As one might expect for the course name and after reading the course outline, Overview of Educational Issues covered a lot of territory and served as a great introduction to themes that would delved into several times throughout my Master’s of Education journey. We read and engaged with topics as diverse as what constituted critical pedagogy, to defining what exactly a good school is. We looked at how race and social class affects us in the world of public education and just what was meant by the term “transformative practice”.
Even though the course was delivered in an online format, Dr. Novak created assignments with group interaction in mind. I’ve included as an artefact a group paper I wrote with two talented colleagues that looked at particular transitions that modern teachers, administrators, and schools had to make in order to realize their full potential as we head into a quickly-changing future. There is no question our society and jobs market is more dynamic today than at any point in human history. The real questions result from the consequences of that reality.
I’ve also included the concluding assignment of the course which asked students to synthesize many aspects of the course and create a blueprint for their “good school”. I stated that, “I believe that my version of a “good” school has a clear mission, the methods and resources to fulfill the mission, and a defined performance measurement regime by which it agrees to be judged. It is a school that brings parents into the school community,” While the process of identifying and refining “good school” ideals was very productive and through-provoking, one unfortunate, yet inescapable reality of the process for me was confronting the fact that I don’t consider very many of the schools I’ve been around as “good schools”. At the very least our lofty standards identified clear goals to strive for.
07:752 Educational Issues Outline