UMass Boston

Course Overview

Description

This course will provide students with a deep understanding of the characteristics of K-12 education policies and the issues to which they apply. Students will be given an introduction to several central educational policy debates, from both an American and international/comparative perspective, and many policy issues will be examined from an urban context. The course will be taught from a critical perspective and aims to give students the tools to critique policies through a variety of lenses. Themes to be covered include: characteristics of an education policy; unique attributes of urban education policies; issues/problems that K-12 educational policies are meant to solve; the determinants of and influences on educational policies; theories of policy change and policy analysis; how to critique and analyze policies; the distinctions between local, rational, and global level policies. The course is divided into three sections: (1) Concepts and Policy Analysis; (2) Policy Contexts; (3) Policy Issues. Both primary and secondary sources will be used (i.e. Policy documents and critiques of such policies), and as well texts which assist in guiding students on doing policy analysis. The course is designed to foster discussion and debate around policy issues and offer potential alternatives to our current educational policy landscape.