Department of Social and Psychological Foundations of Education

Chairperson: David J. McGough, Ph.D.
Associate Professors: Dev, Ph.D., Tell, Ph.D.; Assistant Professors: Bailey Jones, Ph.D., McGough, Ph.D., Sommers, Ph.D.

The discipline of Foundations of Education encourages students to ask questions regarding conventional notions of schooling and learning. Examining the contextual influences and political interests that shape such conventional notions enables students to expand their understanding of education from perceptions based on personal experience to broader perspectives based on interdisciplinary studies, educational research, and conceptual analysis.

Specifically, students learn to investigate educational practices, propositions, and policies, evaluate the norms and values prioritized by specific approaches, and productively critique the supporting arguments. As a result of study in this discipline, students will be able to imagine educational arrangements that value more broadly inclusive and equitable approaches. In addition, they will be encouraged to take active steps toward implementing such arrangements.

Currently, the Department offers EDU 204, History and Philosophy of Education for all teacher education programs at the undergraduate level.

Further study in the Foundations of Education is available at the graduate level.