Few issues press on the minds, hearts, and lives of upcoming generations as much as climate change. Driven by swiftly accelerating transformations in our global environment and unmistakable scientific projections, young people face forms of uncertainty and anxiety around our global future -- sometimes infused by anger, denial or despair. The rise of youth involvement in issues of climate justice signals the importance of educational spaces as locations of action, awareness and dialogue.

Independent study is available to those students who wish to continue their learning in an area after completing the regularly offered courses in that area.

This masters project seminar uses reflective analysis to reconsider pedagogical dilemmas emerging from student teaching. In professional collaboration, students explore questions relating to culturally responsive teaching: What does it mean to be a culturally responsive and antiracist practitioner? How do my experiences and intersectional identities impact my cultural responsiveness? What actions can I take to interrogate my biases and social location and to contribute collaboratively to the ongoing work of equity?

The central work of this course is to center race as a lens for understanding education and miseducation in American schooling. Students engage the ongoing process of confronting and unlearning socialized assumptions about race and how these manifest in classrooms and in their own racialized identities. Students reflect on classroom teaching and learning experiences to develop and apply strategies and action steps that promote racial equity in learning contexts, engaging the following questions: How do I define my racialized identity?

This course provides students the opportunity to assume the role of an elementary/secondary teacher for a 15-week period during the Spring semester. Students work cooperatively with a selected mentor teacher, with supervisory support from the University. Pass/fail only.

This course aims to prepare secondary teacher candidates to better understand adolescent experiences within and beyond school, using a variety of critical lenses and perspectives. The course emphasizes engagement with diverse student communities, and seeks to interrogate common assumptions surrounding student abilities, motivations, and literacies. Participants work with adolescents throughout the term, engage readings, complete case studies, and work toward curriculum and instruction that more consciously includes every learner.

In this course students develop knowledge and a reflective stance toward teaching in the secondary content area. Focusing on understanding the various ways in which adolescents engage with content area learning, students plan, teach, assess and think reflectively about curriculum.

This 2.5-unit course focuses on learning and teaching in elementary classrooms and becoming an elementary teacher. Students consider the tension between giving full attention to each subject area, integrating across subject areas, and meeting students' developmental needs. Through an analysis of current research, theories of learning, and informed classroom practices, students prepare lesson and unit plans, teach, assess, and reflect on student learning. An integrated course structure is used; students study adjacent subject areas examining similarities and differences.

In this course students engage in reflective cycles of teaching practice. Using their teaching internship as a source of inquiry, students make their practice public, share teaching issues, and problem-solve through collegial dialogue. Participants critically reflect on curriculum, student learning, and student identities by posing questions, surfacing assumptions, reframing issues, and developing action steps to transform their teaching.