EELB 312
Enrique G. Murillo, Jr., Ph.D.
College of Education
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***These pages will be updated next time I teach this class, and alter the old 4-unit course (321) to the new 2-unit version (312)
Calendar Syllabus Course Handouts
TOPICS AND LECTURES CSUSB / Culture and Schooling / Murillo Week Topics Class Reading Assignments Due Dates and Lectures Activities (Be ready to discuss) (In-class)
1A -- Introduction -- Introductions, bio sheets -- the course, readings, ---------------------------------------------------- assignments, perspectives, requirements, evaluation, etc . . .
1B -- Culture vs. culture -- Video: “What is ---------------------------------------------------- Multicultural Education”
-- Social Transmission vs. Transformation (chapters 1, 2, & 5) -- Reproduction vs. Production -- Structure vs. Agency
2B -- Ethnographic -- Video observations Research Methods -- Discuss Field Experience Requirement
3A -- Cultural Pluralism -- Video: Shadow of Hate -- Response and Demographic Change Paper Due
3B -- Non-Majority -- Analysis and Discussion -- Villaseñor Group Perspectives of Rain of Gold: large group (chapters 1 through 15) work on reader’s guide #s 1-3
4A -- Understanding Race -- “Involuntary Minority Model”
4B -- Non-Majority -- Analysis and Discussion -- Villaseñor Group Perspectives of Rain of Gold: small group (chapters 16 through 25) work on reader’s guide #s 4-10
5 -- Non-Majority -- Analysis and Discussion -- Gates, Jr. Group Perspectives of Colored People: small group (entire book) work on reader’s guide #s 1-10
6A -- Structural Factors -- Discuss Self-Ethnography -- Literature and Inequity Requirement Paper Due -- Economic, Social, and Cultural Reproduction Week Topics Class Reading Assignments Due Dates and Lectures Activities (Be ready to discuss) (In-class)
6B -- Community Institutions -- small group clarification -- Seller & Weis (S & W Introduction) -- D. Beck (S & W ch 2) -- Fine et al (S & W ch 13)
7A -- Understanding Gender -- small group clarification -- S. Fordham -- Gender and Intersectionality (S & W ch 4) -- Social Capital -- Min Zhou (S & W ch 9)
7B -- Gender and Sexuality -- Video: “It’s Elementary” -- D. Carlson and discussion (S & W ch 11)
8A -- Language Diversity, Culture -- Pai & Adler -- Self-Ethnography and Learning -- Discussion (chapter 7) Due -- Language Learning vs. Language Acquisition -- Community Funds of Knowledge
8B -- Identity and Cultural -- Video: “Language, -- A.L. Davidson -- Course Evaluation Production Identity, and Culture” (S & W ch 1) Due -- Cultural Conditions -- K. Leonard for Learning (S & W ch 8)
9A -- Cultural Awareness -- I. Villanueva -- Multiculturalism -- Theater of the Oppressed (S & W ch 3) as Social Action -- Pai & Adler -- Transformative Pedagogy (chapters 4 & 6)
9B -- Student Presentations on Field Experience or Self-Ethnographies -- SETEs
10 -- Student Presentations on Field Experience -- Field Experience or Self-Ethnographies Report Due
11 - Finals Week -- Student Presentations on Field Experience -- Take-Home or Self-Ethnographies (2 hours max) Finals Due CSUSB / Culture and Schooling / Murillo
Week Topics Class Reading Assignments Due Dates and Lectures Activities (Be ready to discuss) (In-class)
1A -- Introduction -- Introductions, bio sheets -- the course, readings, ---------------------------------------------------- assignments, perspectives, requirements, evaluation, etc . . .
1B -- Culture vs. culture -- Video: “What is ---------------------------------------------------- Multicultural Education”
1) Pass out syllabi. Students look at syllabus and fill out bio sheets as we wait for late stragglers.
2) Introduce myself. Go around the room and have people introduce themselves, as I call off the attendance roster.
3) Go over the syllabus, explaining in broad strokes. (Assignments and requirements will be re-addressed in detail as the weeks proceed.) Explain also that if people show up on time, we will be able to have break from 7:30 - 8:00 pm, and leave by a decent hour.
4) take break if needed; collect bio sheets.
5) Explain Culture versus culture.
-- Borrowing from Renato Rosaldo, Culture does NOT inhabit a set-aside domain, as does Politics or Economics. Rather, culture refers broadly to the forms through which people make sense of their lives. That is to say---culture is what selects and organizes human experience, ---ALL of human conduct is culturally-mediated. Further, cultures are learned, not genetically encoded.
