change much; rhetorics of reform and factors that inhibit change. Case studies emphasize the American high school. (SHIPS/APA)

The lowly status of the education school in the United States is the issue that defines the starting point of this course. Topics include an exploration the historical development of this institution, its major social function, and the interaction between the two. The course touches on a variety of scholarly domains, including the history of education, sociology of education, higher education, and educational policy.

Part of doctoral research core. The logic of scientific inquiry in education, including identification of research questions, selection of qualitative or quantitative research methods, design of research studies, measurement, and collection, analysis and interpertation of evidence.

How improve capacity to exercise leadership and work effectively with others within the context of culturally diverse groups and organizations. Premise is that diversity presents challenges and opportunities that push students to develop leadership skills relevant across a variety of situations. What social and psychological obstacles limit people's ability to work effectively across identity-based differences? What can people do to build the relational and organizational capacity to enable these differences to be a resource for learning and effectiveness within teams and organizations? Focus is on dynamics of race and gender; attention to other dimensions of identity and... more description for EDUC 254X »

Quantitative methods to make causal inferences in the absence of randomized experiment including the use of natural and quasi-experiments, instrumental variables, regression discontinuity, matching estimators, longitudinal methods, fixed effects estimators, and selection modeling. Assumptions implicit in these approaches, and appropriateness in research situations. Students develop research proposals relying on these methods. Prerequisites: exposure to quantitative research methods; multivariate regression.

Course will provide hands-on practice in analysis of data from experimental and quasi-experimental research designs, including a) instrumental variables estimators; b) regression discontinuity estimators; c) difference-in-difference estimators; d) matching estimators; e) fixed effects estimators; and f) panel data methods (including individual fixed effects models, lagged covariate adjustment models, growth models, etc.). Prerequisites: satisfactory completion of EDUC 255B, EDUC 257C or SOC 257.

The effects of interactions between gender and the structures of higher education; policies seeking changes in those structures. Topics: undergraduate and graduate education, faculty field of specialization, rewards and career patterns, sexual harassment, and the development of feminist scholarship and pedagogy.

Seminar. Key sociological theories and empirical studies of the links between education and its role in modern society, focusing on frameworks that deal with sources of educational change, the organizational context of schooling, the impact of schooling on social stratification, and the relationships between the educational system and other social institutions such as families, neighborhoods, and the economy.

The educational applications of sociological and social psychological theory and research to interaction processes in schools. Readings include: foundational works by Mead, Schutz, and Simmel; contemporary work by Goffman, Homans, Merton, Blau, and Harold. Readings span empirical settings such as work, classrooms, gangs, primate societies, and children's games. Topics: processes of influence, role differentiation, identity formation, social mechanisms, and intra/inter group dynamics of peer relations. Methods for observation and analysis of small groups.

How to interpret interpersonal situations using microsociological theories. Focuses on the role of intention, identity, routines, scripts, rituals, conceptual frameworks, talk and emotions in social interaction. Processes by which interactions reverberate outward to transform groups and social structures. Special consideration will be placed on organizational contexts like schools, workplaces and policy decision arenas.

Introduction to social network theory, methods, and research applications in sociology. Network concepts of interactionist (balance, cohesion, centrality) and structuralist (structural equivalence, roles, duality) traditions are defined and applied to topics in small groups, social movements, organizations, communities. Students apply these techniques to data on schools and classrooms. (SHIPS)

Yearlong workshop where doctoral students are encouraged to collaborate with peers and faculty who share an interest in researching the network dynamics, histories and theories of action that help explain particular social phenomena. Students present their own research and provide helpful feedback on others' work. Presentations may concern dissertation proposals, grants, article submissions, book proposals, datasets, methodologies and other texts. Repeatable for credit.

The sociology of knowledge creation explores systematic relationships between thought and social structure in order to examine how human beings construct, interpret, and view reality. How knowledge is socially constructed, patterned, and used, and how everyday and tacit forms of knowledge are achieved. Emphasis is on the creation and patterning of scientific paradigms, social science disciplines, and the field of education.

This seminar is designed for doctoral students. One of claims of American educational policy and practice is the desire to achieve equitable educational results across society. But what does “equity” really entail? This course surveys a range of research and literature that examines the landscape of social institutions known to influence educational processes. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, students will analyze the main issues confronting schools through discussions of various social science explanations for existing conditions in American public education.

For doctoral students. How to develop a researchable question and research design, identify data sources, construct conceptual frameworks, and interpret empirical results. Presentation by student participants and scholars in the field. May be repeated for credit.

Required for higher education students. Major issues, current structural features of the system, the historical context that shaped it, and theoretical frameworks. The purposes of higher education in light of interest groups including students, faculty, administrators, and external constituents. Issues such as diversity, stratification, decentralization, and changes that cut across these groups. (APA)

The lowly status of the education school, defined as college, school, or department, within a university. Why does the education school get no respect? Its historical development, how it evolved into its current position in the academic hierarchy, and contemporary factors that help to reinforce that position. (SHIPS)

For undergraduates and graduate students interested in what colleges and universities do, and what society expects of them. The relationship between higher education and society in the U.S. from a sociological perspective. The nature of reform and conflict in colleges and universities, and tensions in the design of higher education systems and organizations.

For students doing advanced research. Group comments and criticism on dissertation projects at any phase of completion, including data problems, empirical and theoretical challenges, presentation refinement, and job market presentations. Collaboration, debate, and shaping research ideas. Prerequisite: courses in organizational theory or social network analysis.

The seminar will explore several lines of recent research from sociology, political science, and economics that explain the effects of institutions and account for processes of institutional change. The aim of the course is to assess the utility of these approaches, and understand what kinds of questions each line of work is best suited to answer. After reviewing the various approaches, we turn to several interesting topical areas and examine the purchase of these theories in accounting for specific cases of institutional transformation. The course is intended for PhD students only.