1 Note: The syllabus is common to all sections but instructors are free to choose additional texts for their

sections or to not use all the readings compiled in the course reader. There are four assignments that are common to all sections: cultural interview, two text analyses, and the pedagogical project. Instructors individualize these assignments in various ways for their own classrooms but assignment descriptions usually follow the common syllabus very closely. In addition to a course reader especially compiled for this class (as opposed to a textbook), we maintain a video library with 15 visual texts appropriate for use in the course. Instructors use these as well as videos from University libraries as pedagogical resources.

EDL 204: Sociocultural Studies in Education Course Syllabus I. Introduction to the course

EDL 204, Sociocultural Studies in Education, is an introduction to the Social Foundations of Education that applies a cultural studies approach to the investigation of selected educational topics. The course serves as the social foundations of education requirement for undergraduate education majors, and as an introductory course in the cultural studies thematic sequence, Cultural Studies and Public Life, and as a humanities course under the Miami Plan foundations requirement. EDL 204 is a theme-based course that draws upon different disciplines and fields of study to address certain fundamental questions and issues in the sociocultural study of education. We consider this a trans-disciplinary course (rather than inter-disciplinary) because we are less interested in the study of specific disciplines (e.g. the history, sociology or philosophy of education) and more interested in examining problems and issues in the sociocultural study of education. It might be helpful to understanding the nature of this course by introducing the three major fields upon which the course is drawn: the social foundations of education, cultural studies, and the humanities. The social foundations of education is a field of study that draws upon the disciplines of history, sociology, philosophy, and anthropology to study and debate the foundation of educational practice and ideas. In a social foundations of education class, students examine, critique, and explain education in light of its origins, major influences and consequences, by utilizing three perspectives: the analytical, interpretive, and normative perspectives. We will study the nature of these perspectives in more detail as the course proceeds. As an introductory course in the social foundations of education, EDL 204 offers students the opportunity to study those sociocultural conditions, including social institutions, processes, and ideals, which underlie educational ideas and practices. EDL 204 also introduces students to themes and concepts of cultural studies, an area of study where we study culture as something that is actively produced and debated by different people in different social contexts. Culture is viewed as a process which is constructed out of the power relations, debates, and negotiations of the wide range of people who make up a society. Because culture is seen as the result of relations between people (and not merely a fixed, abstract thing), then cultural studies is also intrinsically concerned with the analysis of power relations between people. Who is in more of a position of authority and power to influence what culture is? Who is in less of a position of power, and is, therefore, powerless about defining or controlling culture? The field of cultural studies presents a number of methods of analysis of studying culture,

2 and students will be introduced to those methods in this course, in particular the use of textual analyses of original narratives on American education and culture. Through explorations of written and visual texts, students will study the construction of and the meaning of social texts and culture, and will explore the ways in which educational goals and practices are influenced by those constructed texts and discourses. Students will learn that education and schooling as we know it today has been and continues to be actively constructed, and is not, in and of itself a neutral "fact" or undebateable quality. The cultural studies emphasis of the course is closely linked to the humanities approach of the course, because in both areas of study, we examine the cultural meaning of personal and public narratives and arts. As a humanities course, EDL 204 begins not with a social science approach to understanding impersonal educational institutions, but by inviting students to analyze and reflect upon the way in which people have created ideals, images, and constructs of education as part of American culture. In other words, the readings in the course are representative of the cultural meaning that people give to education (as opposed to social science studies of what actually happens in education.) As in any humanities class, for example, English Literature or Art, students will be asked to understand how meaning is created within the text. Like any reading of a Charlotte Bronte novel or a Picasso painting, educational texts are cultural constructs that reflect a combination of cultural beliefs, images, common practices, hopes, and dreams.

II.

Course Objectives

1) Students will be able to understand the key concepts raised each week and to use the concepts to address and explore the Lead Question raised each week. 2) Students will engage in debates about the purposes of education in a democratic society, and will critically analyze the role of schools in creating citizens, social behaviors, and workers. 3) Students will learn to think critically about the ways in which schools address such issues as diversity and difference in their curriculum, philosophies, and purposes. 4) Students will consider all of the above objectives by analyzing the written and visual assigned texts, by taking part in educational projects outside of the classroom, and by reflecting on their own experiences as students and citizens.

