Socio - Cultural Perspectives, Mccormack-2Nd Floor Room 0213

EDC-G 606

Socio - Cultural Perspectives, McCormack-2nd floor room 0213

Danielle Wheeler, MEd.

Summer Session II 2013

7:30 – 10:00 Monday – Thursday July 29 – August 15

Phone: 617-287-7604 Office Hours/location: By Appointment W/2/159

Email:

Course Description

The course is designed to explore the policies, goals, assumptions, strategies and practices of multicultural approaches to education. Readings are designed to build an understanding of raising the cultural consciousness and awareness of our shared cultural assumptions that are brought to the teaching. The framework of universal design will serve as the foundation for the course. Participants will learn about ways in which race, class, language, and ethnicity influence how we define ourselves and each other in our various encounters within the broader culture of US society experience.

Prerequisites: None

Course Objectives

The faculty and staff of the Graduate College of Education are committed to the goal of preparing thoughtful and responsive educators for the urban school systems of the twenty-first century. We design our courses and field experiences to support your development as: knowledgeable and skilled practitioners, caring, principled and respectful educators, agents of change for social justice, and reflective and critical thinkers. These qualities seem to us to best characterize the thoughtful and responsive educators envision. It is with these goals in mind that this course is offered to help you address the educational concepts you plan for more effective interventions for diverse learners. A special area of focus will be to explore how the culture impacts upon the general education classroom.

Assessments: Classroom Discussions, Content Questions, Reflection Paper, Photo-Cultural-Ecological/Self Study Paper

Deepen their understanding of race, racism, class, gender, linguistic, and cultural diversity in order to investigate how these are manifested concretely in the everyday lives of children, families, educators, and school communities.

Observe and analyze a variety of practices which support cultural competence.

Consider and refine views about sociological issues related to education, school reform, curriculum, children and families in contemporary urban society and the profession of teaching, which are built on students’ knowledge of the history and politics of public education in the U.S.

Each student will read the class reading material and be able to explain, evaluate, and apply the concepts, theories, principles and guidelines contained in the readings in a reflective and critical fashion.

Required Texts:

Adams, M., Blumenfeld, W., Castaneda, C., Hackman, H., Peters, M. and Zuniga, X. (2010).2nd Edition.Readings for Diversity and Social Justice, eds. New York; Routledge.

*[Additional readings/handouts will be provided in class, via Black Boardor as an email attachment. Therefore, it is critical that you have access to a computer, as well as an updated/working email address/account]*

Methods of Evaluation

I will use a number of methods to evaluate your progress toward the expectations listed above. Class participation and group work details are described below.

Class Participation20%

Content Questions/Presentations10%

Cultural Learning Study30%

Photo-Cultural-Ecological-Self Study Paper20%

Reflection Paper30%

Course Requirements and Assignments

Course Assignments (see below): The purpose of assignments, is to ensure that you are receiving experience in graduate-level writing and speaking, and to formatively assess your work. All out of class assignments must be typed/double spaced. Please do not use covers, binders, etc w/the exception of the final project. Assignments will not be accepted on flash drives, only hard copies. Always keep a copy of your work.

Photo-Cultural-Ecological/Self Study Paper

20% of Grade

One’s racial/cultural/linguistic odyssey is constantly tapped as a source of personal power, a source for writing topics, and a source of reference for how one sees the world. The purpose of this assignment is to elicit personal reflections and responses through photographs taken by the student in order to begin a self-study of their cultural identity development. The student will take 5 new photographs of various spaces and places where they commune – representing aspects of their culture (e.g., ethnic/racial identity, region of country hailed from, neighborhood, socioeconomic background, gender, language, religion, life-style, past experience). In a 5-page paper not to exceed that, the student will take the reader on a “Photo-Cultural-Ecological Journey” of their socio-cultural development – whether it is during early childhood, adolescents or adulthood. YOU DECIDE! Be Creative!

Cultural Learning Study

30% of Grade

Students will spend 3 to 4 hours observing and interacting with Boston Public Schools (BPS) students from cultures different from their own (Cultural Learning Study Part 1). This will be accomplished through 1 or 2 visits to one of the pre-arranged settings described below. Interactivity, observation and report guidelines are included at the end of this syllabus.

