Professor Joanne Larson

Time: Mondays, 7:35 – 10:15 PM

Room: Dewey 1-154

Office Hours: By appointment

Phone: 275-0900

E-mail: joanne.larson@rochester.edu

Course Objective:

The purpose of this course is to explore how and in what ways schools produce social inequalities based on socially constructed conceptions of identity (e.g., race, class, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, language). Candidates will survey and critically analyze relevant literature and their own experiences as raced, classed, and gendered individuals in order to develop an understanding of how educational institutions serve as agents of the transmission of social injustice. Students will understand race, class, gender, disability and other identity markers as interrelated and interactive, not as isolated variables. This course will also examine how human diversity frames and is framed by our lives, and how the transformation of social and educational practices might re-frame lives.

This course was designed to help candidates develop a sense of social responsibility and a desire to effect change in their own lives, their teaching practice, and in the wider society. Our goal is for candidates to understand that we have a collective responsibility to improve society, and that in their roles as “cultural workers”, teachers are uniquely placed to either reproduce or rupture historical patterns and practices of exclusion, disrespect, and marginalization of students in schools.

Class assignments will help candidates to critically examine educational processes by focusing on the following questions: Whose knowledge is of most worth? Who selected this particular knowledge? Why is it organized and taught in this way? How does this organization and pedagogy marginalize other forms of knowledge? What values, beliefs, and practices are embedded in current educational practices and policies? How do race, class, ethnicity, gender, etc. structure people’s access to institutional resources and privileges? How do race, class, ethnicity, gender, etc. interact to produce economic and political inequalities in society? In schools?

Course Requirements:

1. Research Project and Reflection Paper (60% of grade): This project requires candidates to examine their own prejudices and stereotypes held about a particular community or group. Each candidate will conduct a micro ethnography of an identified community or group in an attempt to explore the basis of personal bias. After determining where personal bias, prejudice, or stereotypes may lie, candidates will enter the selected community and will observe activity of this group or community in context and write a personal reflection paper, critically examining their experience. Questions to consider (in addition to those listed above): What current myths/assumptions exist about this group of people? What did you observe? What did you observe that might inform educational practices and policies?
2. Text Deconstruction Paper (25% of grade): Candidates will analyze and deconstruct a selected text with respect to the questions stated in the course objectives. Candidates may select from a wide variety of texts including: textbooks (at any grade level), newspapers, films, articles, books, etc.
3. Critical Commentaries (15% of grade): Candidates will be required to write three critical commentaries during the semester. Critical commentaries should be typed, double-spaced, and approximately 3-5 pages in length. Commentaries should address important theoretical, methodological, and substantive issues that emerge from your reading of the texts, your research project, and class discussion. These papers are not summaries, but should be a careful synthesis and analysis of the readings.

NO LATE ASSIGNMENTS WILL BE ACCEPTED

Required Texts:

Darder, A., Baltodano, M., & Torres, R. (Eds.). (2003). The critical pedagogy reader. New York: Routledge Farmer.

McCarthy, C. & Crichlow, W. (Eds.). (1993). Race, identity, and representation in education. New York: Routledge Farmer.

Morrison, T. (1992). Playing in the dark. New York: Vintage.

Additional readings may be accessed online using WebCT.

Grading:

Research Project:         60 points

Text Deconstruction Paper:       25 points

Critical Commentaries:         15 points

Total:           100 points

Class Schedule:

January 17

Overview of the course

January 24

Orienting positions: The social construction of difference

Michael Apple talk

Readings:

Darder, A., Baltodano, M., & Torres, M. (2003). Critical pedagogy: An introduction. In A. Darder, M. Baltodano, & R. Torres (Eds.). The critical pedagogy reader, pp. 1 – 21. New York: Routledge Farmer.

McCarthy, C. & Crichlow, W. (1993). Introduction: Theories of identity, theories of representation, theories of race. In C. McCarthy & W. Crichlow (Eds.). Race, identity, and representation in education, pp. xiii – xxix. New York: Routledge Farmer.

