JCL 10 Intro to Justice, Community, & Leadership: The U.S. and “Us”
Course Description
Welcome to JCL 10, the first course of the program for students pursuing this program of studies. Within the broad framework of justice, community and leadership, this course introduces you to the central emphases and themes of the program. In addition, the course gives special emphasis to the theme of social justice in American society and culture—its roots, development, nature and impact. Throughout the course, we will explore possible answers to the question: Can we create here in America the kind of “Beloved Community” envisioned by Dr. Martin Luther King?
You will probably find this course different from other courses you have taken. Not only does it offer a highly diverse content—from philosophy to government, from social commentary to history, from moral tracts to anthropology and sociology—but it asks you to be involved beyond the classroom in community engagement with a community partner that focuses on social justice themes related to the course, specifically issues of race, class, gender and sexuality. The course introduces you to important skills associated with integrative writing, self-assessment, and critical thinking; skills you will continue to develop in subsequent semesters and beyond graduation.
JCL 10 lies at the very core of the program. Because it seeks to accomplish much, it demands a heavy workload from you. Besides reading, reflection and writing, you are required to participate in activities beyond regular class hours. We believe, however, that the rewards for you in understanding and personal growth will be worth the effort.
Assignments:
1. Blog: You are required to maintain an ongoing blog in which you describe, analyze, reflect on, and respond to your experiences in this course—readings, class discussions and activities, service-learning, outside events, etc.— Each week you will write a minimum of 250 words that provide a critical reflection of your course experience along with your community engagement experience. You will explore the interconnections between your community partner’s mission and activities with our course themes and readings. See Rubric for Blogs on Moodle. Blogs are due Friday by 5pm. (Total of all blogs is 10% of your course grade).
2. Community Engagement: You will work with an assigned community partner for 20 hours through the course of the semester. Our partners this semester are Rainbow Community Center, Monument Crisis Center, and People’s Grocery. Each month your community partner will write a brief assessment of your work along with the hours for the month. You must do a minimum of 5 hours in September, conduct the bulk of your hours in October (approximately 10), and have a maximum of 5 hours in November. This may be negotiable based on the needs of your community partner. For the entire semester, you and your service cohort will integrate your experience and the mission of your partner into our discussions and assignments. During a week of readings that are especially relevant to your community partner, you (and cohort) will lead class discussion and have a representative from your community partner come to class to participate in the discussion. Your final paper will examine an issue relevant to your CE experience. In addition, you will incorporate your experience in your Self-Assessment . Your Community Engagement grade will be comprised of the following: 1) reports from your community partner; 2) fulfilling your hours; 3) leading class discussion; 4) integrating your experience in reflections and class discussions. (15% of grade).
3. 3 Unit Tests/response papers to check understanding; (30% of grade).
4. Self-Assessment: Your Self-Assessment includes your 4-page evaluation (details below) with a cover page which will be handed out in class. You will use this self-assessment in your senior portfolio. (10% of grade).
5. Analytical Paper: Apply readings to analyze your service experience and the role of your community nonprofit in addressing existing social need. Included is a source list that is developed throughout the semester. (15% of grade).
6. Participation: Much like Seminar, L&CS depends heavily on class participation. You are expected to come to class each day prepared to discuss the readings, have questions, and to integrate your community engagement experience in the discussion. See participation rubric on Moodle. (15% of grade).
7. Community Mapping Group Exercise: Research the community in which your group engages in service and present using new media to the entire class. (5% of grade)
Learning Objectives:
1. Apply academic methods and/or theories in a way that promotes collaboration and mutual benefit in a community setting, integrating critical reflection throughout experience.
2. Express an understanding of the interconnections between service, responsibilities as members of communities, and a critical analysis of a just social order.
3. Demonstrate a capacity for principled analysis of concrete social problems, social diversity, and power structures in the United States, and how they affect U.S. society.
4. Using critical reflection, consider your own personal transformation as a member of community. Arrive at new and/or enriched understanding of the texts through collaborative inquiry.
5. Using course theories, analyze social structures through the lens of community, justice and leadership.
Final Grades will be based upon the following percentile ranges:
93-100 A; 90-92 A-; 87-89 B+; 83-86 B; 80-82 B-; 77-79 C+; 73-76 C; 70-72 C-; 67-69 D+; 63-66 D; 60-62 D-; 0-59 F.
Late Assignments: Assignments submitted late will lose half a letter grade for each day past the deadline. If you are having difficulty with an assignment, please ask for help. You must complete your midterm, service learning hours, and essay to pass the class. You can turn in a blog one week late, after that you receive a 0 for that week’s blog.
