Diversity, Equity & Inclusivity Graduate Certificate

This course introduces students to the reality of schools as diverse spaces encompassing a range of student needs and examines efforts to ensure equity in education. Issues of race, class, culture, language, gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, and ability will be discussed & examined, especially how they intersect to reproduce inequality. Students will reflect on individual beliefs in relation to social justice education and democratic education and examine unintended consequences of policy/practice that create or perpetuate inequitable environments and opportunities in schools. Strategies for promoting educational equity and inclusivity will be discussed.

This course will examine intersectionality and the complex racial, gendered, and class-based dimensions that perpetuate inequitable environments and opportunities in schools. We will explore critical race theory (CRT) and its theoretical relevance as a framework to examine and challenge disparate educational opportunities for students of color. The course will offer an examination of the policies, procedures, and structures that perpetuate disproportionality and overrepresentation. This course will analyze assumptions about race, gender, and class, as well as how these dynamics play out in U.S. public schooling and history through political, sociological, theoretical, and pedagogical lenses.

This course will disability through the lens of democratic education. The concepts of equity, ableism, and “othering” will be examined through philosophical educational theories to unpack pervasive disagreement about the best methods for improving outcomes for students with disabilities. The course will explore repositioning schools as democratic spaces where diversity and individuality can be enhanced and better understood. Theories of democracy and democratic education will be explored as a means of a more socially just orientation of disability. 

This course will examine the complexities of gender, identity, expression, and sexual orientation in schools, as well as how their interrelated dynamics and complexities unfold in the history of U.S. schools to present day. The course will explore the concepts of identity development and school structures that disenfranchise non-binary and LGBTQA+ students and examine constructions of gender identity, sexuality, and equality and binary/nonbinary conceptions. The course will examine inclusivity and exclusion through an examination of gender models, perpetuation of stereotypes, and implicit biases. The course analyzes key conceptual and methodological frameworks of gender, class, sexuality, power, and intersectionality.

This course focuses on race, religion, culture, and language through the lens of social justice education. This course will unpack bias and explore the diverse ways in which power and traditional structures intersect with different cultural, social, and religious practices. We will examine strategies for designing and creating safety in classrooms, schools, educational spaces, and communities which honor students’ cultural backgrounds and lived experiences. The course will explicitly examine privilege, equity, and cultural responsiveness in educational spaces.

The graduate internship in education constitutes a practical field experience, and can accomplished in a variety of settings which directly or indirectly serve school-aged students or the field of education. This may involve diverse educational contexts, such as community, religious or recreational programs, work at an education agency, or a research experience, among others.  The internship can be undertaken as a 3 or 6 credit experience, depending on several factors and in consultation with the student’s faculty advisor: prior course work, graduate requirements, interests, and previous experience in the field, and site considerations/expectations. 

This course provides an opportunity for the graduate student to undertake in-depth study in area of education related to interest or skill. The course may constitute research, experience, or another opportunity proposed by the student/approved by the program. The directed study ranges from 1-3 credits, depending on several factors: prior course work, graduate requirements, interests, and previous experience in the field. A comprehensive written proposal and final project or thesis is required.