Overview

"Be the change, to see the change"

Not everyone aspires to be a teacher, but we are all 'educators' in one sense or another. The faculty in Education invites Occidental's best and brightest to "be the change" by complementing a major course of study with an Education minor. The minor in Education will prepare students to address the complex challenges and issues related to education in our nation's evolving urban school communities. Students will learn to think clearly and analytically about schooling, pedagogy, educational policy and practice in a variety of school- and community-based educational settings.

Viewing the urban school as situated in broader communities is an essential contextual perspective that our program emphasizes. As such, an understanding of the urban community and neighborhood is fundamental in developing the problem-solving skills necessary for effective agency in urban educational contexts. With this in mind, the Education Minor integrates foundational coursework with urban community engagement via internships and/or field experiences to provide a rich, collaborative and informative context for school reform, school improvement and educational activism.