Course Offerings

For complete list and details of Graduate Course Offerings click here (Registrar's Office).

The following list demonstrates the range of courses offered within the History and Philosophy Program.  Not all of the courses listed are offered in any given year.

History of Education and Philosophy of education courses

HISTORY OF EDUCATION COURSES AVAILABLE SUMMER/FALL/WINTER 2011-12

2011 Summer

TPS1405
History of Education and Film: Selected Topics – Dr. David Levine
This course is primarily designed for those with little or no background in historical research. It examines a variety of ways in which cinema is relevant to the study of education and contemporary society. Students will be introduced to the interpretive questions of evaluation, representation, and understanding.
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TPS1411
Cinema, Popular Education and Cultural Identities – Dr. David Levine
Each class involves two components: first, viewing a selected film (or a part of a film); and, second, discussing this cinematic work in relation to the main themes of the course – “Truth “?; “Power/Gender”; “Class Struggle”; and “Other-ness’. Students will be expected to contribute to the in-class discussions and to exhibit a knowledge with other films (from a list provided by the instructor in the course outline, handed out to all students in the first meeting). In addition, a bibliography of “suggested reading materials” (listed in the “Bibliography” and provided to students in the course outline at the first meeting) will be relevant to in-class discussions. In the course of the study-program, students will be expected to frame an essay-topic and to present the instructor with an essay-outline in order to complete the essay within the time-frame provided by the School of Graduate Studies – papers must be presented to the instructor no more than ten days before the grade-submission deadline so that the instructor has an opportunity to read and grade the essays of all the students in the class.
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2011-2012 Fall – Winter

TPS1404 
HISTORY OF RURAL EDUCATION IN CANADA – Dr. Ruth Sandwell
Before 1921, the majority of Canadian families lived outside of cities. This course will examine institutional structures, popular responses, and community involvement, and the ways that these factors interacted as state-run compulsory schooling was slowly accepted.
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TPS1430
GENDERED COLONIALISMS, IMPERIALISMS AND NATIONALISMS IN HISTORY - Dr. Cecilia Morgan
This course explores the ways in which gender relations have been an integral part of colonial and imperial expansion and national identities, from the mid-18th to the mid-20th centuries. We examine both how gender relations helped structure these historical developments and how gender relations were subject to change in various colonial contexts (including 'settler societies' such as Canada). The course readings explore the uneven and historically contingent ways in which processes of colonial and national expansion created new forms of gender asymmetry in both colony and metropole.
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TPS1448
POPULAR CULTURE AND THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF EDUCATION: II - Dr. Cecilia Morgan
This course examines a range of themes in the history of education and popular culture, drawn primarily from nineteenth and twentieth-century Canadian history. Topics that will be covered include the impact of popular forms of amusement and education: theatre, tourism, public parades and festivals, and commercial exhibitions and museums. We also will explore the relationship of various levels of the state and of capitalism to popular culture and the relation of "high" culture to mass culture. This course will pay attention to the influences of gender, race and ethnicity, class, and sexuality in shaping and, at times, challenging, particular forms of popular culture.
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TPS1454
THE BATTLE OVER HISTORY EDUCATION IN CANADA - Dr. Ruth Sandwell
Canadians, like other peoples around the world, have witnessed a breakdown in consensus about what history should be taught in schools, and a heightened awareness of the political nature of deciding whose history is, or should be, taught. Debates about what to teach, and how, are appearing as strands within larger discussions about the social and political meaning and purposes of history, and 'historical consciousness' is emerging in a wide range of cultural activities, from visiting museums to watching the History Channel. Adults and children alike seem to be seeking answers to questions of identity, meaning, community and nation in their study of the past. Students in this course will explore through readings and seminar discussions some of the complex meanings that our society gives to historical knowledge, with particular emphasis on the current debates about history teaching in Canadian schools, and the political and ethical issues involved. This course was previously listed under TPS1461 - "Special Topics in History: History Wars: Issues in Canadian History Education".
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TPS1461
SPECIAL TOPICS IN HISTORY OF EDUCATION: THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY - Dr. David Levine
This course considers the work of major educational philosophers (Plato to Kant) and looks at their work in the perspective of the social and historical context in which it was written.
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TPS3490 
ED.D. SEMINAR IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION: I – Staff
This is a required research seminar for Ed.D. candidates involving consideration of the problems of historical studies in a critical context. The seminar will include presentation and criticism of students' thesis/project proposals and progress reports.
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TPS3491 
ED.D. SEMINAR IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION: II – Staff
This is a required research seminar for Ed.D. candidates involving consideration of the problems of historical studies in a critical context. The seminar will include presentation and criticism of students' thesis/project proposals and progress reports.

