Wesleyan University (CorruptED)

Wesleyan University’s College of Education Studies features courses that include topics such as critical pedagogy, critical theory, critical race theory, decolonization, queer theory, white supremacy, and whiteness. Course texts include Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed and Bell Hooks’ Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom.

This college “does not provide the course credentials for CT State Initial Educator Certification that are required for teaching positions in public schools.”

COURSES

EDST 213Z: Introduction to Social Justice Education

The course EDST 213Z: Introduction to Social Justice Education features topics such as critical pedagogy, fat pedagogy, trans oppression, power, privilege, queer theory, white privilege, and whiteness. Course texts include Bell Hooks’ Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom.

The description states that it will “provide a space for students to learn about liberatory methods for teaching and practicing social justice while interrogating the historical discourses that have shaped social justice education.” The course will focus on “liberation philosophy, critical pedagogy, feminist theory, postcolonial theory, intercultural communication theories, queer theory, indigenous studies, and disability studies.”

Course readings and weekly topics include “racism and white privilege,” “whiteness,” “Trans* Oppression,” and “Fat Pedagogy.”

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EDHD 624: Decolonizing Education

The graduate-level course EDHD 624: Decolonizing Education features topics such as critical race theory, decolonization, liberation, postcolonialism, queer theory, white supremacy, and whiteness. Texts include Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed and Bell Hooks’ Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom.

The course description asks, “how has the construction of knowledge and academic traditions from across the globe been impacted by such phenomena as post(modernity), (neo)colonialism, and (neo)liberalism?” The course will “center on ways people have worked within these dominant modes of thought to resist hegemonic modern discourses that privileges logical positivism, quantification, objectivism, and Western European histories and ideologies above all else.”

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EDHD 633: Sociological Foundations of Modern American Education

The graduate-level course EDHD 633: Sociological Foundations of Modern American Education features topics such as critical pedagogy, “color-blind racism,” and whiteness. Course texts include Bell Hooks’ Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom.

The course description states that it will “provide a space for students to learn about how the American educational system has evolved over the centuries while interrogating the historical discourses that have shaped it the most” and will also include a focus on globalization, neoliberalism, and multicultural education.

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EDHD 638: Philosophy of Education

The graduate-level course EDHD 638: Philosophy of Education features topics such as critical pedagogy and critical theory. Course texts include reading Paulo Freire.

The course description states students will “examine some of the most dominant educational theories in America, the presuppositions present in them, and the arguments for and against them” and will focus on “critical theory, humanism, and multiculturalism can impact our understanding of education.”

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EDHD 681: Sensing, Thinking, and Learning: Utilizing Engaged Pedagogy in the Academy

The graduate-level course EDHD 681: Sensing, Thinking, and Learning: Utilizing Engaged Pedagogy in the Academy features topics such as critical pedagogy, critical theory, and decolonization. One of the course texts includes Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed and Bell Hooks’ Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom.

The course description states that it will “provide a space for students to learn about different theories of dialogue, embodied learning, and pedagogies of engagement and how they can be applied to nurture critical thinking in an educational setting.” The course will also focus on “how liberation philosophy, postcolonial theory, affect theory, postpositivism, the philosophy of language, and critical theory can impact our understanding of education and critical thinking.”