Cultural Foundations

Overview

The Cultural Foundations degree program from Kent State University , offered fully online or on campus, explores education through a range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives: philosophy of education, history of education, sociology of education, comparative/international education, anthropology of education, gender studies, multicultural studies and religious studies. Students examine the social contexts of education, with particular emphasis on structural inequalities, issues of access and the distribution of educational opportunity, normative considerations about the purposes of education, and the transformative potential of education.

Graduates of the program have the knowledge and skills to interpret and critique educational policies and practices and to promote innovative practices in a variety of educational settings, domestically and worldwide.

Learning Outcomes

Graduates of the program will be able to:

• Demonstrate an understanding of the social, cultural, economic and political assumptions shaping educational policies and reforms in the United States and other societies.

• Understand the nature of the democratic challenge for schooling in answering such foundational questions as: "What should be taught?" "Who should be taught?" and "Who should teach?"

• Demonstrate an understanding of the convergence of social class, race, gender, sexual orientation and disability as barriers to and opportunities for educational change, domestically and internationally.