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Education & Youth Studies
The education and youth studies department offers an interdisciplinary program of theory and practice that promotes social responsibility through shared scholarship. In the context of current and future changes at the local, national, and international levels, the department commits to a responsive curriculum that tries to meet the changing needs of our students who are future educators, mentors, counselors, social workers, therapists, and social justice advocates and leaders.
The department offers a variety of teaching certifications for students who are interested in teaching in K-12 classrooms. Certified students receive a Wisconsin teaching license that can also be transferred to about 40 other U.S. states. The department also has a non-licensing track for students interested in pursuing a broad range of interests related to education and youth studies. Graduates from the EDYS program pursue careers in teaching, school counseling or psychology, social work, occupational therapy, international education, higher education administration, human resources, environmental education, social justice advocacy, youth development programs, and more.
Majors
The major embodies a scholar-practitioner model in the liberal arts tradition, with the purpose of providing students with a sequence of intellectual, ethical, and practical experiences that lead to a broad, integrated knowledge of youth and education. This knowledge is realized in the practical ability to work effectively with children, adolescents, and adults in schools and other social settings.
Teacher education at Beloit is fully integrated into an academically rigorous major that stresses experiential and interdisciplinary learning, a respect for difference, and critical global perspectives on education and youth issues. The department’s teacher licensing programs are fully accredited by Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction.
*Asterisked courses are required for student teaching.
- Four units from Education and Youth Studies 102, 151, 164, 201.
- Two units from Education and Youth Studies 246, 255*, 256*, 265*, 266*, 276 (may be taken twice), 390.
- Two units from Education and Youth Studies 300*, 306, PRAX 200 (internship in education and youth-related setting, under the supervision of Education and Youth Studies faculty and site-based personnel).
- Capstone: Education and Youth Studies 382.
Minors
*Asterisked courses are required for student teaching.
- Two units from Education and Youth Studies 102, 151, 164, 201.
- Two units from Education and Youth Studies 246, 255*, 256*, 265*, 266*, 276, 390.
- One unit from Education and Youth Studies 300, 306.
Additional Information
The EDYS department–in cooperation with the Office of the Provost, has the responsibility and authority to develop, administer, evaluate, and revise Beloit College’s educator preparation program.
For details about certification requirements for all programs, students should consult the department’s handbook and the department website. Because of frequent changes in state rules and regulations relating to teacher licensure, teacher certification requirements are no longer published in the Beloit College catalog. In order to be certified for licensure as a middle/secondary teacher, or as a K-12 art, theater, or foreign language teacher, students must complete a second academic major. In order to be certified for licensure as an elementary/middle teacher, students must complete an academic minor.
Beloit College, through the department of education and youth studies, is authorized by the Department of Public Instruction in Wisconsin to certify graduates for initial educator licensure in the following areas:
- Elementary and middle school (grades K-9)
- Middle and high school (grades 6-12)
- Art (grades K-12)
- Theatre (grades K-12)
- Foreign language (grades K-12)
The state of Wisconsin has several additional requirements for licensure, including additional general education courses and passing examinations of basic skills and content knowledge, a test of reading pedagogy for elementary certifiers, and a performance assessment during student teaching. The cost of these assessments is the responsibility of students. Student teaching includes one school-district semester of full-time work in one or more classrooms at the appropriate level(s).
Specific, up-to-date information on teacher certification can be found on the department website or the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction website.
Internal Requirements:
- Three units of student teaching from Education and Youth Studies 302, 303, or 304.
- Major in a teaching area for 6-12 or 1-12 certification.
- Minor or approved concentration for K-9 certification.
External Requirements:
- (Potentially*) PRAXIS II for all certification; ACTFL for world languages
- Foundations of Reading Test for K-9 certification.
*Please check EDYS website for most up-to-date policies regarding the waiver of selected tests.
Our curriculum highlights a number of recurring themes that signal our commitments and our aspirations for students.
Social Justice: In every course in our curriculum, students will encounter themes of social justice; each played in a different register. We emphasize social justice with respect to culture, race and ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, disabilities, indigenousness, youth and family, environment, and of course, in its manifestations in our social institutions, schools in particular.
Our approaches are critical and complementary, spanning many disciplines. Students will learn not to rush to accept any one theory or faith, but come to understand the complexity of the questions, and accept their own moral responsibility to understand, and to take a position, and to be willing to change positions.
Knowledge and Ways of Knowing: In every course in our curriculum, we stress the importance of engaging with, and understanding, the modes of inquiry that inform our knowledge and our ways of knowing.
Our goal is for our students to come to see that there are many paths to knowledge and expertise, each with their own philosophical strengths and weaknesses, and that each must be evaluated, in context, on a variety of grounds. This means giving up ‘natural’ dispositions to learn in particular ways, and requires that students and faculty be willing to take risks and live with authenticity.
Inclusive Pedagogy: In every course we teach, our faculty model and promote inclusive pedagogy in explicit ways.
Our classrooms are intentionally created as learning communities in which student voice, agency, and mutuality are primary. Since most of our students will go on to become teachers themselves, or other kinds of professionals who interact with children and youth, an essential goal we have is for our students to learn how to create the same kinds of inclusive, respectful, and educationally responsible spaces.
Broad Interaction and Networking: In every course in our curriculum, students are brought into contact with people, places, and ideas from outside their normal orbits.
This means that an essential goal and purpose of our program is to instill in our students the need to enter into these relationships mindfully and to conduct themselves ethically and self-reflectively at all times. This interpersonal dimension is likewise foregrounded in all of our classrooms, which feature site- and content-specific varieties of sustained dialogue.
Awareness and Reflection: In every course in our curriculum, faculty stress the importance of understanding the historical, philosophical, social, global/international, and psychological background of the issues in education and youth studies they are currently confronting, whether in the classroom or in the field.
Students going on to become teachers and youth workers will develop good professional responsibility after knowing better what they are doing and why.