Course Catalog

Prerequisites: Must be elected concurrently with EDUC 302.
Draws upon resources found in the directed teaching environment; considers problems and issues in four broad areas: students in the school, the teacher’s professional responsibilities, curriculum understandings, and administrative/organizational problems. Open only to students enrolled in 302.

Prerequisites: Permission of instructor. May only be elected concurrently with an elementary field-based block or concurrently with a secondary methods course.

Provides students with supervised opportunities to integrate theory and practice by working with teachers in classrooms or other field settings.

This course prepares students to effectively share the arts and artistic practice with the public. Through partnerships with UMMA and local arts organizations, students develop practical skills for leading workshops, tours, and residencies with diverse audiences. The course builds confidence in facilitation and teaching approaches centered on equity and access for all communities. Includes observations, practice teaching, and networking with professional teaching artists. Ideal for students in visual arts, music, theatre, dance, creative writing, and related fields.

This course explores how environmental justice intersects with earth systems, development, and land use in both urban and rural communities. Students examine scientific principles of soil, air, and water while engaging with community voices and stakeholders to understand political, social, and ecological impacts. Incorporating both traditional and Indigenous scientific approaches, the course highlights how policy, community contributions, urban gardens, and systemic inequalities shape environmental outcomes.

Comprises supervised reading, research, or other inquiry regarding education.

Undergraduate students who wish to register with a Marsal School professor in an independent study are required to submit an Undergraduate Independent Study Agreement form.

May be elected more than once, for a maximum of 6 hours; if 320 is elected, the maximum is 6 hours in total for degree.

This course aims to support students in becoming critical consumers of educational policy issues in both media and educational research. We examine ideologies and levers used in past and current educational reform efforts that reflect multiple views on the purpose of schools, the role of educators, and the functions of policies and policy makers.

This seminar will provide a deep understanding of the complexity of race, ethnicity, and culture within the stories of historic and contemporary Detroit. Emphasis will be on skills for critical analysis, creativity, and communication, place-based literacies and learning, and learning from and advocating for the city and its people.

In this course, we will explore:

• The long history of Detroit, as well as its contemporary relevance (Miles, Sugrue, Foley)
• Detroit’s outsized contribution to 20th and 21st century poetry (Blair, Levine, moore, Hughes, Murray, Langford, Rogers)
• A multiple award-winning dramatic cycle (Morriseau)
• Books for young readers (Shapiro and Brantley-Newton, Yoo, LaDelle)
• Literary novels (Flournoy, Eugenides, Foley)
• Graphic novels (Ahmed, other)
• Literary communities in Detroit (Source Booksellers, others)

Students will engage in a number of high-interest activities throughout the course of the semester, including several field trips and visits with guest speakers, building toward a final project rooted in one of the areas above.

This course meets with EDUC 513.

Prerequisites: PHYSED 444.

Drawing on the directed teaching experience, this seminar is designed to explore the theory and practice of physical education as students apply them in their directed teaching environments.
 

This course will explore how institutions of Sport, Education and Business serve as key spaces to build and uphold transformative systems to center equity and empower individuals.  The course will highlight key moments where these institutions have promoted equity and fostered empowerment resulting in greater diversity, inclusion, justice and belonging.  Case studies of teams and leaders/coaches that disrupt inequity in sport, education and business will be critically analyzed and explored at personal, interpersonal, institutional and systemic levels.  

As we examine leaders who work for more just institutions we will identify systems that also create, maintain, and promote inequity in the United States.  Students will confront practices of inequity within Systems of Oppression along the lines of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, ability/disability, and body type.  Students will be challenged and guided to become more action-oriented in their current spheres of influence to be catalysts to disrupt inequity and advance justice in rapidly evolving and complex social structures.   Students will learn and practice leadership skills to promote equity and empowerment in their future professions and play a key role in leveraging their power to advance justice.

As a microcosm of society, sport has both challenged and reinforced inequality. This dynamic, project-based course explores the historical and contemporary intersection of sport and society, with a focus on sport’s role in education, public pedagogy, and social transformation. Students will examine how athletes, coaches, and teams have used their platforms to advance social justice and activism, while also critically analyzing how sport functions as a form of public pedagogy, shaping what people learn about equity, access, participation, and rights both inside and beyond the classroom.

Prerequisites: Permission of instructor.

Provides an opportunity for supervised observations of and participation with children and adolescents in educational settings.

Undergraduate students who wish to register with a Marsal School professor in an independent study are required to submit an Undergraduate Independent Study Agreement form.
 

Prerequisites: Permission of instructor and minimum overall GPA of 3.0, junior standing, undergraduate students only.

Comprises supervised reading, research, or other inquiry regarding education.

Undergraduate students who wish to register with a Marsal School professor in an independent study are required to submit an Undergraduate Independent Study Agreement form.

May be elected more than once, for a maximum of 6 hours; if 310 elected, maximum is 6 in total for degree.

This course examines climate justice education and action as an educational, political, and community-based practice. Students explore how educators, schools, and community organizations can engage children and youth in responding to climate change in ways that center equity, lived experience, and collective responsibility in both formal and informal settings. Topics include critical pedagogies, place-based and Indigenous education, youth activism, and curriculum design. Through critical readings, case studies, and collaborative projects students develop educational initiatives that support meaningful action and democratic participation among children and youth.

Education for Empowerment internships give students practical experience in formal or informal education settings dedicated to the learning and/or educational experiences of children, youth, or adults as well as settings focused on policy work related to the field of education and/or the well-being of young people.