Purdue University > College of Education > Curriculum & Instruction > EDCI 285

This course syllabus is available only on the web.  It details the purpose, policies, assignments, readings, and projects of the course.

The purpose of this course is to give pre-service teachers an opportunity to explore various facets of multiculturalism and its implications for teaching practice.  We will examine the impact of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and other aspects of social group identities on teaching and learning as they relate to contexts both in and out of schools.  While this course is broad in scope, the primary aim is to assist future teachers in examining what it means to be an educator in a society that is both multicultural (symbolically diversified) and inequitable (materially differentiated).  Accordingly, we use different identity categories to better understand who we are as individuals and citizens of a democracy while also exploring their implications for being a teacher in public education.  The course is designed around five key questions:

1. What does it mean to be a teacher in an increasingly global, multicultural, and postmodern world?
2. What sorts of commitments should teachers have to be effective educators in a culturally and materially diverse and inequitable society?
3. What role should schools have in reproducing and transforming social and material values and beliefs?
4. How do teacher identities get produced and circulated through society and how do they expand and constrain what is considered educationally feasible?
5. How can teachers practice so that they know the world is a better place because of their role in it?

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REQUIRED COURSE MATERIALS (can be purchased at Follett's Bookstore)

Baldacci, L. (2004). Inside Mrs. B.'s classroom: Courage, hope, and learning on Chicago's south side. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Beals, M. P. (2002). Warriors don't cry. New York: Simon Pulse.

*Chafe, W. H. et. al. (2001). Remembering Jim Crow: African Americans tell about life in the segregated South. New York: The New Press. (Note: we will be using only the CD component of collection).

Ehrenrich, B. (2001). Nickel and dimed; On (not) getting by in America. New York: Owl Books.

Salas, K. D. et. al. (2004). The new teacher book: Finding purpose, balance, and hope during first years in the classroom. Milwaukee, WI: Rethinking Schools.

Valenzuela, A. (1999). Subtractive schooling. U.S. Mexican youth and the politics of caring. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

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In this course there are four major assignments.  The guidelines that follow begin with a question followed by recommendations for how you might begin to gather supporting evidence and compose papers or information for each of the four assignments.

What do I write in each of the assignments?

For reflective journals, each week you will be responsible for posting a reaction to the readings to WebVista.  You will not be graded on grammar unless it gets in the way of conveying your thoughts.  In addition, you should comment or react to course discussions and the postings of other pre-service teachers (at least three per week).  In each journal posting address the following three dimensions.  First, recoup the important points of the readings.  Consider what contribution the reading has to make to course discussions in particular and education in general.  Second, explore the significance of the ideas you recoup from the readings.  Do not simply summarize the reading or state that you like a particular idea.  You must provide support for why you think a particular idea is important.  Use your critical thinking skills.  Lastly, integrate the important ideas into your thoughts on education.  Now that you have recouped the ideas that you think are important and described why they are significant, share their implications for public education and multiculturalism as you understand them.  Your instructor will post a single weekly response to various dimensions of the reflective journals.

For debates, the week before a scheduled debate you will be assigned to a pro, con, or observation group and asked to either deliberate (if you are pro or con) or reflect upon the points made (if you are observation) about various contemporary issues related to multiculturalism.  In addition, your instructor will provide you with a list of general points of deliberation that will shape the direction of the debates.  On each of the points, the groups will alternate responsibility for making the lead persuasive statement, followed by a response from the other team, and ending with a rebuttal from the team making the initial statement.  Your instructor will be the moderator and will time each element of the debates.  At the end of the debates, the observation group will summarize the key points and select by consensus the most persuasive arguments.  Each pre-service teacher will be evaluated on the evidence they provided (how prepared they were with key facts and information) and how well they were able to articulate their ideas.  Students are expected to take the debates seriously.  Come to the class meeting prepared to support your point of view.

For the mid-term research paper you will be asked to write a scholarly paper on one of the two multicultural themes listed below. The paper should be 10 to 12 pages in length, use APA format, and include no less than eight supporting scholarly citations (the course reading materials can be referenced; however, they will not be considered a part of the eight required references. Please note that a scholarly citation almost always comes from a peer reviewed journal or an academic text.). 

1) History.  Focus on a historical event or individual that has impacted the human rights of a historically oppressed group.  For example, you could examine Brown v. Board of Education, Ida B. Wells, the Los Angeles Riots, Woodson G. Carter, the Stonewall Riots, Martin Luther King, the Freedom Schools, Gandhi, the Hip Hop movement, or the Women's Suffrage Movement, among others.  Look at why the movement happened or why the individual decided to take up a particular cause and try to understand why it is an important part of U.S. American history.  Seek out little know information about the movement or individual and inform the reader of the ways such knowledge might be used to improve public education in particular and society in general.  In order to write a more coherent paper, particularly if it is relatively large movement or well-documented historical figure, it is suggested that you pick a manageable aspect, such as a particular event or certain period of years.  Your paper will be evaluated on the ability to convey the significance of the movement under analysis, appropriate use of supporting evidence, and depth of analysis.  You should focus on linking various historical figures and/or events to their larger significance for educational, social, political, and economic equality.

