The page one article on the education major proposal in The Occidental, Feb. 19 had multiple errors. This article has been re-reported by Editor in Chief Kawena Jacobs and will be published online.
A proposal for an education major at Occidental is being evaluated by the Faculty Council’s Academic Planning Committee, according to Associate Professor of Education La Mont Terry. The latest iteration of the major proposal, which Terry said the education department has presented several times over the last decade, was submitted in October 2024. Terry said he and Professor of Education Ronald Solórzano gave a formal presentation of the proposal to department chairs Jan. 28.
“[The chairs] had an opportunity to ask questions, clarify their understanding, to raise concerns [and] to voice support in the public forum of the department chairs meeting,” Terry said.
According to Terry, the Academic Planning Committee then solicited feedback from the department chairs due Feb. 14. If the Academic Planning Committee decides to advance the education major proposal after its deliberations, Terry said it will then be subject to a faculty-wide review at the standard faculty meetings. Solórzano said the faculty vote would be the final approval necessary for the education major, since Occidental operates under a faculty governance model for matters such as major implementation.
Terry said the proposal itself builds on the existing education minor courses, as previous proposal feedback from the Academic Planning Committee encouraged the department to build out the minor and establish a foundation for a potential major.
“I would say that [95–99] percent of the courses are already on the books,” Terry said. “It’s composed of existing education courses, as well as elective courses from around the college in related departments. There are a couple courses we imagine need to be built—we have plans for those courses, we have a good sense for who will teach those.”
Terry said the proposal outlines three pathways for the major, one of which focuses on K-12 plus higher education schooling. Solórzano said this will highlight current classroom practices and how the U.S. approaches educating children.
“This would be an obvious choice for students who are thinking about teaching, school counseling, administration, maybe even teaching in higher [education],” Terry said.
Another path focuses on education policy, which Solórzano said is important to discuss in light of issues such as historical revisionism in curriculum, book bans and debates over critical race theory.
“Education policy, which is my background, [will look] at how policy is formed, how it’s implemented,” Solórzano said. “What are some of the assumptions made when we make policy? And those policies range from bilingual education, affirmative action, teacher training, so a lot of different policies that impact right now — it’s really apropos.”
The final path, Solórzano said, will focus on community engagement, a growing interest in education reform. Terry said this can include topics like community-based organizing and activism in education.
“This focuses on the nonprofit sector, how people in the community […] organize around educational issues, the kinds of strategies they take, how they partner with schools like Oxy,” Terry said. “It’s all sorts of things.”
Solórzano said these areas play to the strengths of the current education faculty’s research interests, which the department aimed to emphasize in the absence of a teacher credentialing program. Terry said the college had a long history of credentialing teachers before the program ended under former President Jonathan Veitch. Though the major proposal does not initially seek to reinstate the credentialing program, Terry said there may be opportunities to do so in the future if the major is given time to grow.
“Right now, we’re really focused on education as a discipline,” Terry said. “If you want to teach and you know that at Oxy and you want to major in education, certainly what you would learn in our department would be a good, solid foundation for then going on to do your credential.”
According to Terry, the proposal also includes a model for junior and senior seminars that will place students in the community to partner with organizations or institutions related to the students’ chosen pathways. One example of this, Terry said, could be an education policy path student supporting the work of a school board member.
“In the junior year, it’s really about getting to know your partner and its values and the mission of the organization,” Terry said. “Then, on the basis of what you have come to know and understand about the partner, in the senior year, you would conduct a comps project that is closely tied to that partnership.”
While past proposals for the education major have stalled, Solórzano said student interest has remained strong and is crucial to the creation of majors and minors in any department. Education minor Nevaeh Navarro (first year) said a small group of students — including two members of ASOC’s Academic Affairs Committee — has met to discuss ways to support the ongoing proposal.
“One of our biggest plans is to try and talk with incoming [first years] and measure if they would be interested in the creation of the education major,” Navarro said. “If there’s more interest garnered in it, we feel like we could gather more support behind creating it.”
Another education minor Sammy Levy (senior) said that while he would be graduating before the education major would become available, he believes the department teaches the kind of radical thinking that Occidental seeks to embody and that the major would allow students to have more hands-on experiences.
“I feel like education is something that draws people who are really, really passionate about it, because it’s something that makes you think about everything else you’re doing in college,” Levy said. “If you’re learning how to learn or learning how to teach, it influences so much else of just what you do and how you are […] so I’m excited to see what an education major will do to the school.”
Contact Kawena Jacobs at jacobsk@oxy.edu
