FALL 2011
COURSE SYLLABUS
Education and Society
FOUN 3708 - 3 s.h. - CRN 45024)
Prerequisites: Completion of FOUN 1501 – Introduction to Education with a “C” or better. Admission to Teacher Education (Upper Division Status).
Class meetings: Fall 2011 (August 29 through December 18)
MW 5:15 pm to 6:25 pm; BCOE Room 4404
Text/Resources: Nieto, S. The Light in Their Eyes (2010). Teachers College
-- approximate cost $27 new; 20 used.
Rodriguez, R. Hunger of Memory. Bantam Books
-- approximate cost $8 new; $6 used.
Hacker, Diana. A Pocket Style Manual. Bedford Books of St. Martin’s Press
-- approximate cost $25 new; $20 used (Optional)
McEwing, Richard. Website - http://people.ysu.edu/~ramcewing
Syllabus developed by Dr. Richard McEwing
Instructor: Dr. Richard A. McEwing, Professor
Department of Educational Foundations, Research, Technology & Leadership
Beeghly College of Education
Youngstown State University
Youngstown, OH 44555-0001
Office: Beeghly College of Education, Room 4103
Office Hours: MW 3:15 pm to 5:10 pm
Office Phone: (330) 941-1437
E-mail:
Technology/Materials Fee: Students are required to have purchased individual TaskStream accounts. TaskStream is a web-based program used for a number of class requirements in this course and is the web-based program used throughout the teacher education program.
Catalog Description: School as a dynamic social institution. An analysis of how schools interact with diverse communities and with social, political, and cultural institutions and traditions. Includes twenty-five hours of field research.
Critical Tasks: The FOUN 3708 Critical Task is designed to assess the candidates’ depth of understanding with regard to concepts of culture and the impact these understandings have on their approaches to teaching. Candidates also reflect on their field research project that focuses on their personal exploration of diversity. These assignments must be submitted on TaskStream.
Knowledge Base Rationale:
Education is contextual - and importantly so public education in a diverse, democratizing society. As the bell curve becomes obsolete as an acceptable standard of teachers' success with students - as our democratizing and developing society demands more, and more equitably disbursed, education - teachers must be able to successfully to teach groups of students whom they have not, in the past, succeeded in teaching. To attain this emerging professional standard, teachers will need to stronger, in depth and breadth, in their three traditional areas of learning: content knowledge; pedagogy; and knowledge of the learners and the teaching-learning situation in their familial, local, societal, cultural, and political contexts. Education and Society addresses this latter area of learning.
This course, like it predecessor, Found 1501, continues to foster commitment to the principle that children of all colors, backgrounds, creeds, abilities, and styles can learn. The goal of the course, within the Beeghly College of Education’s conceptual framework model ”Reflection in Action – The Educator as Reflective Practitioner” and the “Ohio Standards for the Teaching Profession,” is to deepen students' understanding of, and appreciation for, the interaction of formal classroom-based education with the network of family, community, and institutional-based experiences that influence the lives of learners. This course supports the BCOE Conceptual Framework and continues to inform the candidate that reflective practice is Reasoned, Ethical, Fair, Logical, Effective, Critical, and Technical.
Education and Society creates a series of experiences – some "core" to the course and others selected by the student – that constitute partial immersion into the families, communities, histories, and teaching-learning situations of students likely to be very different from, as well as similar to, themselves. Through readings and field experiences focused on community context rather than school settings per se, students mature in their knowledge of cultural and community diversity and its implications for teaching and learning. They begin to recognize historical and sociological links between the learning experiences of their own families and ancestors in decades past, and more recent groups of children and families they have perhaps perceived to-date as incomprehensibly different and problematic. They move toward greater professionalism in the sense that a teacher for the 21st century must be committed to educating all children, and optimistic and knowledgeable about how better to understand learners and create improved conditions for learning if early attempts fall short.
Those in Education and Society who do not plan to become teachers are expected to benefit from the broadened perspective offered here that is required by citizens and voters in a democratizing society. As citizens and voters, their actions (or inaction) make policy and affix responsibility for the education of our and other people's children. Additionally, students may find, in Education and Society, some perspective on one of society's largest, most expensive, and most compelling institutional efforts: educating our children. The following are knowledge bases used in setting the course objectives --
1. Emphasis on the importance of contexts and situations in the development of educational ideas as well as features of educational theories that transcend particular historical contexts (Bowers, 1990; Frankl, 1959).
2. Further development of students’ multicultural/multiperspective teaching skills and understandings, to analyze one’s own cultural experiences (especially in the arenas of class, race and gender), to expand skills of intercultural communication and to examine ways in which to create culturally sensitive teaching and learning environments (Burner, 1966; Darling-Hammond, 1995; ).
