SE275 Diversity in America's SchoolsSE275 Diversity in America's Schools
I. Catalog Description and Credit Hour of Course:
Exploration of race, ethnicity, gender and social class issues in schooling today. (3)
II. Prerequisite(s):
none
III. Purposes or Objectives of the Course:
A. Acquaint students with the histories and importance of major U.S. ethnic groups, i.e., African American, Asian American, Hispanic-Latino(a) American, Native American, and European American, in the formation of the cultural composition of the United States. (Objectives 1, 4, 5, 7)
B. Assist students in exploring and understanding the uniqueness of their self-cultures, i.e., their ethnic roots and formation of own cultural values, and how these impact their attitudes and beliefs. (Objectives 2, 4, 5, 7)
C. Assist students in understanding the cultural, ethnic, and racial differences within their communities and schools. (Objectives 2, 4, 5, 7)
D. Investigate current equity issues and the impact that racism and other forms of discrimination have on the expectations and achievements of students. (Objectives 2, 4, 5, 7)
E. Investigate conceptual frameworks for racial, ethnic, and gender identity development. (Objectives 1, 4, 5, 7)
F. Acquaint students with post-modernist critiques of education, and their application to a pluralistic society. (Objectives 1, 5, 7)
G. Encourage analysis and criticism of scholarly research. (Objective 2)
H. Assist students in the design of social action agendas for the purposes of improving the schooling climate for all students. (Objectives 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9)
IV. Expectations of the Students:
V. Course outline:
1. The Formation of the cultural composition of the United States (Objectives 1, 4, 5, 7) (5 hours)
a. Migration and immigration
i. Migration patterns and influence of technology
ii. Pastoral nomadism
iii. Induced migration
iv. Forced migration
b. The Native American experience
c. The Hispanic-Latino(a) experience
d. The European American experience
e. The African American experience
f. The Asian American experience
g. 20th century migration and immigration
2. Identification of self-cultural values (Gollnick and Chinn, Hoopes) (Objectives 2, 4, 5, 7) (5 hours)
3. Conceptual frameworks of racial, ethnic, and gender identity development (Objectives 1, 2, 4, 5, 7) (10 hours)
a. Social identity theory (Tajfel, Banks, Cross)
b. Acculturation and cultural conflict
i. Bi-polar model (Andujo, Makabe, Ullah)
ii. Two-dimensional model (Clark, et. al., Hutnik, Ting-Toomey, Zak)
c. Identity formation (Marcia, Phinney)
i. Black (Cross)
ii. Asian American (Kim)
iii. Chicanos (Arce, Atkinson, et.al.)
iv. Native American
iv. Women (Belenky, et. al.)
v. White (Helms, Perry)
4. Equity issues (Objectives 2, 4, 5, 7) (10 hours)
a. Equality of educational opportunity
i. Civil Rights Movement
ii. Desegregation of schools
iii. Responses to desegregation (Sager and Schofield)
- Business-as-usual
- Assimilationist
- Pluralistic co-existence
- Integrated pluralism
iv. Competing voices in the community
b. Conditions necessary for integrated pluralism (Allport)
i. Equal status contact
ii. Sanctioned institutional support
iii. Intergroup cooperation leading to common goals
5. Post-modern critiques and schooling (Objectives 2, 4, 5, 7) (15 hours)
a. Preservation of the emancipatory impulse of the enlightenment and the justification of practices grounded upon universal principles (Habermas)
b. A pluralization of diverging universes of discourses (Lyotard, Rorty)
c. Application of post-modernism to issues of equity and schooling
VI. Texts:
No text.
VII. Basis for Student Evaluation:
Students will be evaluated on the basis of performance in the following areas:
- Short analysis, reflection papers (3-5) 25%
- Term project (designing a social action agenda) 20%
- Midterm (essay) 15%
- Final (essay) 20%
- Debate 10%
- Class participation (active involvement in discussions, group work, activities) 10%
VIII. Justification for Inclusion in University Studies Program:
1. Demonstrate the ability to locate and gather information.
Emphasis: Significant
Content: The knowledge base for this course crosses several disciplines, drawing from the literatures of schooling, ethnic history and identity development, and post-modernist studies; and reflects diverse conceptual systems, methodologies, and theoretical positions.
Teaching Strategies: Lectures and demonstrations by instructor and library staff will show students how to access the various literatures from data bases and CD Roms, and how to utilize sources from their communities.
Student Assignments: Students will locate, gather, and integrate the following types of resource materials: (1) primary source information from their families, communities, and region that will help them construct their ethnic histories, their self cultures, and an understanding of the issues of equity and schooling, (2) directed reading of reserve materials and text that will build a knowledge base about cultural pluralism, post-modern critique, and ethnic, racial, and gender identity development, and (3) individual directed research that will assist them in constructing a social action agenda for equity in education.