Apple, M. (2003). Constructing the “other”: Rightist constructions of common sense. In C. McCarthy & W. Crichlow (Eds.). Race, identity, and representation in education, pp. 24 - 37. New York: Routledge Farmer.

January 31

Race and racism

Readings:

Omi, M. & Winant, H. (1993). On the theoretical concept of race. In C. McCarthy & W. Crichlow (Eds.). Race, identity, and representation in education, pp. 3 – 10. New York: Routledge Farmer.

West, C. (1993). The new cultural politics of difference. In C. McCarthy & W. Crichlow (Eds.). Race, identity, and representation in education, pp. 11 - 23. New York: Routledge Farmer.

hooks, b. (2003). Reflections on race and sex. In A. Darder, M. Baltodano, & R. Torres (Eds.). The critical pedagogy reader, pp. 238 - 244. New York: Routledge Farmer.

Darder, A. & Torres, R. (2003). Shattering the “race” lens: Toward a critical theory of racism. In A. Darder, M. Baltodano, & R. Torres (Eds.). The critical pedagogy reader, pp. 245 - 261. New York: Routledge Farmer.

February 7

Critical race theory

Critical Commentary #1 Due

Readings:

Ladson-Billings, G. & Tate, W. (1995). Toward a critical race theory of education. Teachers College Record, 97(1), 47 – 68.

Tatum, B. (2001). Defining racism: “Can we talk?” In P. Rothenberg (Ed.). Race, class, & gender in the United States, pp. 100 – 107. New York: Worth.

Frankenberg, R. (1994). Growing up white: Feminism, racism, and the social geography of childhood. Feminist Review, 45, 51 – 84.

Sleeter, C. (1993). How white teachers construct race. In C. McCarthy & W. Crichlow (Eds.). Race, identity, and representation in education, pp. 157 - 171. New York: Routledge Farmer.

February 14

Rethinking multiculturalism

Readings:

Britzman, D., Santiago-Valles, K., Jimenez-Munoz, G., & Lamash, L. (1993). Slips that show and tell: Fashioning multiculture as a problem of representation. In C. McCarthy & W. Crichlow (Eds.). Race, identity, and representation in education, pp. 188 - 200. New York: Routledge Farmer.

Levine, D., Lowe, R., Peterson, B., & Tenorio, R. (1995). Rethinking schools: An agenda for change. Part 1: Multiculturalism and antibias education. pp. 5 – 46. New York: The New Press.

Dingus, J. (2003). Making and breaking ethnic masks. In G. Gay (Ed.). Becoming multicultural educators: Personal journey toward professional agency, pp. 91 – 116. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

February 21

Cultural repertoires

Readings:

Gutierrez, K. & Rogoff, B. (2003). Cultural ways of learning: Individual traits or repertoires of practice. Educational Researcher, 32(5), 19 – 25.

Moll, L. & Gonzales, N. (2003). Engaging life: A funds-of-knowledge approach to multicultural education. In J.A. Banks & C. A. Banks (Eds.). Handbook of research on multicultural education, pp. 699 – 715.

McCarthy, C. (1993). After the canon: Knowledge and ideological representation in the multicultural discourse on curriculum reform. In C. McCarthy & W. Crichlow (Eds.). Race, identity, and representation in education, pp. 289 - 305. New York: Routledge Farmer.

February 28

Who is the audience of schooling in the US?

Readings:

Morrison, T. (1992). Playing in the dark. New York: Vintage.

March 7

Class and schooling

Critical Commentary #2 Due

Readings:

Mantsios, G. (2001). Class in America: Myths and realities. In P. Rothenberg (Ed.). Race, class, & gender in the United States. New York: Worth.

hooks, b. (2003). Confronting class in the classroom. . In A. Darder, M. Baltodano, & R. Torres (Eds.). The critical pedagogy reader, pp. 142 - 150. New York: Routledge Farmer.

