DFE
Department of Formative Education
Formative Education
An unprecedented venture in American higher education, the Department of Formative Education (DFE) is devoted to the interdisciplinary exploration of questions at once perennial and pressing: How do we educate whole persons for meaningful lives? How do we cultivate community? How do we nurture vision and values? In DFE, faculty conduct groundbreaking research on the cultivation of character, the expansion of imagination, and realization of purpose.
We propose that:
- Education involves both knowing and doing: understanding the world and changing it.
- Education goes beyond the transmission of discrete knowledge and skills to encompass the transformation of the whole person.
- Education must address the full scope of our humanity: intellectual and practical, moral and civic, aesthetic and spiritual.
- Education in school is just one aspect of a life-wide and lifelong formative process.
- Education is not a technical matter of finding efficient means to given ends, but calls for judgment about the worthiness of the ends themselves.
Anthropology and cultural psychology help us think globally about human development, asking:
- How do human beings make use of cultural resources to shape their identities, aspirations, and values?
- What roles do parents, families, and communities play in children’s learning in different sociocultural contexts?
- How does language frame social worlds and mediate meaning making?
The learning sciences and developmental technologies expand our conception of where, what, and how we learn, inviting us to:
- Draw on our understanding of cognitive, social, and cultural processes to create new learning environments;
- Investigate how we learn across formal and informal contexts of home and school, work and play, networks and communities;
- Design and implement learning experiences that use coding, making, and robotics to play a positive role in children’s lives.
The formative humanities explore the existential and normative dimensions of educational experience:
- History of formative education enriches the educational imagination by exploring different traditions of formative thought and illustrative examples of formative practice.
- Philosophy of formative education brings into conversation three perennial questions: What is the human condition? What constitutes our flourishing? What fosters our growth?
- Psychological humanities disclose the lived experience of personhood, examining the demands of relationships, the experience of suffering, and the dynamics of transformation.
We seek to create spaces that:
- Spark self-discovery;
- Challenge us to attend more closely and notice the overlooked;
- Integrate mind and body, thinking and feeling, fact and value, reflection and action, understanding and self-knowledge, life and school;
- Connect learners in community;
- Support dialogue across difference;
- Inspire the pursuit of formative justice.
Programs
Formative Education, Ph.D.
Foster engaged scholar-practitioners whose rich, interdisciplinary intellectual formation allows them to address complex, normative questions about human transformation. The program seeks to prepare thought leaders in a variety of sectors whose research and work promote the development of whole persons toward lives of meaning and purpose.
PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS
- The program is built around the aim of helping students develop into sharp, imaginative, socially engaged, interdisciplinary thinkers.
- Drawing faculty from the diverse disciplinary traditions of history and philosophy, anthropology and humanistic psychology, design thinking, and the learning sciences, this program will prepare scholars and practitioners to examine the conceptual, empirical, and normative dimensions of formation.
Learning, Design, and Technology, M.A.
Prepare to design engaging and effective learning experiences that are informed by the learning sciences and incorporate cutting-edge technologies.
PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS
- Students gain hands-on design experience, interdisciplinary knowledge, and technical skills in learning design and technology.
- You'll directly apply the skills, theories, and models you learn in class in hands-on settings, culminating in an applied experiences project.
Careers
- Learning Engineer
- Learning Experience and User Experience Designer
- Instructional Designer or Evaluator
- Curriculum Developer
- Educational Technology Consultant
- Corporate Training and Development Manager
Transformative Educational Studies, B.A.
Study fundamental educational questions arising during this moment of social and educational transformation.
PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS
- Coursework covers leading theories and strategies in curriculum; diversity, equity, inclusion; and formative education.
- Students are pushed to consider what it means to be an educator and how education should respond to contemporary social, environmental, and health crises.
- Program prepares students for 5th year master's programs at the Lynch School.