III. Assignments and Evaluation

(see Course Assignment Descriptions for further explanation) (1) Attendance. Attendance is required at every class meeting and large group session. Unexcused absences will result in a lowered grade. Instructors need written and official explanatory notes for any absence due to doctors appointments, illness, or family circumstances. (2) Group Pedagogical Project . (Field experience assignment) In the field experience assignment students participate and observe in the world outside of the classroom, applying concepts and skills learned in the course to a specific project. In the Group Pedagogical Project, students work in small cooperative groups to identify and study the way in which educational text is constructed in a local community, group, or organization. [This will serve as a minimum of four hours field experience for professional education majors.] Some class meetings will be available for group meetings, but students must also arrange to meet and work on this project on their own time outside of class. (3) Cultural Interview . (Field experience assignment) Students interview a peer from a different cultural, ethnic, class, or racial background about their experience of schooling. Assigned during Theme 2, the cultural interview is designed to further students' investigation of culture in schools.

3 (4) Two Text Analyses (Clinical experience assignments) In these two assignments, students conduct textual analyses of cultural texts, such as a childrens book, a film, a museum, etc. (5) Discussion and participation. This is a seminar course, where students are responsible for reacting to and forming ideas based upon course concepts, readings, films, and discussions. Instructors may ask that students contribute occasional free-writes and in-class response papers to the readings, or to contribute discussion questions for the group. (6) Final exam. Students will be able to pull together and address the major concepts, themes, and issues raised in the course.

IV.

Course outline

THEME 1: INTRO. TO THE STUDY OF SCHOOLING IN CULTURAL CONTEXT Weeks 1/2:

Concepts: education schooling popular culture mediated society Visual texts: "Slim Hopes" Moyers, "The Public Mind" Popular films on teaching, including "Dangerous Minds," "Stand and Deliver," "Rennaissance Man, Welcome to the Dollhouse, Three OClock High Written lectures: "Introduction to Sociocultural Studies in Education" "Pop culture as curriculum: the debate over 'culture'" Readings: Freire, "The Importance of the Act of Reading" Hirsch, "Literacy and Cultural Literacy" from Cultural Literacy Cortes, "Media Literacy: An Educational Basic for the Information Age"

Educational institutions

Lead question: How do various social institutions pass knowledge onto the next generations?

Week 3:
Concepts: texts meanings claims and evidence discourses ideology political interests Visual texts: chosen by instructor Written lecture: "The reading of texts"

Taking texts apart

Lead question: Why do we "de-code" texts? What does it mean to examine texts critically?

Readings: "A Nation at Risk" / A text analysis of same James Baldwin, "A Talk to Teachers" / A text analysis of same Jennifer James, "Harnessing the Power of Myths and Symbols"

Week 4/5 Social categories

Lead question: How do we understand race, gender, class, sexuality, and other social categories as a result of cultural texts that we encounter in our lives? What are some possible implications of these categorizations? Concepts: race, class, sexuality and gender as socially constructed social reproduction cultural capital tracking gender versus sex representation Visual Texts: "Dreamworlds II" "Ethnic Notions" Written lectures: "The construction of social categories" "Representation and the construction of meaning"

5 Readings: Lusane, "Rap, Race and Politics" McIntosh, "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" Wright, "One Drop of Blood" Standing Bear, First Days at Carlilse Staples, "Just Walk on By: A Black Man Ponders His Ability to Alter Public Spaces" Wolf, "The Beauty Myth" Holland and Eisenhart, "Strategic Moves: Postponing, Feigning, and Dropping out of Romance" Allen, "Where I Come from Is Like This" hooks, "Reflections on race and sex" Letter to Harvey Milk

THEME 2: THE ORIGIN AND PURPOSES OF SCHOOLING IN A DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY Week 6: Origin of Schooling
Lead Question: What have commentators said is the purpose of education? Concepts: citizenship educational construction of citizens differentiated education Written Lecture: "The Origins and Purposes of Schooling" Readings: Massachusetts School Law of 1647 Thomas Jefferson, "Bill for the More General Diffusion" "Female Influence" (1795) Daniel Webster on the Schools as a Wise and Liberal System of Police Mississippi Law Forbidding Education of Slaves James G. Carter on public education and social unity Editorial in the Massachusetts Teacher on the Irish immigrant W.E.B. DuBois, "The Training of Negroes for Social Power" A Call for the Americanization of Mexican-American Children