Shannon, P. (1998). Reading poverty, pp. 37 – 76. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

March 14

Gender and Sexuality

Readings:

Friend, R. (1993). Choices, not closets: Heterosexism and homophobia in schools. In L. Weis & M. Fine (Eds.). Beyond silent voices: Class, race, and gender in the United States. Albany: SUNY Press.

Unks, G. (2003). Thinking about the gay teen. In A. Darder, M. Baltodano, & R. Torres (Eds.). The critical pedagogy reader, pp. 322 - 330. New York: Routledge Farmer.

Gore, J. (2003). What we can do for you! What can “we” do for “you”? In A. Darder, M. Baltodano, & R. Torres (Eds.). The critical pedagogy reader, pp. 331 - 348. New York: Routledge Farmer.

Messner, M.A. (1997). Politics of masculinities: Men in movements, pp. 1 – 15. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

March 21

The “F” Word

Text Deconstruction Paper Due

Readings:

Weiler, K. (2003). Feminist analysis of gender and schooling. In A. Darder, M. Baltodano, & R. Torres (Eds.). The critical pedagogy reader, pp. 269 - 295. New York: Routledge Farmer.

Walderdine, V. (1994). Femininity as performance. In L. Stone (Ed.). The education feminism reader, pp. 57 – 69. New York: Routledge.

Lather, P. (1994). The absent presence: Patriarchy, capitalism, and the nature of teacher work. In L. Stone (Ed.). The education feminism reader, pp. 242 - 251. New York: Routledge.

Fine, M. (2003). Sexuality, schooling, and adolescent females: The missing discourse of desire. In A. Darder, M. Baltodano, & R. Torres (Eds.). The critical pedagogy reader, pp. 296 - 321. New York: Routledge Farmer.

March 28

Language, language varieties, and classroom discourse

Readings:

Gutierrez, K., Rymes, B. & Larson, J. (1995). Script, counterscript and underlife in the classroom: James Brown versus Brown v. The Board of Education. Harvard Educational Review, 65(3), 445-471.

Larson, J. & Irvine, P.D. (1999). “We call him Dr. King”: Reciprocal distancing in urban classrooms. Language Arts, 76(5), 393-400.

Smitherman, G. (1999). Introduction to ebonics. In talkin that talk: Language, culture, and education in African America, pp. 19 – 40. New York: Routledge.

April 4

Stigma, inclusion, and constructing others

Critical Commentary #3 Due

Readings:

Goffman, E. (1963). Stigma, pp. 105 – 139. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Baker, B. (2002). The hunt for disability: The new eugenics and the normalization of children. Teachers College Record, 104(4), 663-703.

Kliewer, C. & Fitzgerald, L.M. (2001). Disability, schooling, and the artifacts of colonialism. Teachers College Record, 103(3), 450-470.

April 11

NO CLASS MEETING

Where’s the privilege?

Readings:

McIntosh, P. (1988). White privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack.

Walkerdine, V. (1990). On the regulation of speaking and silence: Subjectivity, class, and gender in contemporary schooling. Schoolgirl fictions, pp. 29 – 60. New York: Verso.

Ryan, W. (2001). Blaming the victim. In P. Rothenberg (Ed.). Race, class, & gender in the United States, pp. 572 – 582. New York: Worth.

April 18

Constructing identities

Readings:

King, J. (1994). Dysconscious racism: Ideology, identity, and the miseducation of teachers. In L. Stone (Ed.). The education feminism reader, pp. 336 - 348 New York: Routledge.

Said, E. (1993). The politics of knowledge. In C. McCarthy & W. Crichlow (Eds.). Race, identity, and representation in education, pp. 306 - 314. New York: Routledge Farmer.

Dei, G. J. S. (1996). Anti-racist education: Theory and practice, pp. 25 – 39. Nova Scotia: Fernwood.

April 25

Closing discussions

Research papers due

Student Presentations

See handout regarding how this course meets the relevant NCATE standards : (http://www.ncate.org/2000/unit_stnds_2002.pdf) and the Warner School portfolio requirements (http://www.rochester.edu/Warner/programs/teaching/assessment/index.html)