CONN 415 | Education and the Changing Workforce

This course examines the relationship between the evolving nature of work in the US over the last 50 years and concurrent developments in educational policies. The relationship between work and public education is complex. It is one thing to argue for an education agenda that emphasizes 'higher cognitive outcomes' for everyone based on current and future trends in the nature of work in the US. Yet it may be too much to expect that even a highly successful education system alone can shape and sustain an economy. This course addresses how technology and globalization place new demands on work in advanced economies as well as how these new demands translate into dramatic proposals for changing the nature of public school education in the US and selected Asian countries. A final theme in the course considers the issues of poverty and diversity by examining the children of highly mobile, generally low wage workers and the way they affect public education.