Required Texts: 1) Beloved Community, MLK; 2) Readings on Engaged Pedagogy 3) Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Ch 2. 4) Peggy McIntosh, “The Invisible Knapsack” 5) Community the Structure of Belonging, Peter Block 6) Various Articles 7) Kozol, Shame of a Nation 8) Allan Johnson, Privilege, Power and Difference
Academic Honor Code: Saint Mary’s College has established an academic honor code that asks students to pledge to do their own work in their own words, without seeking inappropriate aid in preparing for exams or assignments. The pledge reads as follows: “As a student member of an academic community based in mutual trust and responsibility, I pledge: to do my own work at all times, without giving or receiving inappropriate aid; to avoid behaviors that unfairly impede the academic progress of other members of my community; and to take reasonable and responsible action in order to uphold my community’s academic integrity.” This course operates under the premises of the academic honor code, including the expectation that you will work to uphold high standards of integrity. I am available to discuss issues of academic integrity and any questions you might have about the relationship between policy and this course. To understand the academic honor code in full, please see the most recent Student Handbook. Invitation and reminder: Please feel free to conference with me during office hours, or by appointment, for help with any aspect of the course.
Student Disability Services: Reasonable and appropriate accommodations, that take into account the context of the course and its essential elements, for individuals with qualifying disabilities, are extended through the office of Student Disability Services. Students with disabilities are encouraged to contact the Student Disability Services Coordinator at (925) 631-4164 to set up a confidential appointment to discuss accommodation guidelines and available services. Additional information regarding the services available may be found at the following address on the Saint May’s website: http://www.stmarys-ca.edu/academics/academic-advising-and-achievement/student-disability-services.html
Requests: The class is one hour long and will depend upon every student contributing to the discussion. Students should feel free to ask questions, disagree, and challenge one another (and the readings). Be polite and respectful of students and teacher, and I highly encourage sharing different viewpoints and interpretations. No texting or use of computers other than for class use, or you will not receive participation points that day.
Tentative Course Schedule
Week #1: Concepts of Community
M: Beloved Community, Martin Luther King;
W: Friere, Chapter 2 Pedagogy of the Oppressed;
F: Engaged Pedagogy Readings (on Moodle)
Steven Kotler, “17 Flow Triggers for Optimal State of Consciousness”
http://www.slideshare.net/StevenKotler/17-flow-triggers
Have students define community and continuously return to refine and expand that definition throughout the semester; (activities on exploring community and SMC community; how do we create community -- consciously and unconsciously?). Individual role in community?
BLOG #1 Due
Week #2 Concepts of Community
M : McIntosh, “The Invisible Knapsack”
W : Johnson, Privilege, Power and Difference, Intro-Ch 5
F 9/13 Johnson, Ch 6-Conclusion BLOG #2 Due
Week #3 Concepts of Community
M Block, Community; Intro-Ch3
W Block, Ch 4-8
F Block, Ch 9-Conclusion ; Read about Cecil Williams
PRE-REFLECTION FOR TRIP TO GLIDE BLOG #3 Due
**Lab #1 ALL DAY 8-2pm Glide Memorial Church, San Francisco
Week #4 Concepts of Community
M: Coontz, “American Family and the Nostalgia Trip” (link); Coontz “Why American Families Still need the Census” (link)
W: Ngai, “Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America”; Thrupkaew, “The Myth of the Model Minority” (moodle)
F: PBS, “Arab Americans: Caught in the Crossfire” (link)
MEET WITH LIBRARIAN BLOG #4 Due
WEEK #5 Issues of Justice & Difference
M McDermott, “White Racial and Ethnic Identity in the United States”; Wing & Rivera, Racial Microaggressions in Everyday Life,” (link)
W 10/2 Rappolo, “Symbolic Racism, History, Reality: The Real Problem with Indian Mascot (PDF Moodle) and prezi
F 10/4 Takaki, “A Different Mirror, Ch 1” (link) BLOG #5 Due
September Service Log Due
WEEK #6 Issues of Justice & Difference
RESEARCH TOPIC DUE
M 10/7 Katrina Case Study: Luft, “Looking for Common Ground” and Forgett, “Race, Hurricane Katrina” (links)
W 10/9 Fredrickson “Models of American Ethnic Relations” and Buchanan, “Is Diversity Destroying Us?”
F 10/11 UNIT 1 TEST
BLOG #6 Due
WEEK #7 Issues of Justice & Difference
M 9/23 The Shame of the Nation, Kozol, Introduction and chapters 1, 2 & 3
W 9/25 The Shame of the Nation, Kozol, chapters 4-7
F 9/27 The Shame of the Nation, Kozol, chapters 8-epilogue; Anyon, “Social Class” (link)
BLOG #7 Due
WEEK #8 Issues of Justice & Difference
M: Killbourne, Media and Beauty (links)
W: Islamophobia and the "Privileging" of Arab American Women; Start Bell Hooks, “Feminism is for Everyone”
F: Finish Hooks.