Evaluation of Student Performance: Students will be evaluated on the degree to which they (1) incorporate and reflect interdisciplinarity in their work, (2) comprehend and explain the required readings, and (3) utilize course materials in their term projects.
2. Demonstrate capabilities for critical thinking, reasoning, and analyzing.
Emphasis: Significant.
Content: The integration and synthesis of knowledge from several disciplines requires ability to identify assumptions, implications, and arguments upon which various theories and conceptual frameworks are constructed, and further to evaluate the worth of utilizing these in the resolution of equity issues in schooling.
Teaching Strategies: Lecture will be used to introduce concepts; individual writing for reflective analysis; and small and whole group discussions to integrate ideas, evaluations, and arguments.
Student Assignments: Students will write short analysis-reflection papers where they will criticize and interpret concepts in the light of their own experiences and others. They will participate in a debate which will require them to take positions on various issues, prepare examples, arguments, and counterarguments. Their term project will require the synthesis and inclusion of critically interpreted concepts, as will their exams.
Evaluation of Student Performance: Students will be evaluated on the degree to which they are able to articulate and support their analyses and interpretations of the course content. This involves coherence of argument, use of supportive documentation, and ability to deconstruct theoretical positions.
3. Demonstrate effective communication skills.
Emphasis: Significant.
Content: The ever-present critiques on schooling and related concerns means that the individual must be articulate as well as informed about these issues. Clear and effective expression of thoughts, positions, arguments, and critical analyses in informal and formal, oral and written forms are necessary.
Teaching Strategies: Lecture, modeling, and fish-bowl-style dialogues will be the primary methods of teaching oral communication. Instructor analysis and feedback to students about written assignments and their subsequent revisions will be the primary method of instructing students in articulating their thoughts on paper.
Student Assignments: Students will write several analytical-reflective papers, a midterm and a final in essay form, and a final project. Students will debate, participate in informal small and whole group discussions, and, if role playing, prepare both written and spontaneous statements for presentation in class.
Evaluation of Student Performance: Students will be evaluated on the degree to which they (1) meet the guidelines set forth in the document entitled "What You Should Know About Writing in Interdisciplinary Courses", and (2) show clarity, coherence, relevance and meaningful organization of their thoughts in both oral and written work.
4. Demonstrate an understanding of human experiences and the ability to relate them to the present.
Emphasis: Significant.
Content: Important to the understanding of current schooling issues is a recognition of the significance that major U.S. ethnic groups have had in the formation of the cultural composition of the country as it is today, and how policies of assimilation, suppression, and segregation have impacted the schooling experiences of all students.
Teaching Strategies: Lecture will provide students with a knowledge base about the introduction of major ethnic groups onto the North American continent. Small and whole group discussions will give students opportunities to reflect their own ethnic histories and inter-ethnic and racial experiences.
Student Assignments: Assignments will include: (1) researching and writing their own ethnic histories, (2) analyzing their own ethnic identity development, and (3) reading and analyzing the autobiographies of people of color in order to understand their acculturation and ethnic identity experiences.
Evaluation of Student Performance: Students will be evaluated on the degree to which they clearly articulate and reflect the significance of historical perspectives and the impact of history on current schooling issues in their papers and assignments.
5. Demonstrate an understanding of various cultures and their interrelationships.
Emphasis: Significant.
Content: Central to this course is an in-depth understanding of one's own self-culture as well as that of one's classmates, urban-rural and regional similarities and differences, gender and age discourse, religious and ethnic positioning, and socio-economic factors. By knowing and understanding the self first, one can more easily begin to understand and appreciate ethnic, cultural, and gender differences, be less xenophobic, and more willing to act on behalf of the nation to correct inequalities in society, and specifically, educational institutions.
Teaching Strategies: Dialogues and monologues by people of color, self-discovery exercises, and reflective analyses of case studies are utilized in order to reach into affective domains of inquiry. Contact with those of other ethnicities and confrontation of one's own attitudes and beliefs are managed through small group activities and case study analyses.
Student Assignments: Assignments range from (1) building the student's knowledge base about ethnicity, race, and gender to (2) requiring reflective analysis of attitudes and belief systems, and (3) integrating knowledge of others with knowledge of self to create solutions to schooling issues.
Evaluation of Student Performance: Students will be evaluated on the degree to which they are able to (1) reflect knowledge of one's ethnic self in solutions they offer, (2) reflect knowledge of other U. S. cultures, and (3) identify instances of stereotyping, prejudice, scapegoating, discrimination and intolerance in their oral and written work.