In addition, students will do a neighborhood walk in a Boston neighborhood that they are not familiar with (Cultural Learning Study Part 2). Guidelines for the neighborhood walk are included at the end of this syllabus.

Reflection Paper:

30% of Grade

All students will write a 3 to 5 page reflection paper reflecting on your journey in this course. Consider how you have come to know yourself and your belief system in regards to race, gender and class. In what ways has this course assisted you in understanding your role and responsibilities as a culturally competent urban educator?

Content Questions

10% of Grade

Rather than one or two large mastery tests, this course will include short Content Questions based on the daily assigned chapters in from the text. Each class will begin with groups answering content questions presented by a group. Each session a group will facilitate the discussion of the content questions. The quality of the Content Questions and facilitation will be evaluated and graded. Each group will have a rotating responsibility to prepare these questions.

The Content Questions will be a group effort, with one grade issued to all members of the group.

Class Participation

20% of Grade

Inclusionary teaching is a very interactive endeavor. You will find yourself called upon to share ideas, study options, and deliberate courses of action. This course provides you with opportunities to practice these skills. Class sessions are very interactive, using discussions, simulations and videos to tap your own experiences and promote active consideration of this very controversial subject. Every student’s contribution is important.

Grades in Class Participation will be based on a number of factors: attendance, both at class and at any scheduled group meetings outside of class, promptness, to class and any scheduled meetings outside of class, involvement in, and constructive contribution to, class discussions of the readings, contributions to your group in class work and projects, enthusiasm and the positive impact of this enthusiasm on others in the group and class, overall usefulness/helpfulness to your group, the entire class, and the instructor.

Please note that quality is more important than quantity of participation. A strong grade will certainly require more than a few contributions, however, the depth and perception of comments are more important than their frequency. The strongest class participation will involve relating readings to experience or classroom discussion topics. End-of-term evaluations by group members, as well as your own self-evaluation, will contribute to the Class Participation grade.

Group Work

Successful education usually stems from productive collaboration. Collaboration is essential to inclusionary education. To emphasize this element of our work, many class activities and assignments will take place in groups. This is an essential component of the course.

Written Material Expectations

As you communicate with parents and professional, your work will be reviewed and studied. As you work with children, you will be providing a model for their own production.

All written work should be prepared on a computer. All written work must be subjected to a spellchecker and grammar checker, if necessary. If a paper contains multiple errors in spelling, grammar or punctuation, the grade for that paper will be reduced by one level (for example, from an A- to a B+)

Attendance

Since we cover a great deal of material in an interactive fashion, attendance at each class is essential. If you know you will miss, or be late for, a particular class period or a major part of a class period, please call me beforehand. If this absence will affect your group, be sure to give them as much notice as possible.

Any student missing a particular class session will be required to write a one to two page, single spaced analysis and reflection of the reading for that class. This analysis/reflection will be graded on a pass/fail basis and is due the next class after the absence.

Accommodations

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 offers guidelines for curriculum modifications and adaptations for students with documented disabilities. If applicable, students may obtain adaptation recommendations from the Ross Center (287-7430). The student must present and discuss these recommendations with each professor within the first few weeks of class, preferably by the end of the Drop/Add period.

Students are required to adhere to the Code of Student Conduct, including requirements for academic honesty, delineated in the University of Massachusetts Boston Graduate Studies bulletin and relevant program student handbook(s).

Tentative Course Schedule( Topics/discussions may change)!

Additional readings/handouts will be provided in class, emailed or on the course Wiki).
All readings should be read the day before in order to have a healthy, productive discussion on the following day’s course topic.