WEEK #9 Issues of Justice & Difference
M: Kimmel, The Hidden Discourse of Masculinity in Gender Discrimination Law (link)
W:Katz, “The Invention of Heterosexuality”; Kimmel, “Masculinity as Homophobia” (link)
F: Rosin, The End of Men (link)
**Lab # 2 Peer Review of Source Paper BLOG #8 Due Source Paper Due October Service Log Due
WEEK #10 Issues of Justice & Difference
M: Studs Terkel Interview (link); Gregory Mantsios, “Class in America”; Robert Reich, “Inequality for All” (link)
W: Susan Stryker, “Transgender Liberation” (link)
F: Susan Wendell, “The Social Construction of Disability” (link)
**Lab# 3 BLOG #9 Due
WEEK # 11 LEADERSHIP AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
M: Spector, “Four Conceptions of Freedom” (link) Morgenthau, “The Dilemmas of Freedom”
W: Andrea Ayvazian, “Interrupting the Cycles of Oppression: The Role of Allies as Agents of Change,” (moodle); Barbara J. Love, “Developing a Liberatory Consciousness” (link)
F: Unit 2 Test
**Lab #4 Lecture Series
WEEK #12 LEADERSHIP AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
THESIS PARAGRAPH DUE
M: Cornel West, “The Moral Obligation of Living in a Democractic Society” (link); Cornel West, “Courage"
W: Ellen Ryan, ”Whatever Happened to Community Organizing” (link)
Xavier de Souza Briggs, “Rethinking Community Development:Managing Dilemmas about Goals and Values” (link)
F: Hertz, “Organizing for Change,” (link)
**Lab #5 Senior Presentations, 4:30-6:30
WEEK #13 Leadership and Social Justice
November Service Log Due (LAST LOG)
M: “Making Change Happen: Revisiting Power for Justice, Equality, Peace”
W THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY
WEEK #14 Leadership and Social Justice
M: “Making Change Happen” cont
Presentations on Research
W:“Organizing in the Obama Years”
Presentations on Research
F: “Organizing in the Obama Years” cont
Presentations on Paper
Lab #6 Peer Review of Papers
BLOG #10 DUE
WEEK #15 FINALS WEEK
Unit 3 Test During Finals; Final paper due
Full List of Articles
Derald Wing Sue, Ph.D., and David Rivera, M.S., Microaggressions in Everyday Life: A new view on racism, sexism, and heterosexism.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/microaggressions-in-everyday-life/201010/racial-microaggressions-in-everyday-life
Title: The Dilemmas of Freedom
Author(s): Hans J. Morgenthau
Source: The American Political Science Review, Vol. 51, No. 3 (Sep., 1957), pp. 714-723
Publisher(s): American Political Science Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1951858
Title: Four Conceptions of Freedom
Author(s): Horacio Spector
Source: Political Theory, Vol. 38, No. 6 (December 2010), pp. 780-808
Publisher(s): Sage Publications, Inc.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25749186
Title: Looking for Common Ground: Relief Work in Post-Katrina New Orleans as an American Parable of Race and Gender Violence
Author(s): Rachel E. Luft
Source: NWSA Journal, Vol. 20, No. 3, New Orleans: A Special Issue on Gender, the Meaning of Place, and the Politics of Displacement (Fall, 2008), pp. 5-31
Publisher(s): The Johns Hopkins University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40071294
Title: Race, Hurricane Katrina, and Government Satisfaction: Examining the Role of Race in Assessing Blame
Author(s): Richard Forgette; Marvin King; Bryan Dettrey
Source: Publius, Vol. 38, No. 4, Attribution of Governmental Blame in Times of Disaster (Fall, 2008), pp. 671-691
Publisher(s): Oxford University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20184997
Title: Social Class and School Knowledge
Author(s): Jean Anyon
Source: Curriculum Inquiry, Vol. 11, No. 1 (Spring, 1981), pp. 3-42
Publisher(s): Wiley on behalf of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education/University of Toronto
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1179509
Title: Why American Families Need the Census
Author(s): STEPHANIE COONTZ
Source: Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 631, The Federal Statistical System: Its Vulnerability Matters More Than You Think (September 2010), pp. 141-149
Publisher(s): Sage Publications, Inc. in association with the American Academy of Political and Social Science
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20744016
Abstract: This article examines how family researchers use federal statistics, particularly from the U.S.