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THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION COURSE OFFERINGS ALSO INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING COURSES:

TPS1400 H
THE ORIGINS OF MODERN SCHOOLING I: PROBLEMS IN EDUCATION BEFORE THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION - - Dr. David Levine
This course presents an overview of education and schooling before the massive intervention of the modern state. It is concerned with those forms of educational communication that formed the background for contemporary educational systems.


TPS1401 H
THE ORIGINS OF MODERN SCHOOLING II: PROBLEMS IN 19TH AND 20TH CENTURY EDUCATIONAL HISTORY, FOCUS ON - Dr. Harold Troper
Drawing chiefly on North American literature, this course explores the origins of state educational systems in the context of traditional patterns of socialization and formal schooling, and changing social, political, and economic conditions and ideologies.

TPS1416 H
L’ÉDUCATION EN ONTARIO - Staff
Ce cours trace l’évolution et les transformations de l’éducation de langue française en Ontario du 18e au 21e siècles, en la situant dans le contexte de l’histoire de l’éducation en Ontario. Les analyses de textes et les discussions porteront sur les intersections entre la langue, la religion, la race, les classes sociales, l’ethnicité et les spécificités sexuelles (gender).

TPS1419 H
HISTORIOGRAPHY AND THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION - Dr. David Levine
Central issues in historical writing - theory and philosophy, bias and representativeness - are considered together with modes of presentation, forms and methods of research, and styles of argument. Students are introduced to the main issues in current educational history through an intensive reading of selected, exemplary texts. Emphasis is placed on the manner in which arguments are developed in social-historical studies on schooling and education. In this way, the influence of critical theory, discourse analysis, feminism, post-modernism, and post-structuralism on recent debates within the field is discussed with reference to the central problems of history of education. NOTE: TPS1419 is compulsory for all students in the M.A., Ed.D., and Ph.D. programs who will be developing a thesis topic in the History of Education.

TPS1424 H
RELIGION, AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF NORTH AMERICAN EDUCATION - Dr. Harold Troper
A historical overview of the process of change as influenced by social service organizations or movements inside and outside the formal school structures of the community. Among the issues discussed in the seminar are institutional structure and ideology, the nature of reform, volunteerism, and related political culture.

TPS1426 H
THE HISTORY OF GENDER AND EDUCATION IN CANADA - Dr. Cecilia Morgan
This course explores the changing dimensions of gender relations in Canada from the late 18th to the 20th century. It will examine selected social, cultural, economic, and political developments, shifting meanings of femininity and masculinity in these developments, and their effect on formal and informal forms of education.


TPS1427 H
HISTORY AND COMMEMORATION: CANADA AND BEYOND, 1800S - 1990S - Cecilia Morgan
This course will examine historical literature that looks at the different ways in which historical commemorations and historical memory have been forged, the hegemonic meanings of the past created by elites, and the contestation of those meanings by those often formally excluded from these processes: women, members of ethnic and racialized groups, and the working classes. We will look at areas such as state commemorations and the creation of 'tradition', the development of museums, historical tourism, and the designation of monuments and battlefields as sites of national memory. The course will conclude with an exploration of current debates over the place of 'history' in the schools and universities.


TPS1428 H
IMMIGRATION AND THE HISTORY OF CANADIAN EDUCATION - Dr. Harold Troper
A historical examination of immigration and immigration policy in shaping the social, economic, and political life of Canada with special reference to education. This course will explore such areas as the historically different agendas of immigrants and policy-makers, the shifts from migrant to immigrant, and the racial and organizational priorities of educators in meeting the needs of immigrants.


