The Yale Education Studies website boasts that EDST “is an interdisciplinary program that empowers students, faculty and the broader community …” But this cannot be further from the truth, especially for students looking to learn about the education system outside of the U.S.

It was in my sophomore year that I took EDST 110, the required intro course for Education Studies, acting against the advice of some of my international friends who had been through the course. This class was the only requirement to get into EDST, a program that was the number one reason I chose Yale. But it wouldn’t take long for me to understand why I was warned about the course. 

The first assignment came. I had to write a personal essay about the purpose of education. Being international, my background was pretty different from most of my peers in the class. The readings were not relatable to me — the vast majority of the readings were heavily U.S. focused—but I needed to engage with them in my personal essay. I brought up this concern in office hours. 

“I’m sorry, that’s what it is. Engage with readings from class. Feel free to write up some words about writers of your choice, though,” a TA said.  

This hyperfocus on United States scholarship was not isolated to that one assignment—it could be observed in the everyday of the class. After repeated instances, I voiced my concerns to a professor, who responded with, “Your comments are ones that I have heard from international students before.”

I was surprised to hear the professor acknowledge that many international students who took the class before me also felt left out of the curriculum, but also disheartened because the professor didn’t seem to care. In EDST 110, we are taught that education is fluid and changes can and must happen. So why is there no change when people rally for one?

Still, the conversation got worse. As I continued to outline the grievances with the U.S. heavy curriculum I was told, “perhaps this place [Yale] is not where you should be.” 

As a first-generation, low-income international student struggling to fit in a class, that’s the last thing I wanted to hear. But maybe they were right. I started looking at other programs, and they seem to have systems that avoid this problem. It would be as easy as removing EDST 110 as a requirement, leaving it as optional (other programs and certificates at Yale don’t have requirements, or these can be waived). Or alternatively, having a list of already existing, cross-listed foundational courses (such as Developmental Psychology or Philosophy of Education) from which students could choose (like at Harvard). Another easy solution would be a completely restructured EDST 110 that doesn’t shoehorn us into only understanding the US Education system, but also more universal concepts such as pedagogies and development of learning (like at Dartmouth). 

These realizations about EDST 110 really made me feel like that class was not a place for me. While my peers in class and some faculty within the program supported me, those who could change the situation clearly didn’t mind my struggle. They were teaching us how crucial it is for education to be inclusive, while they were failing to include me and many other individuals — not just internationals, but also those with a global interest in education. I interviewed other students to get their perspective. 

Andreea Ciobanu ’22, an alumni who took the class and is currently teaching at the University of Bucharest in Romania, explains: “Although several students voiced their concerns, minor syllabus changes followed. The fact that this introductory course puts off many individuals who — like me — are  passionate about education demonstrates a fundamental flaw in structuring.”

Catherine Xu ’24, an international student from China, took the class in her first semester at Yale: “I’ve always been passionate about education, but EDST 110 pushed me away from pursuing the Scholars Program. I felt international experiences and perspectives were inherently marginal in this class and even questioned whether Yale, as a whole, was a space for me back then.”

The truth is that while this class should work as a way for students to increase their interest in education, it can work quite in the opposite direction. Hearing that active presence in EDST 110 is “an important signal for selection into the Scholar Program” puts us, students with an international background, clearly at a disadvantage when compared to U.S. peers. We international students noticed that we share a certain stress in the classroom. Ironically, EDST lectures teach us that such stress in students is associated with far-from-ideal learning environments.

I understand that Yale is a U.S. institution, but it holds an international responsibility. As such, I don’t believe that we are at the wrong place — we are where we need to be. EDST has done a great job in creating a community and starting conversations on inequalities that have greatly affected the U.S. educational system. However, it has failed in welcoming international perspectives to the arena. EDST 110, as it stands, is a door blocking international students from studying education at Yale. Other U.S. institutions have managed to overcome this problem with easy solutions. Now we just need to learn from them, and make sure that Yale’s EDST puts into practice what it teaches: inclusion.

MIGUEL LÓPEZ RIVERA is a junior in Pauli Murray college. He can be reached at miguel.lopezrivera@yale.edu.