3. An interpretive analysis of the life histories to assess how conceptions of candidates’ moral and political identity translate into their pedagogy and purpose for education (Freire, 1972; Galbraith, 1997; Garcia, 2002). The educator understands the full significance of diversity in a democratic society and how that bears on instruction, school leadership, and governance (NCFSE, 1996)
4. Creating bridges between critical and social theories and pedagogical practices leading to democratic, socially and just communities. For example, examining the theoretical foundations of multicultural education, feminist pedagogies, and justice pedagogy (Apple, 1990; Greene,1986).
5. Important reflection occurs following teaching experiences and away from the hustle and bustle of classroom interactions. It involves self-evaluation through a critical analysis of teaching decisions and their outcomes (Brookfield, 1995; Dewey, 1933; Cooper, 1999; Schon, 1983).
6. Reflection fosters professional growth and development, critical thinking, self-assessment, and self-directed learning. It promotes the development of new knowledge, leads to broader understanding, and creates greater self-awareness (Osterman & Kottkamp, 2004; Paul, Willsen & Blinker, 1995).
7. Since schools provide students a “democratic apprenticeship” through both pedagogical practices and curricular content (Nieto 1995), in the course students will be performing their own on-site investigations of selected aspects of diversity in education and society (Shulman, 1987; Skinner, 1971; Smith, 1998).
8. "Experience alone is not learning, and indeed experiences alone can be miseducative . . . . if we hope to foster our students' development we must strive to provide them with genuine opportunities to question, to experiment with, and to reflect on their experiences. Without such active wrestling with the experiences to which we expose them, our programs may train our students to function in certain roles or to perform certain tasks, expose them to a wealth of new people, situations, and ideas, even provide them with excitement and enjoyment, but they will not foster development"(Whitham and Erdynast, 1982).
9. Multicultural foundations should be a central component of teacher education (deMarrais, 2005), especially since the teaching of complex and contested topics oftentimes encounters massive covert and overt student resistance (Butin, 2005). As Villegas and Lucas suggest: “Because many teachers-to-be enter education believing that schools are impartial institutions, that cultural diversity is problematic, that knowledge is objective and neutral, that learning consists of passively absorbing new information and repeating it by rote, and that teaching entails dispensing information, preparing them to be culturally responsive requires a complete resocialization”(Villegas and Lucas, 2002).
Connections to the BCOE Conceptual Framework and Ohio’s Performance-Based Licensure Expectations:
The BCOE Conceptual Framework “Reflection in Action” uses the mnemonic device “REFLECT” to specify its seven keys components. These seven components are then specified as candidate learning outcomes in the “BCOE Institutional Standards & Outcome Statements.” These outcome statements are index to the Ohio Standards for the Teaching Profession in a matrix called the Alignment of Ohio Standards for the Teaching Profession and BCOE Conceptual Framework.
Course Objectives: (OS#_ indicates Ohio Standard connections; R#_ indicates BCOE Conceptual Framework connections.)
A. Knowledge - The candidate(s) will
1. understand schools as organizations within the larger community context (OS#6.4; R#3D).
2. understand how factors in the students’ environment outside of school (e.g. family circumstances, community environments, health and economic conditions) may influence students’ life and learning (OS#5.1; R#3B).
3. know about the centrality of language as an element of culture and about strategies to support the learning of students whose first language is not English (OS#1.4; R#3D).
4. understand how students’ learning is influenced by individual experiences with peer groups, exceptionality, talents, and prior learning, as well as culture, family and community values (OS#1.5; R#3C).
5. develop a well grounded framework for understanding cultural and community diversity and how to learn about and incorporate students’ experiences, cultures, and community resources into instruction (OS#2.5; R#4A).
B. Skills - The candidate(s) will
1. be able to talk with and listen to the student, be sensitive and responsive to clues of distress, investigates situations, and seek outside help as needed and appropriate (OS#6.2; R#3D).
2. identify when and how to access appropriate services or community resources to meet diverse learner needs and foster student learning (OS#6.3; R#6B).
3. understand students’ families, cultures, and communities, using this information as a basis for connecting instruction to students’ experiences (OS#4.4; R#1A).
4. bring multiple perspectives to the discussion of subject matter, including attention to students’ personal, family, and community experiences and cultural norms (OS#2.5; R#4A).
5. create a learning community in which individual differences are respected and act as an advocate for students (OS#1.3; R#3C).
6. be able to establish respectful and productive relationships with parents and guardians from diverse home and community situations (OS#1.5; R#3C).
C. Dispositions - The candidate(s) will
1. believe that all children can learn at high levels, valuing and appreciating the importance of all aspects of a child's experience (OS#1.5; R#3C).