6. Demonstrate the ability to integrate the breadth and diversity of knowledge and experience.
Emphasis: Considerable.
Content: The problems and issues of diversity in American schools are best approached interdisciplinarily. The histories of ethnic groups, the sociological, anthropological, and psychological theories of ethnic identity development, and the post-modernist critiques all play a role in advancing our knowledge of one another's cultures, developing sophisticated and comprehensive understandings of the issues, and opening the doors of possibility. An interdisciplinary approach allows for divergent thinking and new interpretations to these issues.
Teaching Strategies: Case studies, situational exercises, and problem-solving activities will provide the holistic approaches needed to create analytical frameworks for understanding, critiquing, and constructing resolutions to equity issues in the schools.
Student Assignments: Students will have various assignments requiring the integration and synthesis of knowledge from various disciplines. The short papers will require integration of ethnic histories and identity development to analyze autobiographies of persons of color. The midterm and final exams will require synthesis of ethnic knowledge in solving diversity issues. The debate will require knowledge of the influence of disciplines on the manifestation of issues and their resolution. The term project will encompass all aspects of the course and generate action agendas.
Evaluation of Student Performance: Students will be evaluated on the degree to which they are able to (1) integrate knowledge of the course material, and (2) apply this knowledge to solutions.
7. Demonstrate the ability to make informed, intelligent value decisions.
Emphasis: Significant.
Content: Issues of cultural pluralism, ethnicity and racial diversity, and gender are mainly about enculturation, the process whereby an individual learns her/his culture and the value and belief systems attached to this culture. Values, therefore, are inculcated when children are small, and become the basis for a person's behavior, decision-making, judgments, and evaluation of situations. It is imperative, in a culturally plural society, that individuals thoroughly understand their own value systems, as well as those of others as well, whether they be their neighbors or the larger society. It is also imperative that each individual understands his value system well enough to know why he believes as he does, why others may believe differently, and why both may be logical beliefs based on their own value systems. It is this knowledge of self and others that can help bridge the gaps that now exist in our society, and which can lead to cooperative and creative problem-solving where issues of diversity and schooling are concerned.
Teaching Strategies: Where the affective domain is concerned, methodologies must include exercises that allow students to confront their attitudes, beliefs, and values. For the purposes of this objective, case studies, situational and self-discovery exercises are used.
Student Assignments: Oral and written assignments will require students to investigate issues of ethnic identity development by reflecting on cultural knowledge of self and the larger society. Other assignments will expect the integration of knowledge to confront valuing dilemmas involving schooling and equity issues.
Evaluation of Student Performance: Students will be evaluated on their ability to identify, articulate, and critically analyze the ethnic, racial, and gender components at work in case studies and exercises, yet maintain the ability to present a rational and objective analysis.
8. Demonstrate the ability to make informed, sensitive aesthetic responses.
Emphasis: None.
The only area that would enter into classroom discourse for this objective might involve discussion of why one culture as opposed to another might regard certain decorative elements as aesthetically pleasing. This could arise in discussions about understanding, valuing, and appreciating differences in other cultures, but is not the focus of this course.
9. Demonstrate the ability to function responsibly in one's natural, social and political environment.
Emphasis: Some.
Content: As the "browning of America" changes ethnic and racial minorities to majorities, this cultural shift must also be reflected in the equity issues of schooling opportunities for all students. Responsible functioning will necessitate intercultural cooperation to provide equality in the classroom.
Teaching Strategies: Lectures to disseminate content on post-modern critiques and current practices in education will lead students toward formulating their term projects: social action agendas to provide equity through schooling. Small and whole group discussions will further assist in integrating this knowledge.
Student Assignments: Through integration and synthesis of course material, students will construct their term projects (social action agendas) which will focus on creating solutions for issues of equity in education.
Evaluation of Student Performance: Students will be evaluated on their ability to construct agendas that are comprehensive, realistic, integrative and interdisciplinary. Generally, it will be difficult to ascertain whether or not these plans work, since there will not be time to put them in place before the semester ends. Therefore, the projects will only be evaluated on the feasibility of these plans, not the actual working of the plans.
IX. Instructor's Background:
Prerequisites for teaching this course shall be competent scholarship and training in one or more of the following disciplines: educational philosophy, educational history, the social sciences (including ethnic studies), psychology, and inter-cultural experience and training.
X. Class size:
A desirable class size would be 25.
XI. Knowledge Base
1. THE FORMATION OF THE CULTURAL COMPOSITION OF THE UNITED STATES:
Cremin, Lawrence A. (1970). American education: The colonial experience, 1607-1783. New York: Harper & Row.
Spring, J. (1994). Deculturalization and the struggle for equality: A brief history of the education of dominated cultures in the United States. New York: McGraw Hill.
