Professor Joanne Larson
Time: Mondays, 7:35-10:00 p.m.
Place: Dewey Hall 1-154
Office Hours: Mondays, 5:30 - 6:30 p.m.
Phone: 275-0900
e-mail: joanne.larson@rochester.edu

Course Description:
This purpose of this course is to provide students a foundation for doctoral work by analyzing the core knowledge in the interrelated fields of education and human development. This core sequence explicitly addresses the foundational question: what is the nature and content of the knowledge that defines the field of education?

This section of the core sequence will focus on progressive critiques of modernism through careful analysis of the work of postmodern and poststructural theory as a starting point for discussion of foundational educational theories. The goal of this semester will be to assist students in their understanding of theoretical frameworks and to provide a foundation for them to begin to construct their own theoretical position.

Course Requirements:
1. Critical Response Papers (20% of grade)
Students will be required to actively participate in all class discussions. Each student is required to write four double-spaced, 3 - 5 page critical response papers as preparation for class discussion (to be submitted throughout the semester as noted in the syllabus). In addition, students (whether individually or in groups of students with related research agendas) will be asked to lead the discussion each class session. This will not be a student presentation, but will offer an opportunity for students to lead discussion from their own scholarly positions.

2. Journal Review (30% of grade).
Students will be required to write a review of one or more leading journals in their area of study. The purpose of this assignment is to provide students with an understanding of the discourse (both research and theoretical) in their area of study. In addition, students will become familiar with the kinds of questions, research methods, and theoretical frameworks being discussed in their fields.

3. Research Paper (50% of grade)
This paper will be an in depth analysis of an education topic, theory, or research paradigm that is based on the student’s research agenda. The focus of the paper should be a critical analysis of the historical relation of the selected topic, theoretical frame, or research paradigm to the student’s research, to contemporary schooling (including counseling and human development issues), to the larger society, and to current pedagogy across disciplines.

NO LATE PAPERS ACCEPTED

Required Texts:
Blase, J. & Anderson, G. (1995). The micropolitics of educational leadership: From control to empowerment.

Cherryholmes, C. (1988). Power and criticism: Poststructural investigations in education. New York: Teachers College Press.

Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and education. New York: Macmillan.

Pinar, W., Reynolds, W., Slattery, P., & Taubman, P. (1996). Understanding curriculum. New York: Lang.

Rabinow, P. (Ed.) (1984). The Foucault Reader. New York: Pantheon Books

Grading

Critical Response Papers: 20 points
Journal Review: 30 points
Research Paper: 50 points
Total Points: 100 points

Class Schedule:
September 11
Overview of the course.

September 18
Readings:
Pinar, Chapter 1
“Understanding curriculum: An introduction”
Foucault reader, Introduction

September 25
Readings:
Pinar, Chapters 2 & 3
“Understanding curriculum as historical text: Creation and transformation, 1828-1927” and “Crisis, transformation, crisis, 1928-1969”

October 2
Response Paper Due
Readings:
Pinar, Chapter 4
“Understanding curriculum as historical text: The reconceptualization of the field, 1970-1979”
Dewey, Chapters 1 - 4

October 9
Foucault reader, Part I – Truth and Method
“What is Enlightenment?” and “Truth and Power”
Dewey, Chapters 5 – 8
Curren readings on the philosophy of education - Handout

Guest Speaker: Randall Curren

October 16
Readings:
Cherryholmes, Chapter 1
“Rethinking educational discourse practices”
Foucault reader, Part I – Truth and Method
“Nietzsche, Genealogy, History” and “What is an Author?”
Blase & Anderson, Introduction

October 23
Response Paper Due
Readings:
Pinar, Chapter 5
“Understanding curriculum as political text”
Cherryholmes, Chapters 2 - 3
“Thinking about education structurally” and “Thinking about education poststructurally”

October 30
Readings:
Pinar, Chapter 6
“Understanding curriculum as racial text”
Blase & Anderson, Chapters 1 - 2
“Negative effects of authoritarian and adversarial approaches to leadership: Leadership as ‘power over’” and “The everyday political perspectives of teacher towards students and parents”

November 6
Journal Review Due
Readings:
Sarup, Chapter 3
“Foucault and the social sciences” - Handout
Blase & Anderson, Chapter 5
“Teachers’ perceptions of facilitative leadership: From ‘power over’ to ‘power-through’ approaches”
Foucault reader, Part II
“The great confinement” and “The birth of the asylum”
Guest Speaker: Craig Barclay

November 13
Readings:
Cherryholmes, Chapter 4
“Meaning, meanings, textbooks, and teaching”
Sarup, Chapter 4
“Some currents within poststructuralism” - Handout

November 20
Response Paper Due
Readings:
Foucault reader, Part II
“Disciplines and Sciences of the Individual”
Sarup, Chapter 5
“Cixous, Irigaray, Kristeva: French feminist theories” - Handout

November 27
Readings:
Pinar, Chapter 9
“Understanding curriculum as poststructuralist, deconstructed, postmodern text”
Cherryholmes, Chapter 5
“Theory and practice”

Guest Speaker: Patricia Irvine

December 4
Response Paper Due
Readings:
Cherryholmes, Chapters 6
“Construct validity and the discourses of research”
Guba, E. (1990). The alternative paradigm dialog. In E. Guba (Ed.). The paradigm dialog, pp. 17-27. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Schwandt, T. (1990). Paths to inquiry in the social disciplines: Scientific, constructivist, & critical theory methodologies. In E. Guba (Ed.). The paradigm dialog, pp. 258-276. Newbury Park, CA: Sage
McCutcheon, G. (1990). Ruminations on methodology: Of truth and significance. In E. Guba (Ed.). The paradigm dialog, pp. 277-285. Newbury Park, CA: Sage
Dobbert, M. (1990). Discussion on methodology. In E. Guba (Ed.). The paradigm dialog, pp. 286-289. Newbury Park, CA: Sage

December 11
Readings:
Cherryholmes, Chapters 7-8
“Poststructuralism, pragmatism, and curriculum”
“Education and critical pragmatism”
Concluding discussion focusing on students’ research papers (student presentations of emerging theoretical frameworks)

December 15
Final Paper due
Due in my office by 5 p.m.