TPS1429 H
ETHNICITY AND THE HISTORY OF CANADIAN EDUCATION - Dr. Harold Troper
A historical exploration of ethnicity and race as a factor influencing Canadian civic culture, changing public policy, and shaping the contours of ethnic community life. Special attention will be paid to the historical development of ethnicity in Canada, the internal life of several communities, and the challenges ethnicity and race represented to keepers of the Canadian gate and educators in particular.


TPS1460 H
HISTORY AND EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH [RM] - Dr. Cecilia Morgan
A seminar course required of all M.Ed. students in History of Education, normally takenat or near the beginning of each student's program. The course will both explore selected topics in educational history with special reference to historical research methods in use in the history of education and assist students in undertaking their major research paper.

Philosophy of Education Courses

COURSES OFFERED BY TPS FACULTY

COURSES OFFERED BY OUR ASSOCIATE FACULTY

COURSES OFFERED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY
 

THE PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION COURSES AVAILABLE SUMMER/FALL/WINTER 2011-12

TPS 1465
Special Topics in Philosophy: ( View Course Outline Here) Concepts of Community: Pedagogy Between Ethics & Politics - Dr. Megan Boler, with Etienne Turpin
This course offers an overview of philosophical concepts of community and a pluralistic approach to the question of what is held “in common”.
Within philosophy of education, as well as within educational research, scholars and educators frequently invoke the concept of community. Yet only rarely do scholars have the opportunity to explore conceptions of community within intellectual, philosophical, and historical/cultural traditions and the ethical and moral values associated with particular invocations of ‘community’.  Students in this course will engage directly with the broad range of concepts of community within diverse traditions of the theoretical humanities. Topics will include: communities under empire; utopian communities; the Enlightenment community; communities of friends and enemies; communities and anti-colonialism; imagined communities; communities of the gift, expenditure, friendship, and affirmation; and communities of pleasure.  Course aims include: situating diverse concepts of community in their historical moment; analyzing their pedagogical features; and examining in detail their contributions and limitations with respect to contemporary educational practices.


TPS3055H
DEMOCRATIC VALUES, STUDENT ENGAGEMENT, AND DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP - Dr. John Portelli
An examination and application of democratic values to issues of student engagement and leadership. The course will explore the relationship between student engagement and critical-democratic leadership, and the implications that arise for educational administration and curriculum from the nature of this relationship. This course should be of interest to both teachers and administrators.
 

TPS3417H
RESEARCH SEMINAR IN FEMINIST CRITICISM, AND PEDAGOGY – Dr. Megan Boler
This course will explore progressive, critical, feminist, and other radical pedagogies in their theoretical and historical contexts. The seminar will examine diverse contemporary debates regarding pedagogical questions surrounding such notions as "voice", "empowerment", and "dialogue" that have been advocated and contested within critical educational theory.

COURSES TAUGHT BY OUR ASSOCIATE FACULTY:

PHL 2141H F
POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY: DEMOCRACY AND THE CITIES – Staff
Central contemporary approaches to democratic theory -- Classic Pluralism, Catallaxy, Developmental Democracy, Deliberative Democracy, and Radical Pluralism – are compared and contrasted by applying them to issues and problems in urban theory and practice insofar as they relate to democracy. The seminar will involve student participation and is offered to students both of Philosophy and Political Science.


MUS2010H S
SEMINAR IN MUSIC EDUCATION – Dr. Elizabeth Gould
   
Music in School and Society
Intersecting discourses in music education, philosophy, and cultural studies, students analyze power in terms of teaching and learning in school and society, examining issues of student/teacher agency and conflict related to identity politics and critical and liberatory theories as they are implicated in emerging pedagogical/ curricular strategies.  This course replaces MUS2000H.  Students who have taken MUS2000H may not take this course. (EMU475H1)


MUS2151H F
PHILOSOPHY AND MUSIC EDUCATION – Dr. Elizabeth Gould
   
Students analyse, synthsize, and critique several philosophical positions and perspectives related to music and music education in terms of theoretical and practical applications, professional implications, and personal articulations.