2) Media. Examine media portrayals along the lines of one or more social group categories (race, class, gender, sexual orientation, etc.).  For example, you could look at media portrayals of different races in situation comedies and examine at how they are constructed or given meaning, including the development of the daily lives and identities of the characters.  If one examined the successful television show "Friends," for example, they would find that even though the characters live in a major city, they rarely if ever interact with people of color or discuss issues of race and class.  If one was to examine "The Cosby Show," for example, the would find that the show rarely addressed controversial race or class issues during a historical period when African Americans were disproportionately negatively impacted by changes in state and federal policies.  Look at the ways in which media transforms and reproduces social values, beliefs, and attitudes.  Seek out a better understanding how media shapes the ways people view the world and consider alternative ways that media might be used to teach critical thinking.  Your paper will be evaluated on the ability to critically analyze the ways in which media constructs and conveys certain values, beliefs, and customs around the different categories or identities within multiculturalism. 

For the last project you are asked to write a capstone paper that synthesizes your experience in the course and its implications for you as a future teacher.  The paper should be 10 to 12 pages using APA format and should make significant reference to the course reading materials.  As a complement to the paper, you are asked to develop a pedagogical performance piece that you can share with the rest of the students.  Unlike an academic paper, a performance pedagogical piece uses art, dance, song, theatre or poetry to convey knowledge, thoughts, and feelings about your experiences in the course.  You will be evaluated on the way both the paper and the performance piece reflect what you have learned over the semester.  Papers must be sole authored but pedagogical performance pieces can be done in small groups as long as each member has a clearly distinguishable role.

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How should I prepare for class discussions?

One of your most important responsibilities as a pre-service teacher in EDCI 285 is to come to class prepared to discuss the readings.  As you might note in the schedule, course discussions will be drawn from a number of texts, films, and even an audio compact disc.  The texts cover a range of issues that directly and indirectly relate to schools.  Certain texts, like Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed, might as first seem to have little to do with public education.  With a deeper reading and some class discussion, however, seemingly disparate elements of our lives and the texts will begin to reveal their relationships to education.  What happens, for example, to a child who comes to school without breakfast because they have little food or must move from school to school because their parents must move for work?  When we look at schooling through a social/cultural lens we find issues of capitalism and employment have a significant impact on educational opportunities.  Multicultural education seeks to illustrate that at a fundamental level education is always classed, raced, gendered, and sexed; even though U.S. Americans like to promote the idea of equal opportunity, the biggest predictor of a child's income is the income of her or his parents.  Accordingly, because there is so much unlearning to be done as teachers, students will need to go beyond superficial readings of the texts.  You will be challenged to reflect upon the guiding questions for each course meeting, think critically about questions posed by your course instructor, and consider the implications of the course materials for public education.  While we might ground some of our discussions and activities in lesson planning and other activities of a practical nature, the focus of this course is on the development of critical thinking skills so that no matter where pre-service teachers end up teaching, they have the ability to proactively and authentically engage in multicultural issues with their students.  Here are some ideas that might help you prepare:

Read thoroughly: Begin with a general read of the overall structure of the text.  What are the chapters and section headings?  What are the general themes of the text?  Then, read for the points the author is trying to make.  What is the rationale for the direction of text?  What supporting evidence does the author use to make her or his points?  Try to grasp the nature of the problems posed in each chapter or section and take notes on key ideas and concepts.  Before class, review your notes so that you can share ideas in class discussions that are of interest to you.  Remember that course discussions are meant to be open-ended and exploratory without necessarily working toward a finite conclusion.  Accordingly, consider the types of discourse you use in discussion.  Does it open up the possibility for deeper understanding or does it shut down opportunities for critical thinking?  Does it provide counter logic to existing systems of thought that lead to oppression or does it simply reinforce the status quo?  Most of all, take risks and allow yourself to be open to less common, alternative ways of thinking about issues of diversity and equality.  When each pre-service teacher prepares in these ways, the conversations will be enlightening to say the least.  As future public educators, the ability of the next generation of democratic citizens rests in your hands.

How can I be aware of ideological complexity?

