\u2018Kind of degrading\u2019<\/p>\n
As word of the program pause spread, School of Education students launched a public plea<\/a> for the university to reverse course.\n<\/p>\n Macwana and his cohort have launched a social media campaign and online petition<\/a>, while also spending their days in Philadelphia classrooms.\n<\/p>\n Macwana is currently a student teacher at Science Leadership Academy. He said he hadn\u2019t initially planned to pursue teaching, but after one elective course, he \u201cfell in love with the program and the content.\u201d\n<\/p>\n He compared teacher preparation at Drexel to a medical residency, beginning with observation and reflection in the field and building up practical experience over months of work in schools during junior and senior year.\n <\/p>\n Macwana said he was caught by surprise by the plan to pause the major and said the decision illustrates a disparity in academic fields at Drexel. He said the humanities fields see less attention than science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, and though his chosen field combines both, the teaching side is now losing out.\n<\/p>\n Throughout the years, Macwana has taken some School of Education courses through the online option, which he said is robust but should not be the only choice.\n<\/p>\n