1. Course Description:

This course will examine diversity in personal and local contexts and analyze how diversity is reflected in curriculum and instruction. Diversity applies to teachers, students, administrators and staff within the school as well as the various populations in the larger school community. Teachers will develop plans and strategies about parental partnering, tolerance, conflict resolution, curriculum sequencing and presentation, assessment, and community building. Prerequisite: Education 550.

II. Course Objectives: Students will be able to:

A) Knowledge

1. Describe the multiple communities which are stakeholders for their school system, school, and classroom.

2. Trace the legal and social history of multicultural education as field.

3. Relate topics concerning the issues to diversity to their own situation.

4. Assess by personally constructed criteria the position of the school in providing a nurturing place for the different communities it serves.

5. Understand the role of assessment in determining the educational opportunities of underserved students.

B) Skills

1. Apply strategies related to tolerance, conflict resolution, curriculum sequencing and presentation, assessment, and community building to their situation.

2. Create and analyze cases involving issues of diversity.

3. Apply electronic resources to create instructional strategies that increase classroom interaction with diverse environments.

4. Assess classroom materials in relation to their sensitivity to issues of diversity.

5. Develop professional development goals and describe educational mission in regard to issues of diversity. 

C) Attitudes and Values

1. Acknowledge the need for developing personal capacities as they relate to issues of diversity.

2. Appreciate diversity as a premise of effective instruction.

3. Value the need for professional partnerships and for conscious attention to community building.

4. Consider how their own professional growth can be aligned with service to other teachers and students.

III. Course Topics and Outline

1. Theory and History of Multicultural Education

Text: Morrison; Nieto: Introduction and Chapters 1 - 4

Topics: the social demographics of diversity, diversity as an economic need, social justice and the extending of educational opportunity, legal precedents, terminology, diversity and the media, diversity as a both a classroom and school issue.

2. Working with Community Stakeholders

Text: Nieto: Chapters 8 - 11.

Topics: professionalism and teaching, leg knowledge bases of teaching; critiques of professionalization efforts and the expertise model; forming metaphors and images of good teaching.

3. Assessment

Text: Darling-Hammond: Chapters 1, 2, 5,6, & 7; Nieto: Chapters 12, and selected readings

Topics: changing paradigms in professional assessment, teacher testing and assessment, NBPTS and national certification

4. Research into the Issues of Diversity

Text: Selected Readings

Topics: parental partnering, tolerance, conflict resolution, community building, assessment, asset building, effective curricular and instructional strategies.

IV. Instructional Procedure

1. Lecture and direct instruction.

2. Media analysis.

3. Research review of specific issues related to diversity.

4. Cooperative learning teams and sharing (jigsaw).

V. Evaluation

Exam and Quizzes (30%)

There will be two essay exams, one at midterm and one to conclude the course. The first essay will cover the social and political context giving rise to understandings of diversity. The second essay will conclude the course and cover primarily the group presentations on diversity issues as they apply to specific populations.

Case Analysis (20%)

As is the case with the other core courses, students will have the opportunity to analyze a specific case related to issues of working with diverse populations. Students will pair in this case with each student presenting the other an original case to analyze. By the end of the assignment students will have written a case, analyzed a second, and presented the written response to their partner.

Assessment (20%)

Assessment is a major issue in understanding diversity as we seek to recognize and improve our own sensitivities, as we examine school environments, as we assess curricular and instructional materials, and as we develop and use assessment instruments which fairly and accurately provide information about student capabilities. All students will be required to write a personal assessment of their own needs and the needs of their students in regard to assessment. In addition, the class will develop their own instrument and questionnaire to evaluate their school's needs in regard to diversity issues.

Research Topic in Diversity (30%)

The major assignment of the course will be a research paper each student will write as part of a chapter in a larger group study. The study will center on traditionally underserved population: students with special needs, women, Afro-Americans, and Hispanics. Each student in the study group will have assigned one of the major areas of concerns as teachers work with various populations: parental partnering, tolerance, community building, assessment, and effective curricular and instructional strategies. They will research that issue and write ten page paper complete with bibliography for the collected study. As part of the assignment the study will be shared in three ways. First, each group member will be part of another mixed group studying other populations. This will allow for sharing across areas as the study is being conducted. Second the group will be charged with a poster presentation for their study on "teacher conference" days. Finally, the larger paper will be presented in disk form so that it can be published on the classes webpage.

VI. Clinical Experience and Field Experience

Analysis of specific cases which describe actual circumstances in the school setting will comprise clinical experience for the course.

VII. Text and Supplemental Materials

Required Texts:

Morrison, Toni. (1972). The Bluest Eye. New York: Washington Square Press.

Nieto, Sonia. (1996) Affirming Diversity: The Sociopolitical Context of Multicultural Education. 2nd ed. New York: Longman.

Darling-Hammond, L. Ancess, J. & Falk, B. (1995). Authentic Assessment in Action: Studies of Schools and Students at Work. New York: Teachers College Press.

Supplemental Materials and Readings:

Banks, J.A. (1994). An Introduction to Multicultural Education. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Benson, Peter L. (1997). All Kids Are Our Kids. San Francisco: Jossey Bass Publishers.

Bowles, Samuel, and Herbert Gintis. (1976). Schooling in Capitalist America: Educational Reform and the Contradictions of Economic Life. New York: Basic Books.

Gardner, Howard. (1993). Multiple Intelligences: The Theory in Practice. New York: Basic Books.

Gould, Stephen Jay. (1991). The Mismeasure of Man. New York: Norton.

Giroux, Henry A. (1996). Fugitive Cultures: Race, Violence, and Youth. New York: Routledge.

Kozol, Jonathan. (1991). Savage Inequalities. New York: Crown.

Hernstein, Richard & Murray, Charles. (1994). The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life. New York: Free Press.

Hirsch, E.D. (1987). Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Jenson, Arthur R. (1976) "How Much Can We Boost I.Q. and Scholastic Achievement?" Harvard Educational Review, 39, 1-123.

Kohl, Herbert. (1994). "I Won't Learn From You" and Other Thoughts on Creative Maladjustment. New York: New Press.

Ladson-Billings, Gloria. (1994). The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.

Oakes, Jeannie. (1985). Keeping Track: How Schools Structure Inequality. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Sadker, Myra & Sadker, David. (1994). Failing at Fairness: How America's Schools Cheat Girls. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.

Sleeter, Christine E. (1992). Keepers of the American Dream: A Study of Staff Development and Multicultural Education. London: Falmers Press.

Sleeter, C.E. & Grant, C. A. (1993). Making Choices for Multicultural Education: Five Approaches to Race, Class, and Gender. New York: Merrill.

Spring, Joel. (1995). The Interaction of Cultures: Multicultural Education in the United States. New York: McGraw Hill.

West, Cornell. (1993) Race Matters. Boston: Beacon Press.

Wiggins, Grant P. (1993). Assessing Student Performance: Exploring the Purpose and Limits of Testing. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Wolf, Virginia. (1938). Three Guineas.New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

 

VIII. Course Numbering Rationale

 

The "500" number designates the course as graduate level. It is sequentially numbered with the other core courses in the Master of Arts in Education graduate program.

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IX. Date of Syllabus: Fall, 99