Offered by the University of Chicago Urban Teacher Education Program (UTEP), this syllabus for the course titled The Social Aspects and History of Chicago and Chicago Schools is a part of a three-quarter sequence called the Foundations of Education Seminar. The seminar is composed of three integrated pedagogical strands that are key to the development of teaching and learning: Academic, Soul, and Fieldwork. The strands emphasize content, social-emotional learning, culturally responsive practice, and Chicago communities and schools.

This course studies the history, political economy, and public policy that influence the sociology of urban space in which teacher candidates will ultimately teach. This course challenges teacher candidates to think about how cities are designed and maintained through systems of ideology, policy, and financial and social control, as well as how schools are used as a mechanism to perpetuate the status quo.