2. appreciate and value diversity, show respect for students’ varied talents and perspectives, and be committed to the pursuit of “individually configured excellence." (OS#1.5; R#3C).
3. respect students as individuals with differing backgrounds and various skills, talents, and interests while respecting the privacy of students and confidentiality of information (OS#1.5; R#3C).
4. make students feel valued for their potential as people, and help them learn to value each other while being sensitive to community and cultural norms (OS#7.1; R#2C).
5. be willing to work with other adults and professionals in improve the overall learning environment for students (OS#7.3; R#6B).
Course Outline - Class meeting topics and due dates for written submissions are scheduled to follow the sequence below. Should adjustments to this plan be necessary, they will be announced in class.
Dates Topic Related Material and Readings
Aug 29, 31 Review of Syllabus & Course Expectations Syllabus / web site
Personal Thesis Assignment Given
Focus on family and personal education
Oral Presentation Discussed
Sept 5 NO CLASSES – UNIVERSITY CLOSED – LABOR DAY
Sept 7 Sociopolitics of Schooling (one note card due) Nieto’s The Light . . . Intro
Personal Thesis Presentations Begin
Sept 12,14 Learning & Context (one note card due) Nieto’s The Light . . . Chap 1
Song Assignment Given
Personal Thesis Continued
Sept 19, 21 Learning & Inequality (one note card) Nieto’s The Light . . . Chap 2
Personal Thesis (PT)
Field Research Assignment Given
Focus is on diversity
Submitted through TaskStream
Sept 26, 28 Learning & Culture (one note card) Nieto’s The Light . . . Chap 3
Personal Thesis (PT)
Critical Task Essay on Culture Assignment Given
Field Project Report Sharing begins and continues until end of semester
PRAXIS PLT DISCUSSION
MOVE TO “HUNGER OF MEMORY” READINGS
Oct 3 Pastoral – Aria (one note card) Hunger of Memory, pages 1-40
PT Presentations
Oct 5 Achievement of Desire (one note card) Hunger of Memory, pages 43-78
PT Presentations
Oct 10 Credo – Complexion (one note card) Hunger of Memory, pages 79-150
PT - Song Analysis Presentations Begin
Oct 12 Profession – Secrets (one note card) Hunger of Memory, pages 151-224
PT & Song Analysis Presentations
**Oct 12 “Essay on Culture Due” via TaskStream Due (See Style Manual)
BACK TO NIETO READINGS
Oct 17, 19 Who Accommodates? (note card) Nieto Chap 4, pages 101-112
PT & Song Analysis Presentations
Oct 24, 26 Who Transform Schools? (note card) Nieto Chap 4, pages 112-129
PT & SA Presentations
Oct31, Nov2 Learning & Critical Pedagogy (note card) Nieto Chap 5, pages 130-145
PT & SA Presentations
Nov 7, 9 Learning & Empowerment (note card) Nieto Chap 5, pages 146-154
PT & SA Presentations
Course Outline CONTINUED - Class meeting topics and due dates for written submissions are scheduled to follow the sequence below. Should adjustments to this plan be necessary, they will be announced in class.
Nov 11 NO CLASSES – UNIVERSITY CLOSED – VETERANS DAY
Nov 14,16 Teacher & Student Identity (card) Nieto Chap 6
PT Presentations continue until end of semester
Nov 21,23 Creating Powerful Classrooms (card) Nieto Chap 7
Nov 24-25 NO CLASSES – UNIVERSITY CLOSED – THANKSGIVING
Nov 28,30 Reflecting on the Decade (card) Nieto Epilogue
Dec 5,7 Finish Presentations
**Dec 7 - Individual Report on Field Project via TaskStream Due (See Style Manual)
**Dec 12 - Final Exam (Comprehensive) 5:30 -7:30
Course Grading:
The course Grade Determination Checklist below indicates the maximum point values assigned to each evaluation area and how this evaluation area relates to course objectives (see web-site):
Evaluation Area Points Possible Related Course Obj.
No. 1 Personal Thesis - Oral 40 A2, B1, B4, C2, C3
No. 2 Note Cards - Written 60 A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, B3, B6
No. 3 Class Participation 40 A1, B1, B5, B6, C3, C4
No. 4 Song Analysis Presentation 40 A4, B4, C1
No. 5 Essay on Culture using TaskStream 70 A2, B4, C2
No. 6 Field Research Oral Report 20 A5, B2, C5
No. 7 Field Research Report using TaskStream 40 A5, B2, C5
No. 8 Final Exam 40 A5, B5, C5
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350 Total
The above points are added to determine the course grade as follows: