University of Washington, College of Education, Spring 2000

EDTEP 571--Topics and Tensions Beadie, Spring 2000

University of Washington, College of Education, Spring 2000

EDTEP 571

Topics and Tensions in Education

A:M/W 9:00-11:20, Miller 212

B: M/W 1:00-3:20, Miller 320

Dr. Nancy Beadie

Prof.: Nancy Beadie T.A.: Jennifer Preisman
Office: M221 Miller Office: 309 Miller

Phone: 221-3428 Phone: 543-1836

Hours: Tuesday afternoons Hours: by appointment

E-Mail: nbeadie E-Mail: jpreis

I. Course Objectives

This course has five main objectives: 1) to improve our ability to recognize, appreciate and analyze matters of value and value conflict in American schools; 2) to increase our knowledge of the history of schooling in the United States); 3) to develop historical perspectives on current issues in American schooling; 4) to develop skills of candor and negotiation in working with colleagues and others on current educational issues; and 5) to foster and improve our practice of substantiating claims and arguments with evidence and examples.

II. Course Description

"Two ideals are struggling for supremacy in American life today," declared Margaret Haley, the famous teacher organizer, in 1904. "One is the industrial ideal, dominating through the supremacy of commercialism, which subordinates the worker to the product and the machine. The other, the idea of democracy, is the ideal of the educators, which places humanity above all machines, and demands that all activity shall be the expression of life."

With this statement, Haley took a stand on two major school policy issues of her day. The first had to do with the content of schooling--specifically, with the place of vocational education in public schools. The second had to do with the role of the teacher in shaping educational policy and practice--specifically, with the status of teachers in an increasingly elaborate system of administrative supervision.

Haley was responding to the issues of her time, but in many respects those issues were not different from our own. Just as teachers now struggle to attend to the individual needs of students in a context of increasing emphasis on standardized assessments and school accountability, so the teachers in Haley's time struggled to implement their own ideas of progressive education in a context of increasing emphasis on "social efficiency."

What can we learn from the history of these struggles? How can we use this knowledge to help us negotiate current educational issues? In this course we examine some of the most enduring tensions in American schooling, including not only struggles over issues of school governance and curriculum, but also conflicts over issues of civil rights and cultural pluralism. As part of our examination you will be asked to analyze two educational issues of interest to you, including both a historical issue and an issue of particular salience in the current context of education reform in Washington State.

One of the points of this analysis is to improve our ability to articulate and take a stand on what matters in education, a skill that Carole Weiss calls the skill of "candor" and has identified as essential for teachers to be effective agents of collaboration and improvement in their schools. A second point of this analysis, however, is not only to develop our ability to articulate what's at stake from our own perspective, but also to improve our capacity to recognize and appreciate what's at stake from other perspectives, a skill that Weiss calls the skill of "negotiation," and has also identified as essential for teachers.

When Margaret Haley took a stand against the routinization of teachers' labors and the reductiveness of vocationally-driven curricula, she identified the purpose of schooling with the fundamental values of democracy and humanity. Some of the structures about which she complained, however, were put in place with the intent of making education more universal, more equitable and more responsive to the public. These too are fundamental values worthy of promotion and protection.

It is the premise of this course that many of the enduring issues of American schooling arise from fundamental conflicts between the goods and purposes we want schools to achieve. As T. F. Green puts the point, the problem is not one of choosing one good or value over another. Rather, it is the problem of how to achieve an optimal balance between different goods, all of which must be pursued, but which, taken together, cannot all be maximized. In this course we study the history of this perpetual balancing act, with the aim of making us more effective at negotiating similar tensions in our own time.

III. Course Organization and Assignments

This course is divided into four sections: A) The Competing Purposes of Schools; B) Historical Issues in Schooling; C) Issues in the Field; and D) Current Policy Issues.

Written assignments for the course include four short (1-2 page) papers (credit/no credit) and two graded essays. In each short (1-2 page) paper you will make and substantiate one main claim based either on primary evidence (short papers 2 and 3) or on your experience (short papers 1 and 4). Papers in which claims are not clearly stated, or in which claims are not clearly supported with evidence or examples, will not receive credit, though they may be re-written.

