EDU 101 Teachers & Teaching in America

In this course, students will gain an understanding of the role of teachers and teaching in American society. Students will explore the lives and vocations of teachers through teacher narratives, as well as articles highlighting the choices, challenges, and satisfactions of teaching. Over the course of the semester, students will examine five themes: (1) School Structure, Governance, and Purposes; (2) Curriculum; (3) Students, Families, and Community; (4) Building and Sustaining Positive School Cultures; (5) Teaching as a Vocation/Profession. Each theme will be developed through an examination of essential questions. EDU 101 is an introductory education course, satisfying one of the Core curriculum requirements for the social sciences. The course is open to any interested student. It also serves as a beginning course in the sequence of Education courses for those students intending to declare their Education major. As such, the course-content correlates with some of the Massachusetts Professional Standards for Teachers.