Courses

Dr. Lather offers the following courses:

ED P&L 8280 Introduction to Qualitative Research in Education
EDPL 800 concentrates on postpositivist educational research with a focus on the design of such studies and the issues faced by researchers using qualitative methods. Central objectives include formulating criteria by which to evaluate postpositivist research in the human sciences and gaining an understanding of the socio-intellectual context within which such research is conducted. While the readings can be dense at times, students might heed French philosopher/psychoanalyst, Jacque Lacan’s advice: “…to read does not obligate one to understand. First it is necessary to read …” avoid understanding too quickly? (quoted in Gregory Ulmer, Applied Grammatology, John Hopkins Press, 1985, p 196). 8280 Syllabus 13

EDStudies 8290 Qualitative Data Analysis
EDStudies 8290 rounds out work started in EdStudies 8280 and focuses on the analysis of qualitative data and the writing of research reports. There will be an especial focus on various issues in contemporary procedures and theories of interpretation, including coding and categorizing, grounded theorizing, narrative analysis, discourse analy sis, and the politics of representation. Prerequisites: EDStudies 8280 or equivalent. 8290 Syllabus 2014

EDStudies 8200
EDStudies 8200 is designed to provide an introduction to the themes and theories that undergrid the cultural foundations of education. The course analyzes the interdisciplinary nature of the cultural foundations of education with a focus on the intersections of culture, knowledge and power. Themes include: the history of cultural foundations of education, particularly its relationship to the politics of discplinarity; nationhood and global culture; colonialism and postcolonialism; race and ethnicity; gender and sexuality; identity politics; popular culture, media studies; science, culture and technology, and ethnography and cultural studies. 905 syllabus 2009

ED P&L 871 Theories of Gender in Education
EDPL 871.01 explores a number of issues that have surfaced in the recent scholarship on gender and education. Controversial questions regarding the intersections of voice, difference, the politics of identity, and scholarly responsibility have become important concerns among scholars and social, cultural activists alike. The challenges these questions pose for “feminist theories”? in education will be addressed as a way to understand both the limits andpossibilities of extant conceptions of identity politics, “voice”? and “experience”? commonly used in theories and practices of gender and education.

It is intended to help students think themselves into their own work via an engagement with the major intellectual currents informing theories of gender that characterize feminist work in education. Issues related to gender, race, class and sexuality, curriculum, pedagogy, cultural production and policy will be addressed in an exploration of the possibilities and limits of feminist praxis in education. The course is part of the Gender and Education PhD emphasis and is open to anyone with background in feminist studies, cultural studies, and/or qualitative research literatures. Autumn syllabus 2008

EDStudies 8895.2 Foucault, Educational Research & Policy Analysis
EDStudies 8895.2 examines the relationship between the thought of Michel Foucault and educational research in the context of policy analysis. Whether Foucault is read as historian or philosopher, structuralist or post-structuralist, critical or post-critical, his analysis of how power works through practices of surveillance, classification, exclusion, regulation and normalization has great implications for educational inquiry. How is the modern subject of knowledge produced by our very efforts to know it? How does a focus on the microphysics of power change our understanding of social practices? Of what use is Foucault’s theory of governmentality in educational policy analysis? What happens to the “queer Foucault”? in such matters? These and other questions will be addressed through the following readings in a seminar format where students will be expected to both co-lead class discussions and explore the implications of such questions in their emerging sense of research project. 8895.2 SLOWFoucault 2014

Ed P&L and WS 760: Feminist Methodology
Ed P&L and WS 760 provides graduate students with an overview of feminist methodological issues and dilemmas and an introduction to a variety of research techniques and methods. Topics include: the historical and theoretical development of feminist approaches to research and scholarship, the ethical dilemmas of representation and the politics of feminist inquiry and the importance of research design and the strategies involved in collecting, interpreting, and analying primary materials. Spring 09 syllabus..