--The preconceived notions of Culture as static, unchanging and homogeneous are both mistaken and irrelevant. Instead, we will learn, read, listen, and witness living “cultural practices” We’ll resist imposing our own categories on other people’s lives, particularly because they do not apply. We will struggle to make sense of cultural practices in their own context and on their own terms. We will see human worlds as socially-constructed through historical and political processes, not as timeless facts of nature.
-- Lastly, we’ll make a distinction between Education and Schooling. We’ll define Education to be the process of learning over the span of one’s entire life. It begins at birth and continues in a wide variety of both formal and informal settings (DeMarrais & LeCompte). Bailyn refers to Education as the content and process of cultural transfer. Schooling on the other hand is the learning that takes place in formal institutions whose specific function is the socialization of specific groups within society. Schooling is another name for socialization in schools.
Culture intersection/ Culture borderlands
6) Show video “What is Multicultural Education”
CSUSB / Culture and Schooling / Murillo
Week Topics Class Reading Assignments Due Dates and Lectures Activities (Be ready to discuss) (In-class)
2A -- Social Structure vs. Cultural -- Pai & Adler -- Social Transmission vs. Transformation (chapters 1, 2, & 5) -- Reproduction vs. Production -- Structure vs. Agency
2B -- Ethnographic -- Video observations Research Methods -- Discuss Field Experience Requirement
1) Distinguish between “Social Structure” and “Cultural”:
“Social Structure” “Cultural” - Durable structures in social life - meaning and symbols shared among - race, class, gender, sexual orientation, age, etc... a group of humans - body of institutions such as church, school, state, etc... - material (palpable material existence) - and the power relations solidified in the institutions and symbolic culture - social power works through systems - refers to interpretation and meaning, which - power, position, privilege, and status differ from culture to culture (therefore multiple)
2) Refer to the explanatory frameworks attachment in the syllabus. Elaborate on Social Transmission vs. Transformation Reproduction vs. Production Structure vs. Agency How social structures are copied from generation to generation, regardless of external forces such as the activities or desires of groups or individuals. But then how external forces such as the activities or desires of groups or individuals in turn shape structure. Acted upon---Actor, Positivism vs. Interpretivism.
-- Consensus Theory-Positivism -- Social science frameworks during the 20th century have been dominated by a functionalist/structuralist perspective. Also known as functionalist systems theories, this most historically influential body of theories is based on an organic analogy that argues that societies possess basic functions analogous to biological living organisms. Each part of the system has a function, to when all work together, it ensures the basic survival of the whole organism. It has been a scientific methodological trend in research that seeks to reveal the structure of objects. It uses methods of research borrowed from math, physics and the biological sciences in general to inquire about the state of objects, their relationships, and learn their intrinsic timeless properties. -- Central to this body of research has been the belief that homeostasis or equilibrium is the most natural, desirable and healthy state of systems, like that of living organisms. Conflict is an illness which the system seeks to avoid and resolve immediately, and any change can only take place in gradual increments. -- the Educational system is one such structure under this view which must fulfil its function of transmission to the next generation in order to maintain the healthy overall society. Functionalists and structural functionalists have researched the ways that schools reinforce the existing cultural, political, and social status quo
-- Conflict Theory -- Positivism -- Influenced mostly by the theories of Marx and Simmel, another stream of literature known as conflict theory believes that the functionalist emphasis on social maintenance is inadequate to truly understand the energetic activities of social systems. It draws its theory from the contradictions of capitalism, particularly the economic determinism and patterns of property ownership between labor and capital. The underlying thought is that the unequal distribution of wealth and goods in society is the unequivocal source of conflict. -- Schools are linked to this distribution in society, and are viewed as arenas where the social conflict takes place and gets played out. Schooling as a social practice is viewed to be utilized and supported by powerful sectors of society that wish to maintain their social dominance. In this view, particular attention is given to the various conflicts between the poor and rich classes, and the powerless workers and powerful capitalists.
-- Theories of Economic, Social, and Cultural Reproduction build on TRANSMISSION theories such as CONSENSUS and FUNCTIONAL ‑ STRUCTURALISM, but take a critical MARXIST perspective, meaning it is CLASS based. They were the first critical challenges to the notion of meritocracy (social and economic power is, and will in the future, be held by those selected on the basis of measurable merit). Will discuss in week 6.
-- Reproduction theory dealt exclusively with class advantage, which did not adequately account for other systems of privilege such as race and gender. Obviously, neither economic, social, nor cultural reproduction leaves much room for the student subject to negotiate or challenge the imposition of ideology or of power. Anyone who has worked with a group of kids or teen‑agers knows very well they don't simply accept the meanings of the world you offer them. In the ‘80s, theorists developed cultural production theory to take better account of agency or will.