The first graded essay (due Friday, April 21) focuses on a historical issue in schooling, and the second essay (due Monday, June 4) asks you to analyze a current policy issue. During the final section of the course students will also participate in a group presentations on current issues of educational policy. Participation in this group presentation will serve as preparation for writing the second essay.

For detailed information on these assignments see section VIII of this syllabus.

IV. Texts

One book is required reading for this course, The One Best System, by David Tyack. It is available for purchase at the University Bookstore. This book provides background information and perspective on the history of schooling in the U.S.. It will inform our investigation of historical issues in schooling during the second section of the course, weeks 2-4. In addition, a number of shorter items are required reading. Most of these items are collected in a course packet that is available for purchase in the Copy Center located in the basement of the Communications Building. The remaining items that are required reading will be distributed in class.

The course packet and class hand-outs include two kinds of materials: sources of historical evidence and article-length readings on educational issues. The historical sources will serve as the basis of class discussion and will also provide the primary evidence for your papers (in particular, short papers 2 and 3). The article-length readings include three in particular that are important for articulating some of the basic concepts and organizing ideas for this course. They are: "Policy Questions: A Conceptual Study," by Thomas F. Green; "Public Goods, Private Goods," by David Labaree; and "Trouble in Paradise," by Carol Weiss, Joseph Cambone and Alexandar Wyeth.

Finally, two kinds of supplemental readings are also available for your use. The first set of supplemental readings consists of background readings on current policy issues. It is intended primarily to assist you in preparing your group presentation and final essay for this course. A bibliography of such readings will be provided for this purpose in class and a number of the readings will be available on reserve in Odegaard Library. We also encourage you to add references and items to this collection for the benefit of your fellow students.

The second set of supplemental readings consists of "suggested" additional readings. Some of these are noted on the syllabus. These include two in particular that are intended to help you connect the issues of the course with your field experience: the book, Lives on the Boundary, by Mike Rose (available for purchase at the University bookstore) and an article-length piece by Sam Wineburg, "Mr. Stinson's Vietnam" (available for distribution in class). Other suggested readings are intended provide you with additional information on topics about which you may have questions, or that may be of particular interest to you. These items will be made available on reserve in Odegaard. In addition, a number of web sites may prove of interest and use to you in exploring both current and past educational issues. Among those are: www.askeric.org (a site that enables you to search the ERIC database), www.edweek.org (a service of the publication Education Week, which not only covers current educational issue, but also published a series called "Lessons of a Century," on the history of American schooling, available on the web), www.newhorizons.org (a site maintained by Washington State's Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction), and www.schoolscout.com (with links to school sites throughout King County).

V. Class Preparation, Activities and Expectations

As a rule, Monday class sessions will be spent in whole class discussion and will focus on developing a background understanding of major educational issues. The Tyack book, One Best System is the primary text for developing this understanding during weeks 2-4, though other readings are also required. Wednesday class sessions, by contrast, will be spent mainly in small group discussion and will focus on analyzing evidence, sharing our interpretations of that evidence, and analyzing the educational issues illustrated by that evidence. It is highly recommended that you complete all of the general reading assigned for the week (including all that week's reading from the Tyack book) before Monday's class so that you can concentrate on reading the primary evidence and completing your written assignment for the Wednesday class. These written assignments will serve as the starting point for small group discussions.

Students are expected to come to each class and to come on time, to have completed the reading assigned for that class, and to have something thoughtful to say about what they've read. Written assignments are also considered part of preparation for class discussion. Unless otherwise noted, they are due at the beginning of the class session for which they are assigned. The learning that we aim for in this course depends on your attendance and contributions to class activities and discussions. To contribute in class you must complete the readings and written assignments for each session on time.

VI. Grading Policy

Your course grade will be determined by your performance on written assignments. We are very happy to talk through assignments before they are written, though we are not able to read drafts. If, after receiving feedback on a written assignment, you are dissatisfied with your performance or your understanding, you may rewrite the assignment and resubmit it after revision at no penalty. Please note, however, that making minor changes is unlikely to significantly change our evaluation of it. A rewritten paper should show substantial rethinking of the assignment. Attach the original paper with our comments.

