An excellent opportunity for Education majors, licensure students and Teaching Fellows to gain practical experience of the English school system, earn up to 6 units of credit while immersing themselves in British life and culture.

Students will have a unique opportunity to compare, both theoretically and practically, the British and American educational systems. Our Comparative Education course will compare and contrast the goals of primary and secondary education in the UK and the USA. Moreover, each student is assigned a placement at a local primary or secondary school in Oxford. Students will have the opportunity to earn an additional 3 credits by selecting one of two courses designed to make the most of our Oxford location.

Course dates: 25 May - 21 June 2008

Contact us for more information about the course, the fees and what they include. Email manuela.williams@stclares.ac.uk

Total Cost of £1700 includes:

• Placement in a local primary or secondary school; 1 full day a week for 3 weeks;
• Opportunity to earn 6 hours of credit
• Airport transfer from Heathrow to Oxford
• Orientation, plus walking tour of St. Clare's facilities and Oxford city
• Two accompanied, one day weekend trips to London and Bath
• Other class trips/excursions (free or at a subsidized cost)
• Free internet access: all St. Clare's buildings are wireless
• Welcome and departure dinner
• Accommodation: standard twin rooms (self-catering) in St. Clare's residence or option of home stay accommodation
• Each student may enroll in two courses in addition to a placement in a local primary or secondary school in Oxford

Description of Academic programme:

All students are be assigned a placement in a learning assistant role for 1full day a week in a local primary or secondary school. (w/c 2 June-20 June); Placements based on the age-range students plan to teach.

All students take a 3 credit Comparative Education course. This course will critically analyze educational systems, processes and outcomes in the USA and UK. Students will also consider the nature and value of international comparison systems for education. The aim of the course is to ensure that students are familiar with the educational systems of the USA and the UK and to develop the ability to make basic comparisons of educational issues across both countries. Moreover, students will be encouraged to explore the practical experience gained as a result of their placement.

Students may choose an additional 3 credit course from the following:

1. Contemporary Global Literature

   This course explores the impact of place, especially architecture, on the narrative styles of literature. Students learn better when they engage works of literature not only in close readings of and writing about texts produced in Oxford, but also by visiting sites that have a direct connection to those literary works.
   For example, texts included in this course that involve Oxford as ‘place' are those by J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, and Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited. Related readings on Oxford's architecture and its literature are Geoffrey Tyack's Oxford: An Architectural Guide and John Dougill's, Oxford in English Literature: The Making, and Undoing, of ‘the English Athens'.

2. World Citizenship in Oxford

   This course seeks answers to two philosophical questions: 1) Are humans naturally good? 2) And, how does the answer to this question affect citizenship? These two questions frame for us the discussion of Rousseau's The Social Contract (1762), which articulates the natural goodness position, and Shakespeare's Macbeth (1604), which appears to portray a natural evil in humans. Our discussion is set against the background of Oxford, its rich history, extraordinary architecture, and proximity to Shakespeare's Stratford-upon-Avon.