7/29
Class #1 / Syllabus Overview, Introduction and Introductions
Topic: Conceptual Frameworks that will form the discussion around (in)equality and (in)equity in schools through a critical theory and social justice lens.
Activities:
I AM….
Readings:
Frederick, Erickson “ Culture: An Overview” and “ Cultural issues in Education, In Society and in Persons” fromMulticultural Education: Issues and Perspectives 2nd Edition on the WiKi
Be prepared for group Content Questions tomorrow!!
7/30
Class #2 / Topic: Culture in Society and in Educational Practices
Activities:
Group Presentations
Readings:
Text, Section 2; Intro and Chaps 8- 25
Tatum-Daniels, Beverly“Connect The Dots” from Can We Talk (Wiki)
McIntosh, White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack
A Hacker “Being Black in America” from Two Nations(Wiki)
Frederickson, George M. “Historical Origins and Development of Racism” (Wiki)
7/31
Class #3 / Topic:Racism
Activities:
Group Presentations
Readings: Text, Section 3; Intro and Chaps 26-43
Delpit, Lisa“There is No Achievement Gap at Birth” from Multiplication Is For White People Wiki
Darling-Hammond, Linda The Flat World, Educational Inequality and America’s Future from the Flat World and EducationWiki
8/1
Class #4 / Topic:Classism and Educational Equality
Activities:
Group Presentations
Readings:
Mayo, Chris“Queer Lessons: Sexual and Gender Minorities” from Multicultural Education: Issues and Perspectives (Wiki)
Text, Section 6; Intro and Chaps 78-86
8/5
Class #5 / Topic:Homophobia
Activities:
Photo Essay Presentations
Group Presentations
Readings:
Sadker, David and Zittleman, Karen“Gender Bias – From Colonial America to Today’s Classroom” ( BB)from Multicultural Education: Issues and Perspectives 2nd Edition(Wiki)
Henry, Annette“Race and Gender in Classrooms: Implications for Teachers” from Multicultural Education: Issues and Perspectives 2nd Edition(Wiki)
Text- Chaps 61-77
8/6
Class #6 / Topic:Sexism
Activities:
Video: A Hero for Daisy
Photo Essay Presentations
Group Presentations
Readings:
Epstein, Kitty Kelly“Going Beyond the Classroom: Activism as Racial and Cultural Competence” from Building Racial and Cultural Competence in the Classroom(BB)
Stritikus, Tom T. and Varghese, Manka M.“Language, Diversity and Schooling”
From Multicultural Education: Issues and Perspectives 2nd Edition(BB)
Delpit, Lisa “I Don’t Like It When They Don’t Say My Name Right? Why “Reforming Can’t Mean Whitening” Multiplication Is For White People (Wiki)
Kiang, Peter “Voicing Names” (Wiki)
8/7
Class #7 / Topic:Race, Ethnicity and Language
Activities:
Privilege Walk
Photo Essay Presentations
Group Presentations
Readings:
Text, Section 8; Intro And Chaps 96-109
Bicard, Sara C. and Heward, William L.“Educational Equality for Students with Disabilities” from Multicultural Education: Issues and Perspectives 2nd Edition(Wiki)
8/8
Class #8 / Topic: Students with Disabilities
Activities
Group and Individual Presentations ( if not complete)
Readings:
Text, Section 10; Intro and Chaps 128-138
Nieto, Sonia and Patty Bode“School Reformand Student Learning: A Multicultural Perspective”(Wiki)
Banks, James A. “Approaches to Multicultural Curriculum Reform” from Multicultural Education: Issues and Perspectives 2nd Edition ( Wiki)
8/12
Class #9 / Topic: School Reform
Activities:
School; The Story of An American Public Education- Video
Readings:
Kerr, Donna H. “Democracy, Nurturance and Community” In R. Soder. Democracy, Education and the Schools. 37-68(Wiki)
Delos Reyes, Eileen and Patricia A. Gozemba. 2002. Introduction: Education as the Practice of Freedom. (Wiki)
8/13
Class #10 / Topic: Teaching for Democracy
Readings:
Darling-Hammond, Linda, French, J., and Garcia-Lopez, S.P “Does who we Are Influence How We Teach”? and“Swimming against the Mainstream: Examining Cultural Assumptions in the Classroom”. In Learning to teach for social justice(Wiki)
8/14
Class #11 / Topic: Knowing, Educating and Teaching our Students
In Class Reading - Greene, Maxine. 1995. Teaching as a Possibility: A Light in Dark Times. In the Joseey-Bass Reader on Teaching 62-73(Wiki)
West, Cornel, 2004. Prisoners of Hope (Wiki)
8/15
Class #12 / Wrap up and Reflection Papers are Due