New Undergraduate Program Emphasizes Equity
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New Undergraduate Program Emphasizes Equity
Overhauled experience uses an interdisciplinary approach
How could BU Wheelock reimagine its programs to help address some of the most pressing issues in education—and attract more students? After examining that question for the past two years, a BU Wheelock task force has hit upon at least one major change for the college: an overhaul of its undergraduate program, highlighted by a new BS in education & human development that began this fall.
“We really focused on equity across the education, legal, and healthcare systems,” says Linda Banks-Santilli, associate dean for academic affairs. “‘System changers’ is the term we’ve been using: We’re trying to prepare a different type of professional who recognizes structural inequities and how they’re affecting children and families, and works to eliminate them.”
The new program replaces all 10 of the college’s prior undergraduate offerings (only two of the previous programs, math education and science education, will continue to support minors in partnership with the College of Arts & Sciences). Undergraduates in their first two years will now balance core courses, like Intro to Human Development and Anti-Oppressive Practices: Education & Applied Psychology, with interdisciplinary signature courses, like Introduction to Justice Based Education. Then they’ll choose one of five specializations: Child & Adolescent Mental Health, Deaf Studies, Educational Design for Transformative Social Futures, Teaching & Learning, or Youth Development & Justice. Students interested in additional teacher education and licensure can earn a fifth-year master’s degree.
“I was a teacher for 12 years in Boston, but I didn’t have the opportunity in my teacher preparation program, at the time, to take a course in how systems designed to help youth—educational, legal, economic, health—sometimes work against them,” Banks-Santilli says. “This program provides a broader education for professionals so they can begin to think and act in new ways.”