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HomeAbout MCSPublicationsTeachingProfessional AffiliationsJournal of Teacher EducationBoston CollegeAERA Dr. Cochran-Smith has taught courses at Boston College on a variety of topics, including: research on teaching and teacher education, teacher research in urban schools, inquiry and learning to teach, curriculum controversies, children's literature, diversity and teaching, and as a Visiting Professor at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, the University of Washington in Seattle, and Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia. She has also been Scholar in Residence at the Mofet Institute in Tel Aviv, Israel and worked with education faculty at the University of South Australia, the University of Leiden (Netherlands), the University of Colorado-Denver, Georgia State University, and Syracuse University.

Boston College 2004 Doctoral Graduates (L-R) Danne Davis, Marilyn Cochran-Smith, Janna Jackson

Courses Taught at Boston College

 ED 437: Teacher as Researcher (urban schools section)
In this course, "teacher research," or systematic self-critical inquiry by teachers (and student teachers) about their own schools and classrooms is regarded as a way of generating knowledge about teaching and learning as well as a mode of professional development over the course of the lifespan. The course is designed to coincide closely with the student teaching experience. It draws on the work of K-12 school-based teacher researchers as well as university-based teachers and researchers who work collaboratively with teachers. The course is intended to help students learn to teach for social justice with particular emphasis on the issues of urban schools and schooling.

ED 431/432 Inquiry Seminar (master's seminars on teaching)
Inquiry is a way of documenting and reflecting on the relationships among teacher learning, student learning, and professional practice across the lifespan. Inquiry is one of the five major themes that integrates and unifies coursework and field experiences at the Lynch School of Education. The other themes are promoting social justice, constructing knowledge, accommodating diversity, and collaborating with others. The inquiry seminar, which extends over two semesters, is designed to coincide closely with the student teaching experience. It draws on the work of K-12 school-based teacher researchers as well as university-based teachers and researchers who work collaboratively with teachers. The course is intended to help students learn to teach for social justice with particular emphasis on learning to document the impact of one?s teaching on students? learning.

Boston College 2003 Doctoral Graduates (L-R) Janet McCauley Cate, Marilyn Cochran-Smith, Alan Amtzis

ED 517: Children's Literature in Elementary/Middle Schools
This course introduces both theoretical and practical aspects of the study of literature for children and adolescents in elementary and middle school classrooms. It is designed to encourage students to explore and study: their own assumptions about literature and its relation to young readers; the literary experiences and responses of young readers; currently available selection/bibliographic aids; a wide selection of literature available for young readers today; and, critical perspectives on children's literature, especially in relation to issues of diversity, the politics of literature, and multicultural education.


ED 709: Research on Teaching and Teacher Education (doctoral seminar)
This course is designed to explore conceptual and empirical research on teachers, teaching, knowledge for teaching, and teacher education as well as the contrasting paradigms and methodological approaches upon which this literature is based. The course is intended to help students: become aware of the major substantive areas in the field of research on teaching/teacher education; develop critical perspectives and questions on contrasting paradigms; and raise questions about the implications of this research for curriculum and instruction, policy and practice, and teacher education/professional development. Course readings and discussions examine the major historical paradigms of research on teaching/teacher education as well as the ways new paradigms have developed in response to other approaches. The course also considers the politics of research, or, the ways in which research questions and approaches emerge out of and are related to economic and political contexts and to issues of power and influence in education and society.


Boston College 2002 Doctoral Graduates

(L-R) Kim Fries, Marilyn Cochran-Smith, Susan O'Brien, Ellen Nelson

ED 729: Controversies in Curriculum (graduate seminar)
This course is designed to examine some of the philosophical, social, political, and economic issues that underlie major controversies regarding what should be taught, how it should be taught, and whose values and interests should be represented in American schools. The first part of the course is designed to introduce several major frameworks or lenses for understanding curriculum controversies in general, drawing particularly on critical, feminist, critical race theory, historical, psychosocial, and socioeconomic perspectives. Then the course turns to some of the major curricular controversies that preoccupy the educational community and the public in today?s K-12 schools and in teacher education. These include, but are not limited to, controversies surrounding reading, special education, bilingual education, multicultural education, high stakes testing, and teacher preparation.


Boston College 2005 Doctoral Graduates

(L-R) Kelly Donnell and Marilyn Cochran-Smith.