- interpretive theory -- Production: this view sees the world as made up of purposeful actors that construct, interpret and share their constructions of reality. Schools, under this perspective, are sites where meanings are constructed through social interaction. Researchers working through this paradigm have departed from the classical objectivist quantitative research methods used in Educational sociology, to descriptive qualitative research methods relying heavily on participant/observation in micro-settings. -- Qualitative researchers work from an interpretive view of the nature of reality. That is to say, they share a view that reality is not given, but constructed (Berger and Luckman). Humans are actively engaging in the process of constructing culture through their daily interactions (Bennet and LeCompte). Cultural meanings are constructed across many social settings, and because people hold a variety of different perceptions, this interpretive view is based upon a flexible rather than a fixed ontology.
3) Distinguish Between Differing Research Methods That Accompany Each Theoretical Framework
-- positivism/quantitative (natural world, hard sciences, statistics, Truth) vs interpretivism/qualitative (social world, no absolute truth, meanings socially constructed, multiple truths)
-- interpretive theory: this view sees the world as made up of purposeful actors that construct, interpret and share their constructions of reality. Schools, under this perspective, are sites where meanings are constructed through social interaction. Researchers working through this paradigm have departed from the classical objectivist quantitative research methods used in Educational sociology, to descriptive qualitative research methods relying heavily on participant/observation in micro-settings. -- Qualitative researchers work from an interpretive view of the nature of reality. That is to say, they share a view that reality is not given, but constructed (Berger and Luckman). Humans are actively engaging in the process of constructing culture through their daily interactions (Bennet and LeCompte). Cultural meanings are constructed across many social settings, and because people hold a variety of different perceptions, this interpretive view is based upon a flexible rather than a fixed ontology. -- Smith and Heshusius mark this alternative ontology or view of reality as a historical challenge to “scientific positivism.” -- Offered first by Dilthey, this approach believes it is impossible for there to exist an objective reality separate from people. Instead, understanding comes through interpretation, there exist many truths and multiple realities, and human expression is context-based. -- This interpretive view actually has various names attached. It may be known as the naturalistic paradigm (Lincoln & Guba), case-study methodology, the ethnographic paradigm, ethnography, anthropological methods, constructivism, qualitative research, qualitative methods descriptive data-collection or field research. -- The role of values is inherent in this view.
4) Take Attendance; Break
5) Discuss Ethnographic Research Methods / Field Experience Report
-- discuss each: Observations Interviews TRIANGULATION D Document Collection / Review
-- Refer to Field Experience Requirement in syllabus; Discuss: Field Experience Report = 25 points All candidates are responsible for 6 hours of field experience in approved settings, from a culture other than the candidate’s own! Report due no later than week 10. Guidelines and details attached in the syllabus. -a) Structured observations (4 hours) of school and school-related activities (e.g., classrooms, schools, teachers, students, school-board meetings, parents/PTOs, advisory council meetings, educational conferences, curricula/planning, etc . . . ). -b) Formal interviews (1 hour) with school actors (e.g., administrators, board members, principals, teachers, aides, students, affected parents, etc . . . ). -c) Cultural event (1 hour) attended during this quarter which exemplifies an activity from a culture other than the candidate’s, and involves some degree of intermingling with people from the culture.
**** (Ask students to bring in announcements for upcoming cultural events, and give suggestions and past examples)
6) Show Excerpts of 2 videos: Dead Poet Society / Stand and Deliver -students jot down notes as video plays, give them 5 minutes after each to finish up -ask students to observe as many aspects of the learning or organizational situation, interactions, and environment as possible. -focus on / identify participants based on social class / race-ethnicity / gender / age / etc... (Suggestion: focus on #s 1 & 4 of the categories provided for you, both for this exercise and if you wish for the real observations) -- #1 Classroom Authority and Control -- What kinds of explicit statements or rules does the teacher express about who is in control of the classroom? -- Is the teacher consistent in upholding rules and expectations? -- What methods does the teacher use to deal with those who transgress the rules or fail to live up to behavioral expectations? -- How do students respond to the teacher’s rules and expectations during class? -- What seems to be the major forces involved in maintaining control and authority? -- #4 Personal Interaction -- How do the teacher and students, and students and students, interact in this class? -- What evidence is there that issues get negotiated between student and teacher? What kind of issues get negotiated? How? -- Is the classroom characterized by monologue or dialogue? How does the teacher establish dialogue with students? -- How does the teacher resolve the dilemma “teacher control vs. student control?” In what areas do students exercise control? -- Do students appear empowered or passive recipients of knowledge?
