How do we engage K-12 students in inquiry, critical thinking, reasoning, collaboration, invention, and information literacy in the STEM disciplines? Designed for students seeking K-12 licensure in all fields, this class focuses on fundamental concepts and practices from STEM disciplines and generating pedagogical content strategies for designing inclusive instruction. 1 unit.

In this course we will study the history of Montessori, Reggio Emilia, and Waldforf schooling in Europe: including the social and political contexts during which these pedagogical approaches were formed, and the problems their founding theorists sought to answer. We will then examine how these pedagogies made their way to the United States, and the ways in which they have been interpreted, and sometimes appropriated, to construct and reproduce a narrative of childhood that idealizes the child in progressive schoolings as wealthy, white, and non-disabled.