Careers
- English Teacher
- Science Teacher
- History Teacher
- ELA Teacher
- Associate General Counsel
Faculty
Internationally recognized faculty integrate interdisciplinary theory with the most current evidence-based practices.
Faculty
Stanton Wortham
Inaugural Charles F. Donovan, S.J., Dean
Chris Higgins
Department Chair, Department of Formative Education
Cristiano Casalini
Endowed Chair, Jesuit Pedagogy and Educational History
Faculty Accepting Doctoral Students
Cristiano Casalini
Endowed Chair, Jesuit Pedagogy and Educational History
Chris Higgins
Department Chair, Department of Formative Education
Affiliate Faculty
Gilda Morelli
Department Chair, Counseling, Developmental, and Educational Psychology
Martin Scanlan
Program Director, Educational Leadership and Policy, M.Ed.
Erik Owens
Professor of the Practice; Director, International Studies Program
Research
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Total results: 3
Formative Leadership Education Project
The Formative Leadership Education Project was recently awarded a grant from the Kern Family Foundation entitled "Expanding the Reach of Formative Leadership Education by Building Communities of Practice." This funds the facilitation of the Kern Partners for Character and Educational Leadership (KPCEL) network. KPCEL is a nation-wide network of institutions in the process of implementing character education initiatives. As a starting point, the Lynch School will organize and host a Summer Institute in 2022 to bring these partners together into productive dialogue. Throughout 2022-2025, we will facilitate a series of working groups and professional learning communities across the network to support the work of our partners from inquiry to implementation.
Project DetailsMigration Narratives
This book describes an American town that became home to thousands of Mexican migrants between 1995-2016, where the Mexican population increased by over 1000% and Mexicans became almost a third of the town. We emphasize the ongoing changes in prior migrant communities and the interactions these groups had with Mexicans, showing how interethnic relations played a central role in newcomers’ pathways. The book richly represents the voices of Irish, Italian, African American, and Mexican residents.
Discourse Analysis Beyond the Speech Event
This book introduces a new approach to discourse analysis. It argues that discourse analysts should look beyond fixed speech events and consider the development of discourses over time. Drawing on theories and methods from linguistic anthropology and related fields, the book is the first to present a systematic methodological approach to conducting discourse analysis of linked events, allowing researchers to understand not only individual events but also the patterns that emerge across them.
News
What’s next for AI in 2025?
Father Philip Larrey's expertise was featured in a "Catholic News Agency" article regarding AI in 2025 and its consequences for Catholicism. Fr. Larrey commented on the necessity of instilling ethics into AI from the start.
A decade of bringing computer literacy to kids
ScratchJr, a programming app for children aged 5-7 co-developed by the Augustus Long Professor Marina Umaschi Bers and the Developmental Technologies Research Group now housed at the Lynch School, marks its 10th anniversary
Link to article
Transforming Education with Entrepreneurship
Dylan Kim, a sophomore in the Transformative Educational Studies program, is on a mission to transform education with MLV Ignite, an ed-tech company he co-founded with Timothy Liu '26. The duo aims to address the lack of practical career skills taught in high schools with their educational courses focused on entrepreneurship and financial literacy. Based in Vietnam, the company offers summer and winter programs for high school students.
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Marina Bers works to create a "Smart Playground"
Augustus Long Professor of Education Marina Bers is at the forefront of a groundbreaking project that is transforming traditional school playgrounds into innovative learning spaces. Collaborating with UCI School of Education faculty on the NSF-funded Smart Playgrounds initiative, they are evolutionizing the way children engage with computer science concepts.
Link to article
The Age of Identity
In a Q&A with BC News, Lynch School of Education and Human Development Emeritus Professors Dennis Shirley and Andy Hargreaves discuss their fifth book, which focuses on kids, identity, and belonging
Formative Leadership Education in the Community
The Formative Leadership Education team is committed to nurturing organizational capacity and fostering a culture that promotes holistic formation in schools and educational systems, to establish and support relational networks that drive meaningful learning experiences.