Takaki, R. (1990). Iron cages: Race and culture in 19th century America. New York: Oxford University Press.
Yans-McLaughlin, V. (1990). Immigration reconsidered: History, sociology, and politics. New York: Oxford University Press.
2. IDENTIFICATION OF SELF-CULTURAL VALUES:
Gollnick, D. & Chinn, P. (1990). Multicultural Education in a Pluralistic Society. New York: Macmillan.
Hoopes, D. (1979). Intercultural communication concepts and the psychology of intercultural experience. In M. Pusch (Ed.), Multicultural education: A cross-cultural training approach. Yarmouth, Maine: Intercultural Press.
3. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORKS OF RACIAL, ETHNIC, AND GENDER IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT:
Andujo, E. (1988). Ethnic identity of transethnically adopted Hispanic adolescents. Social Work, 33, 531-535.
Arce, C. (1981). A reconsideration of Chicano culture and identity. Daedalus, 110(2), 177-192.
Atkinson, D., Morten, G., & Sue, D. (1983). Counseling American minorities. Dubuque, IA: Wm. C. Brown.
Belenky, M., Clinchy, B., Goldberger, N., & Tarule, J. (1986). Women's ways of knowing: The development of self, voice, and mind. New York: Basic Books.
Banks, W. (1976). White preference in Blacks: A paradigm in search of a phenomenon. Psychological Bulletin, 83, 1179-1186.
Clark, M., Kaufman, S., & Pierce, R. (1976). Explorations of Acculturation: Toward a model of ethnic identity. Human Organization, 35, 231-238.
Cross, W. (1978). The Thomas and Cross models of psychological nigrescence: A literature review. Journal of Black Psychology, 4, 13-31.
Helms, J. (Ed.) (1990). Black and white racial identity: Theory, research, and practice. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Hutnik, N. (1986). Patterns of ethnic minority identification and modes of social adaptation. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 9, 150-167.
Makabe, T. (1979). Ethnic identity scale and social mobility: The case of Nisei in Toronto. The Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology, 16, 136-145.
Marcia, J. (1980). Development and validation of ego-identity status. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 3, 551-558.
Perry, W. (1970). Forms of intellectual and ethical development in college years. New York: Holt, Rinehart, Winston.
Phinney, J. (1989). Stages of ethnic identity in minority group adolescents. Journal of Early Adolescence, 9, 34-49.
Tajfel, H. & Turner, J. (1979). An integrative theory of intergroup conflict. In W. Austin & S. Worchel (Eds.), The social psychology of intergroup relations (pp. 33-47). Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole.
Tatum, B. (1992). Talking about race, learning about racism: The application of racial identity development theory in the classroom. Harvard Educational Review, 62, 1-24.
Ting-Toomey, S. (1981). Ethnic identity and close friendship in Chinese-American college students. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 5, 383-406.
Ullah, P. (1985). Second generation Irish youth: Identity and ethnicity. New Community, 12, 310-320.
Zak, I. (1973). Dimensions of Jewish-American identity. Psychological Reports, 33,891-900.
4. EQUITY ISSUES:
Allport, G. (1979). ABC's of scapegoating. New York: Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith.
Allport, G. (1979). The nature of prejudice. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Fife, B. (1992). Desegregation in American schools: Comparative intervention strategies. New York: Praeger.
Nieto, S. (1992). Affirming diversity: The sociopolitical context of multicultural education. New York: Longman.
Sagar, H. & Schofield, J. (1984). Integrating the desegregated school: Problems and possibilities. In D. Bartz & M. Maehr (Eds.), Advances in motivation and achievement:The effects of school desegregation on motivation and achievement. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
5. POST-MODERN CRITIQUES AND SCHOOLING:
Burbules, N. & Rice, S. (1991). Dialogue across differences: Continuing the conversation. Harvard Educational Review, 61, 393-416.
Ellsworth, E. (1989). Why doesn't this feel empowering? Working through the repressive myths of critical pedagogy. Harvard Educational Review, 59, 297-324.
Nicholson, C. (1989). Post-modernism, feminism, and education: The need for solidarity. Educational Theory, 39, 197-205.
Peters, M. (1989). Techno-science, rationality, and the university: Lyotard on the "Post-modern Condition". Educational Theory, 39, 93-105.
6. AUTOBIOGRAPHIES OF PEOPLE OF COLOR:
Du Bois, W. E. B. (1983). Autobiography of W. E. B. Du Bois. New York: International Publishing.
Kingston, M. (1976). The woman warrior. South Yarmouth, MA: J. Curley.
Malcolm X. (1965). Autobiography of Malcolm X. New York: Golden Press.
Rodriguez, R. (1982). Hunger of Memory. Boston: Godine.