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In the United States and Canada, a 'School of Education' (also 'College of Education', 'Ed-School') is a division within a university that is devoted to scholarship in the field of Education, which is an interdisciplinary branch of the social sciences encompassing sociology, psychology, linguistics, economics, political science, public policy, and others, all applied to the topic of elementary, secondary, and post-secondary education.
In the United Kingdom, following the recommendation in the 1963 ''Robbins Report'' into higher education, teacher training colleges were renamed colleges of education in the UK. For information about academic divisions devoted to this field outside of the United States and Canada, see Postgraduate Training in Education.

Contents

Types of Programs

Faculty

Common Areas of Interest

Notable Schools of Education

Notable Education Scholars (Past and Present)

Criticism

References

See also

Types of Programs

Typically, a school of education offers research-based programs leading to Master of Arts (M.A.), Master of Education (M.Ed.), Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) or Doctor of Education (Ed.D) degrees, as well as professional teacher-education programs leading to Master of Arts (M.A.), Master of Education (M.Ed.), or Master of Arts in Teaching (M.A.T.) degrees. Schools of education also offer teacher certification or licensure programs to undergraduate students. Generally schools of education have graduate programs related to teacher preparation, curriculum and instruction (or curriculum and teaching), public policy and education, and educational administration. In addition, some schools of education offer programs in school counseling and counseling psychology.

Faculty

Unlike most other academic departments, schools of education often draw much of their faculty from areas outside of the Education field itself. It is not uncommon for Education professors to have earned their doctorates in conventional social-science or natural-science fields, mathematics, or in the Humanities. This fluidity sometimes goes both ways, with scholars from the Education field taking positions in social-science departments and other academic divisions.

Common Areas of Interest

The issue of equitable access to education, particularly for low-income, minority, and immigrant communities, is central to many areas of research within the Education field.^[1][2]

Notable Schools of Education

The annual rankings of ''U.S. News and World Report'' placed the following schools of education in the top ten of all graduate education institutions in the United States. They follow in order of one through ten: Teachers College, Columbia University; Stanford University; Harvard University; Vanderbilt University; University of California at Los Angeles; University of Michigan at Ann Arbor; Northwestern University; University of California at Berkeley; University of Washington, and; University of Wisconsin at Madison.^[3]

Notable Education Scholars (Past and Present)

★ John Dewey

★ Jean Piaget

★ Charles Beard

★ George Counts

★ Lisa Delpit

★ Paulo Freire

★ Linda Darling-Hammond

★ Peter McLaren

★ bell hooks

★ Henry Giroux

Criticism

Given the vital importance of educating a nation's youth, people from all over the political spectrum have opinions about the nature of quality education. A contrarian movement, known by some as the Education Anti-Establishment, has been critical of the status quo within most schools of education. Prominent figures contributing to this school of though include Lisa Delpit, E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Diane Ravitch, Chester Finn, Thomas Sowell, and Lynne Cheney.^[4] Common assertions made by Anti-Establishment critics include:

★ The typical school of education has a Left-wing political bias, favoring Socialist philosophies such as Paulo Freire's critical pedagogy and the "Teaching for Social Justice" movement. Many Ed-Schools are academically, professionally, and socially inhospitable toward students whose political views do not conform to the predominant Left-leaning ideology.^[5][6][7][8]

★ The field's interest in educational equity sometimes crosses over the line between academic research and political activism.^[1]

★ Research methodologies are not as rigorous as with other social sciences, leading to conclusions that are less reliable and more susceptible to idealogical bias.^[10]

★ The pedagogy in teacher-education programs promotes the belief in a false binary opposition between "traditional" and "reform" teaching methods, negatively caricaturing the former, excessively praising the latter, and implying that several qualities are mutually exclusive between the two. For example, the literature commonly read by student-teachers creates the imaginary dilemma of choosing between "teaching for understanding" and having students learn "rote facts" and perform "drill-and-kill" exercises, denying the vital role that factual knowledge and persistent practice play in the learning process.

References

1. Progressivism, Schools and Schools of Education: An American Romance David F. Labaree
2. Message from the Dean Deborah J. Stipek
3. (2008) "America's Best Education Graduate Schools 2008", ''US News and World Report''. Retrieved 8/5/07.
4. Ed Schools in Crisis Martin A. Kozloff
5. Why Johnny’s Teacher Can’t Teach Heather Mac Donald
6. The Ed Schools’ Latest—and Worst—Humbug Sol Stern
7. Ed Schools vs. Education George F. Will
8. Social Justice and Political Orthodoxy Greg Lukianoff
9. Progressivism, Schools and Schools of Education: An American Romance David F. Labaree
10. Fad, Fraud, and Folly in Education Martin A. Kozloff

See also

★ Teacher education

★ Alternative teaching certification

★ Postgraduate Certificate in Education (United Kingdom)

★ Postgraduate Diploma in Education

★ Postgraduate education

★ Postgraduate diploma

★ Education Specialist

★ Teacher training college

★ Education

★ Pedagogy

★ Teacher