Week 7: Purposes of Education: Citizenship

Lead Question: What is the connection between schools and citizenship? Concepts: same as last week Written lecture: same as last week Readings: Eleanor Roosevelt, "It's Patriotic to Teach" The Soviet Union: A Nation Commited to Education Hyman Rickover, "Education: America's First Line of Defense" James Clavell, "The Children's Story" A New Approach to Indian Education "A Nation at Risk" Richard Rodriquez, "What is an American Education?" Barbara A. Miller, "Sarah, Adrienne Rich, and Me: Reflections on Relationships within Education" Rethinking Schools, "Creating Classrooms for Equity and Social Justice"

Week 8: Purposes of Education: Social Education

Lead Question: In what ways have American commentators understood schooling to educate people for social life? Concepts: social solidarity socialization ritual hidden curriculm Written lecture: Purposes of Education: Social Education" Readings: Puritan Children Reminded of Their Duties Louisa May Alcott, "Training the Girl to Patience" "The Little Philosopher" from McGuffey's Reader 1872 Rules for Teachers John Dewey, My Pedagogic Creed Robert Hutchins, from "The Conflict in Education" M. Harmin and S. Simon, "The Year the Schools Began Teaching the Telephone Directory" Don Barlette, "Macaroni at Midnight" Michael Lowenfeld, "The Pinking of the Green" Lynda Barry, "The Sanctuary of the School"

Week 9: Purposes of Education: Economic

Lead question: In what ways have American commentators understood schooling to educate people for economic life? Concepts: capitalism human capital Written lecture: "Purposes of Education: Economic Education" Readings: Horace Mann, "Intellectual Education as a Means of Removing Poverty" Lessons in Domestic Economy from Noah Webster Superintendent of Chocataw Academy on vocational education Report of the Committee on the Place of Industries in Public Education Margaret Haley, "The Factory System" George Counts, "Dare the School Build a New Social Order?" William Bagley, "An Essentialist's Platform for the Advancement of American Education"

THEME 3: SCHOOLING AND CULTURE INTERTWINED: THE CASE OF MULTICULTURALISM VS. MONOCULTURALISM Weeks 10/11: Multiculturalism
Lead question: What is multiculturalism? Concepts: cultural diversity cultural pluralism melting pot angloconformity multiculturalism balkinization Written lecture: Historical and contemporary views of cultural diversity in America Readings: de Crvecoeur, Hector St. John. Letter III: What Is an American" Kallen, Horace, Democracy versus the Melting Pot Du Bois, W. E. B., The Conservation of the Races Du Bois, W. E. B., Of Our Spiritual Strivings, Schlesinger, Arthur. "The American Creed: From Dilemma to Decomposition" Hilliard, Asa. "Why We Must Pluralize the Curriculum" Ravitch, Diane. "A Culture in Common" Wilson, William Julius. "Balkanizing by Caste and Class" Levine, Lawrence, Multiculturalism: Historians, Universities, and the Emerging Nation Shapiro, Svi. "A Parent's Dilemma: Public vs. Jewish Education" (recommended course of readings: Schlesinger and Hilliard; Ravitch and Wilson; Levine and Shapiro)

Weeks 12/13: Multiculturalism and Schooling

Lead question: What should a multicultural school look like? Concepts: nationalism reproduction desegregation integration Afrocentrism Eurocentrism Written lecture: The multiculturalism debates in American schools Readings: Banks, James. The Dimensions of Multicultural Education NCSS Task Force on Ethnic Studies Curriculum Guidelines, "Curriculum Guidelines for Multicultural Education" Silva, Cynthia, R. P. Moses and others. "The Algebra Project: Making Middle School Mathematics Count" Rodd, Jillian. "Children, Culture and Education Baptiste, H. Prentice & S. G. Key. "Cultural Inclusion" Allen, Ray. "On Teaching: Unifying the Disunity: A Multicultural Approach to Teaching American Music" Begley, "A is for Ashanti, B is for Black..." Asante, "Afrocentric Curriculum"