MUS2160H S
CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVES ON MUSIC AND EDUCATION – Dr. Elizabeth Gould
   
(previously titled "postmodern" perspectives).  This course interrogates the music education profession using postmodern analytical techniques. Students will explore theoretical and research styles that cross x modes of expression, and apply them to aspects of the profession such as curriculum, pedagogy, and teacher and student characteristics. Topics include postmodernism(s), postructuralism, deconstruction, subjectivity, identity, representation, positionality, agency, embodiment, genealogy, and nomadism.


MUS2182H Y
ISSUES IN MUSIC EDUCATION – Dr. Elizabeth Gould
   
An exploration of important topical and research issues in music education by means of specific orienting questions.  Students develop personal issues-oriented interest foci, examine relevant literature, and present and defend in seminar both the importance of the questions and the thoroughness of the answers they propose.  Focus is placed on the development of critical ability in relation to contemporary issues in music education.


PHL 2145H F
BIOETHICS – Dr. Kathryn Morgan
 
Description TBA.


JPW 2118H S
PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS OF WOMEN'S STUDIES – Dr. Kathryn Morgan
  
Description TBA.


CTL1000H F
FOUNDATIONS OF CURRICULUM STUDIES – Dr. Peter Trifonas
 
The aim of this course is to apply theory and research to the study of curriculum and teaching. The course (a) provides a language for conceptualizing educational questions; (b) reviews the major themes in the literature; (c) provides a framework for thinking about curriculum changes and change; and (d) assists students in developing critical and analytical skills appropriate to the scholarly discussion of curriculum and teaching problems.


CTL1023H
TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION: CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON THEORY AND PRACTICE - Dr. Peter Trifonas

An examination of the theoretical underpinnings and practical questions concerning the educational use of technology.  The pedagogical application of technology includes the implementation of computers and other instructional technologies for teaching and learning such as video and audio multimedia (e.g., film, audio recordings, television).  The focus is on developing a critical perspective regarding the use of technology in educational contexts that relates and looks forward to the articulation of an ethics of teaching practice.  Topics representative of technology and education issues will be selected from the following:  theories and definitions of technology; implications of various modes of technology contexts for models of teaching and learning practice; evaluating the use of multimedia resources for educational contexts (e.g., internet, “software,” video and audio recordings, television); technology, diversity, and educational equity; articulating an ethics of teaching practice with respect to the educational use of technology.


CTL1024H
POSTSTRUCTURALISM AND EDUCATION – Dr. Peter Trifonas
  
This course will examine the foundations of educational thought from the perspectives of Jacques Derrida, Jean-Francois Lyotard, Luce Irigaray, Hélène Cixous, Michel Foucault, Roland Barthes, Gilles Deleuze, Julia Kristeva, Emmanuel Levinas, and Jean Baudrillard.  Educational implications and applications of poststructural philosophy will be stressed in relation to the discursive and non-discursive limits of the scene of teaching.


SES1956H
SOCIAL RELATIONS OF CULTURAL PRODUCTION IN EDUCATION – Dr. Rinaldo Walcott

This course will analyse how cultural meanings are produced, interpreted, legitimated, and accepted and/or rejected in educational settings, including but not limited to schools. Critical perspectives from feminism, Marxism, and poststructuralism will be explored to consider how culture has been investigated and taken up in/through sociology, cultural studies, and studies of education and schooling.


SES1959H
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS IN CULTURE, COMMUNICATIONS AND EDUCATION -
Dr. Rinaldo Walcott

This course examines a range of arguments concerning the ways in which theories of culture, communication and education impact our understanding of the everyday world. The course attempts to survey literature which place discussions of culture, communication and education in the foreground.  The course will attend to the ways in which culture, communication and education are not settled terms but are terms deeply implicated in how we maneuver the everyday social world.

