Georgetown College recently revealed a new minor in Education, Inquiry and Justice for current College sophomores.
Applications for the minor, which is currently being limited to 15 students in the sophomore class, are due June 1. The minor will require involvement in the D.C. public school system, building off the university’s community-based learning classes and the work of the Center for Social Justice and Student Affairs.
“The off-campus education-related work done by students, through programs sponsored by faculty, CSJ and the President’s Office, has been one of Georgetown’s most significant contributions to the D.C. community,” Associate Dean Tad Howard wrote in an email. “One of the goals of the minor is to support that even further, and to invite participating students to reflect even more deeply on the complexities in those efforts and in public education more generally.”
Students interested in education believe that the minor fills an academic void that has developed amidst the university’s multitude of education-focused social justice organizations.
“I feel like an education minor would help centralize efforts to do what we can as college students to improve education as well as give students an opportunity to pursue their passions in the classroom,” Eric Bulakites (COL ’13) said.
The minor’s six-course curriculum includes requisite courses in Justice and Education and Learning and Human Development, a capstone project and involvement in a Praxis Sequence, a year-long immersion in a classroom in the District. The development of the program focused on ensuring that the minor was not limited to the classroom, according to Howard.
“Our challenge was to make sure the Minor in Education, Inquiry and Justice was more than just a set of courses with a common theme,” he wrote. “The minor examines education as an essential means to promote justice, and does so within the rich context of inquiry and discovery characteristic of the liberal arts. The minor is not a straight ‘how-to’ program, though students do participate in teaching and classroom dynamics directly.”
The College, the Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship and the Program in Education, Inquiry and Justice collaborated in the minor’s creation. The Program in Education, Inquiry and Justice has previously offered classes focusing on education but never a detailed program of study.
The College decided to create the minor after receiving several suggestions for such a program and enlisting the advice of the College Academic Council, according to Howard.
“There’s been steady interest and demand for this minor, from both students and faculty who have recognized the real potential for a great academic offering,” Howard said. “We’ve known that students care about education because of what they’ve said, but also what they’ve done.”