Course grades will be determined on the following basis:

Four Short Papers: 30%

Graded Essay 1: 30%

Graded Essay 2: 40%

VII. Course schedule

A. Week 1: The Competing Purposes of Schooling

1. Mon., March 27 Introduction: Topics and Tensions

2. Wed., March 29 Issues in Education:

Growth and Achievement

Readings: Gagnon, “What Should Children Learn?” (CP)

Hixson, “How Tests Change a Teacher” (hand-out)

Green, "Policy Questions" (email/hand-out)

Suggested: Weiss, "Trouble in Paradise" (CP)

Assignment: One-page letter to the editor

B. Weeks 2-4: Historical Issues in Schooling

3. Mon., April 3 Professional Authority and Community Control:

The Roots of Public Education

Readings: Tyack, One Best System, Prol., Parts I-II, pp. 3-77.

Evidence: Documents from the Town of Lima (CP)

Diary of Eli Rogers (CP)

4. Wed., April 5 Standardization and Pluralism:

The Formation of the Educational System

Readings: Tyack, One Best System, Part III, pp. 78-125.

Evidence: Letters of Pioneer Teachers (CP)

Reports of State Superintendents (CP)

Excerpts from Common School Legislation (CP)

Assignment: One-page claim about the role of the teacher

5. Mon., April 10 Individual Growth and Social Efficiency:

Progressive Educational Ideas

Readings: Tyack, One Best System, Part V, pp. 177-216

Evidence: Dewey, excerpt, School and Society (CP)

Dewey, excerpt, Democracy and Education (CP)

excerpts from annual reports, Seattle Schools (CP)

Background: Tyack, One Best System, Part IV, pp.125-176.

6. Wed., April 12 Universality and Selectivity:

The Organization of the High School

Evidence: Report of the Committee of Ten (CP)

Cardinal Principles of Secondary Education (CP)

DuBois, “The Talented Tenth” (CP)

Reading: Labaree, “Private Goods, Public Goods” (CP)

Suggested: Rose, Lives on the Boundary, chap. 1, pp. 1-9.

Assignment: One-page claim about purpose of the high school

7. Mon., April 17 Membership and Equal Opportunity:

Education and Civil Rights

Reading: Tyack, One Best System, Part V, pp. 217-268.

Cases: DuBois, “Reconstruction and Its Benefits” (CP)

Walker, “Caswell County Training School” (CP)

hooks, “The Chitlin Circuit” (CP)

Evidence: Brown vs. Board of Education (CP)

8. Weds., April 19 Education and Identity:

Public Schools and Americanization

Evidence: Kingston, excerpt from Woman Warrior (CP)

Sone, excerpt from Nisei Daughter (hand-out)

Powlowska, “Lessons” (hand-out)

Prosen, “Looking Back” (hand-out)

Background: Tyack, One Best System, Epilogue, pp. 269-291.

Assignment: Essay 1 due Fri., April 21

C.  Weeks 5-8: Issues in the Field

April 24 – May 19 In the Field

Suggested: Wineburg, “Mr. Stinson’s Vietnam”

Rose, Lives on the Boundary

Assignment: Letter from the field

D.  Weeks 9-10: Current Policy Issues

9. Mon., May 22 Values and Policy

Readings: Weiss, “Trouble in Paradise” (CP)

Suggested: Mirel, "School Reform Unplugged" (hand-out)

Foster, "Culture and Community in Reform" (hand-out) Evidence: Washington Commission on Student Learning (CP)

Background: Green, “Policy Questions” (email/hand-out)

Event: Visit from Kathy Kimball

10. Wed., May 24 Preparation for Presentations: Meet in Groups

Readings: Articles on Issue Assigned to Your Group

12. Mon., May 29 No Class

Memorial Day

13. Wed., May 31 Student Presentations on Policy Issues

14. Mon., June 4 Wrap-Up Assessment of Group Presentations

Course Wrap-Up and Evaluation

Readings: Mirel, "School Reform Unplugged" (hand-out)

Foster, "Culture and Community in Reform" (hand-out)