HERE ARE GRADUATE COURSES OFFERED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY:

http://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/%7Ekremer/PHLgrad/0809PHLGradCourseDescriptions.htm

PHL 3000F
PROFESSIONAL WORKSHOP – Dr. Margaret Morrison

This non-credit course is designed to prepare students to present their work to colleagues and participate in high-level academic philosophical interaction. Its aim is to prepare the student for the kind of philosophical interaction that she will typically encounter when going into the job market. This course will be required of all students who wish to use the departmental placement services, although the requirement may be waived if satisfying it would cause undue hardship to the student (if the student, for instance, does not live in the Toronto area).
Prerequisites: ABD Status
Requirements: Students will be required to present papers connected to their dissertation work, as well as summaries of their dissertation projects. Students will also be required to participate in the discussion of other students’ papers and projects.


PHL 1112H
PROSEMINAR FOR THE COLLABORATIVE PROGRAM IN ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY – Dr. Rachel Barney
  
Note: This course is pending approval.
Note: If approved, this course will meet both Fall and Winter terms, every other week, beginning September 8.
Note: If approved, this course will be required of every first-year student in CPAMP.
The proseminar in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy is a skills-based foundational course designed for students enrolled in CPAMP (the Collaborative Programme in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy), but open to all students in the participating units (Classics, Medieval Studies and Philosophy). It involves both detailed work on topics in Greek and Latin philosophical texts for specialists in those areas, and a common core seminar on central themes. In 2008-09, the Proseminar will focus on a survey of major philosophers and schools from the Presocratics to the end of the medieval era, presented by specialist faculty in each area. These core meetings will be held every second week throughout the academic year, with Greek- and Latin-oriented sessions taking place in the alternate weeks.


PHL 2003F
ARISTOTLE - Dr. Lloyd Gerson

The course will focus on a close reading of the main parts of Aristotle's Metaphysics. Among the topics to be considered are Aristotle's criticism of Plato's theory of Forms, the nature of a science of being qua being, the relation of this science to theology, the nature of substance, the properties of being, and the scientific character of metaphysics.


PHL 2010F
LATE GREEK PHILOSOPHY: STOIC SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY – Dr. Brad Inwood

A study of Stoic social and political philosophy. The founder of Stoicism, Zeno of Citium, was famous for his radical Republic which proposed a sweeping revolution in social and political values. Later Stoics were better integrated with normal political life; for example, the Roman Seneca served for years as Nero's chief political minister. This seminar surveys Stoic social and political thought from the beginnings to the second century A.D., but the centre piece of the course is a close study of Seneca's major treatise On Benefits. Themes of particular interest include Stoicism's reaction to Plato and Aristotle, the relationship of political thought to ethics, Stoicism's complex relationship with the changing conditions of political life in the Greco-Roman world and its influence on later political and moral philosophy.


PHL 2132F
SEMINAR IN ETHICS: PERSONS AND REASONS – Drs. Clark & Whiting

Description TBA.


PHL 2141F
POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY: DEMOCRACY AND THE CITIES – Dr. Frank Cunningham
   
Central contemporary approaches to democratic theory -- Classic Pluralism, Catallaxy, Developmental Democracy, Deliberative Democracy, and Radical Pluralism – are compared and contrasted by applying them to issues and problems in urban theory and practice insofar as they relate to democracy. The seminar will involve student participation and is offered to students both of Philosophy and Political Science.


PHL 2143F
SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY: ETHICS OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION – Dr. Joseph Heath
 
The course constitutes an introduction to the field of management ethics, with a focus on applications in the public sector. The fundamental question to be asked is, "Who does the civil servant serve?" Topics to be addressed include: principal-agent theory, stakeholder theory, the "public sector ethos," ministerial accountability and the "new public management."


PHL 2145F
BIOETHICS – Dr. Kathryn Morgan
  
Description TBA.


PHL 2171F
PHILOSOPHY OF MIND: PERCEPTION AND BEAUTY – Dr. Sonia Sedivy

This course lies at an important though not well explored intersection point between theory of mind and theory of art. We will examine the nature of perception, especially its qualitative nature, which seems to outrun our conceptual capacities by focusing on the experience of beauty which, it has been argued, is distinguished by the fact that our experience of it outruns our conceptual capacities. The key historical precedent for this juxtaposition is Kant's Critique of Judgment. We will spend some time with that work, and consider a variety of contemporary texts, both from theory of perception and theory of beauty.