EDC 805 - The Professional Lives of Teachers: Connecting Policy, Research, and Practice through Collaborative Inquiry

This course introduces participants to some of the local, state and federal educational policies and reforms that shape schools and classrooms today and to their role as student advocates. It invites participants to collaboratively explore policy, research and practice connections related to school-based challenges. Participants will become active consumers of educational research and policy documents and consider how they can act as advocates on behalf of their students both within the walls of the school and beyond with particular attention to creating environments in which students’ diverse backgrounds, strengths and challenges are respected. Participants will build an understanding that teachers share responsibility for the performance of all students within a school and how to take action on behalf of students. They will explore ways in which they can work collaboratively with colleagues and draw upon outside resources in order  to act as change agents within schools or larger educational contexts through the use or careful critique of policy and research. Three lecture hours per week.
Pre-requisites: Matriculation in a graduate Education program at Salem State University