teaching

SESP 351 Special Topics: Youth Education and Community Organizing

Teaching Assistant: Fortunate K. Ekwuruke

This course will introduce students to youth participatory action research, community-based design research, and research practice partnerships as approaches that bring research into critical praxis with communities. Students will examine how identity, power, and culture shape the research process  and policies to (re)produce knowledge, engage ethical dimensions, and contribute to liberatory education. 

This course engages the following central questions:

• How do conceptualizations and ideologies of/around/about ‘youth’, shape educational research projects and policies?

• What role do collective orientations in research play in addressing issues around education? 

• How do YPAR, CBDR, and RPP approaches to research contribute to current and future discourses around education?

Fall 2023/24

Course Reviews

"The information in this course is so important. We covered different types of participatory and design research, discussed theories related to community and youth, and challenged conventional ways of thinking. I believe anyone interested in working with youth or hoping to go into community work or education should take this course, and I would also recommend it to anyone who is interested in learning about liberation through research practices. Even as someone not in SESP, I took away learning that I know I will apply to work in my field which speaks to how widely applicable the course content is."

"For me, this class was an amazing space to hear my peers and professors engage and learn from one another. It was a space where we could really feel open and safe to bring up potential criticism and critiques with the materials for the class, and it was always amazing to hear what others had to say."

"I've talked to many of my classmates in this course, and we all agree that the relationship Sarah has built with us encourages us to bring our best self to the classroom. The assignments encouraged me to apply my own interests and thinking to course concepts and step out of my comfort zone."

"Sarah is so great at making you feel like you're an active learner in the space, and like she's genuinely interested in your learning. The classroom is a place where everyone is trying to find truth together, and it's invigorating as a student in the class."

LRN_SCI 451: Explorations in Educational Philosophies 

Co-Instructor: Jacob Z. Kelter

The purpose of this seminar is for graduate students to develop their own personal educational philosophy. This will entail reading existing work related to educational philosophy, both academic and not, but the ultimate goal is for students to develop their own current educational philosophy, not just learn about the philosophies of others. This seminar is designed by graduate students for graduate students, and the design is flexible to allow participants to shape it according to what will be most helpful for them. 

Fall & Winter 2020/21

Teaching Assistantships

LRN_SCI 351: Identity, Power, and the Historical Imaginary across Social Contexts

Instructor: Jolie C. Matthews

Spring 2024

SESP 325: Race, Adolescence, and School Discipline 

Instructor: Christopher Leatherwood

Spring 2023

SESP 272: Field Methods

Instructor: Eva Wan Shun Lam

Spring 2022

LRN_SCI 202: Culture, Language, and Identity 

Instructor: Eva Wan Shun Lam

Spring 2020