Like all aspects of public education, multiculturalism and social justice issues are politically charged topics for teachers, students, community members, and other constituents.  One only needs to search the web for issues like whole language v. phonics, Ebonics v. formal English, and essentialism v. constructivism to know that there are major "culture wars" over the "correct" curriculum and pedagogy.  Unfortunately, the ideological investments that surround various viewpoints and belief systems often mask the complexity of these issues.  Statements like, "are you liberal or conservative?" tend to mystify as much as they reveal about ideological difference and complexity.  On some issues, for example, conservativism might be beneficial and even necessary.  On the issue of basic rights we might fight hard to retain (or conserve) the principles of the Constitution and Bill of Rights.  On other issues, such as economic opportunity, for example, we might fight hard to change (liberalize) work and salary structures if we find economic distributions have increased to such an extent that the possibility for a fully functioning participatory democracy has been impaired.  In other words, most issues cannot be understood and addressed adequately through binary positions of I am a "liberal" or "conservative".  Instead, ideological and philosophical complexities must be studied in order to understand what possible solutions might look like-what needs to be retained and what needs to be changed for the actualization of diversity and equality.  This course explicitly addresses the relationship between schooling, difference, and social equality but does so in ways that cannot be fully understood unless power relations and the myriad of ideological dimensions are explored. 

What do I write?

Each paper you write should be shaped, but not limited, by analysis of dominant perspectives on political opinions, socioeconomic class roles, religious beliefs, gender roles, intimate relationships, and racial self-images.  Question taken for granted assumptions about what we know, how we see ourselves, and how others see us.  In this way, your papers should reflect the development of a critical consciousness about the way knowledge gets produced and circulated.  For example, a non-critical perspective on Columbus might provide a "matter of fact" overview of the "settling" of the United States.   A critical perspective, however, would illustrate the debates surrounding Columbus, particularly his portrayals in textbooks, media, popular culture, and school curricula.  How might Columbus be viewed by First Nation peoples (Native Americans) as might be compared to European Americans (White) and why?  In the latter analysis a definitive conclusion might not be drawn, but an examination of the way Columbus gets constructed in and outside of schools might be provided, as well as a rationale for why the construction occurred in such a way.

What format should papers be in?

As mentioned previously, hard copies of the papers should be in APA style, which includes, but is not limited to a typed, double-spaced, 12-point font paper. At the top of the first page, include your name, course number, instructor name, division, and title of paper.  The TaskStream narrative for EDCI 285 should be single spaced.  References to course readings or outside texts should be cited using APA format. The manual can be ordered from http://www.apastyle.org/pubmanual.html.  In addition to the web address mentioned earlier, you can check on-line at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_apa.html.  Easy Access, also mentioned previously, provides a comprehensive overview of how to use this citation format.

How will I be evaluated?

Your assignments will be graded according to a rubric attached to each item you turn in to your instructor (A rubric is an assessment tool that lists the evaluation criteria and relative value given to each item you will be graded on).  They are located on WebVista.  Generally, the rubrics measure how well you:

• Gave evidence of critical thinking by illustrating the significance of the material under analysis, as opposed to regurgitating facts or providing a summary. 

• Supported your ideas by citing examples and evidence from course readings and/or outside scholarly sources, as opposed to making uncorroborated statements.

• Organized and structured your paper in a concise and cogent fashion that utilizes a thesis statement, topic sentences followed by supporting statements, and a relevant conclusion that illustrates the significance of your points. 

Example of good evidence, "On page 32 Ehrenrich substantiates why educators have to pay attention to factors beyond the classroom when she states, "I start out with the beautiful, heroic idea of handling the two jobs at once, and for two days I almost do it: working the breakfast/lunch shift at Jerry's from 8:00 till 2:00, arriving at the Hearthside a few minutes late, at 2:10, and attempting to hold out until 10:00."  While some families have the stability necessary to allow their children to prepare for state examinations, and eventually college entrance examinations, other families spend most of their day trying to figure out how to survive.  For equality to be possible, all families have to have their basic needs met so equal opportunity can be a reality."

Example of regurgitation, "Ehrenrich tells what it's like to have to work all the time and not be able to go focus on school in a family.  She tells us people that work with her in this diner don't think about school and education.  Gail doesn't do that (32).  They should focus on school."

What kind of student will I be?

The A student often differs from the B student in terms of the quality of their work, as opposed to the quantity of their work.  Over the course of the semester they consistently illustrate their competency through creative and insightful writing, contributions to course discussions, postings to WebVista, and overall interest in advancing human understanding.  They are extremely attentive to course requirements but also go above and beyond the requirements and accept challenges to their intellectual and practical growth.  They consistently and continuously do work that is more thorough and of higher quality than what is required.

The B student at times goes above and beyond what is required and at other times achieves at the basic level of requirements.  They show at different times over the semester that they have strong intellectual abilities even if these capacities are not consistently evident in all their work.  On occasion, they seek out additional responsibilities and show evidence of deep knowledge of the material covered in the course.

The C student is a baseline student as illustrated in the following five points:

• Has acceptable abilities and skills in relation to course requirements and competencies.
• Completes the basic requirements of each element of evaluation on time.
• Accepts basic responsibilities of the course, including regular attendance.
• Contributes in constructive ways to course discussions in class and on-line.
• Accepts constructive criticism and works at a general level to improve her or his self.

Note: Use these points under "C student" as your constant baseline reference.

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Comments to malewski@purdue.ed| Last updated June 28, 2005