7) Debrief as a Class on What They Wrote / Observed for These Suggestions
8) Reiterate on the Process of Taking Field Notes, Preparing for Interviews, and Analyzing the Data -- Field Notes: Field Notes are formal notes taken when an observer focuses on a category of activities and wishes to capture them in context. The important characteristic of formal field notes is that they are descriptive in nature. Descriptive note taking involves only that which actually occurs, no value judgements. Although it may seem obvious to record only what is actually happening, the reality is that there is a human tendency to record interpretively rather than descriptively unless specifically trained to do otherwise. -- Suggestions: 1) Use a legal size writing pad to take your field notes. Also indicate what time your observation started and when it ended. It is also helpful to draw a map or schematic of the physical layout of the classroom (or board room, etc . . . ), and where students, materials, teachers, or parents, etc . . . are located. 2) An appropriate sequence is first to record descriptively the actions and behaviors observed; second review the notes, and then make an analysis and interpretation. And finally your reflection of the experience. -- General Interviewing Techniques: It may be wise to review this checklist prior to and after your interview. Check off those items you have completed. In general, you want to set up a protocol for yourself ahead of time. Have both topical information questions as well as research questions. The better prepared you are, the better the interview. Also, don’t bog down the interviewee with questions on basic information you can get elsewhere, like on the county web page, or policies that can be found in written form. Your job is to get impressions and evaluations, and eventually find issues for improvement. 1) Prior to the Interview: --- Establish the purpose for the interview. --- Request an appointment (time and place), giving sufficient lead time for you and the person to be interviewed. --- Plan specific questions related to the purpose of the interview. --- Prioritize questions, asking the most important first. --- Remind the person to be interviewed of the time, place, and purpose of the interview. 2) The Interview: --- Arrive at the preestablished place several minutes before the scheduled time for the interview. --- Start the interview by reminding the person to be interviewed of its purpose. --- Request permission to tape the interview (if appropriate). --- If taping is unfeasible, take careful notes, trying to list direct quotes as often as possible. --- Avoid inserting immediate impressions or judgments, let the interview flow. Especially as the interview becomes more intriguing, allow the interviewee to develop and finish her/his answers. --- Limit the interview to no more than 15‑30 minutes. 3) After the Interview: --- Review with the respondent what has been said or heard (if needed, or if she/he wishes). --- Ask for copies of any pertinent documents that you may need. --- Express your appreciation for the interview. --- Offer to share the interview report with the respondent (if he or she wishes).
Criteria Questions for Interviews: 1) Does school policy reflect the ethnic, cultural, and gender diversity in U.S. society? 2) Is the total school culture (including the hidden curriculum) multiethnic and multicultural? 3) Do the learning styles favored by the school reflect the learning styles of the students? 4) Does the school reflect and sanction the range of languages and dialects spoken by the students and within the larger society? 5) Does the school involve parents from diverse ethnic and cultural groups in school activities, programs, and planning? 6) Does the counseling program of the school reflect the ethnic diversity in U.S. society? 7) Are the testing procedures used by the school multicultural and ethnically fair? 8) Are instructional materials examined for ethnic, cultural, and gender bias? 9) Are the formalized curriculum and course of study multiethnic and multicultural? Do they help students to view events, situations, and concepts from diverse ethnic and cultural perspectives and points of view? 10) Do the teaching styles and motivational systems in the school reflect the ethnic and cultural diversity of the student body? 11) Are the attitudes, perceptions, beliefs, and behavior of the total staff ethnically and racially sensitive? 12) Does the school have systematic comprehensive mandatory, and continuing multicultural staff development programs? 13) Is the school staff (administrative, instructional, counseling, and supportive) multiethnic and multicultural? 14) Is the total atmosphere of the school positively responsive to racial, ethnic, cultural, and language differences? 15) Do school assemblies and holidays reflect the ethnic and cultural diversity in U.S. society? 16) Does the school lunch program prepare meals that reflect the range of ethnic foods eaten in the U.S.? 17) Do the bulletin boards, physical education program, music, and other displays and activities in the school reflect ethnic and cultural diversity?
9) Field Any Questions on the Response Paper Due next Week Instructions: Write a short 2 - 3 page paper (double-spaced) responding to the following question: Why are some students more successful in school than others?
CSUSB / Culture and Schooling / Murillo
Week Topics Class Reading Assignments Due Dates and Lectures Activities (Be ready to discuss) (In-class)
3A -- Cultural Pluralism -- Video: Shadow of Hate -- Response and Demographic Change Paper Due
3B -- Non-Majority -- Analysis and Discussion -- Villaseñor Group Perspectives of Rain of Gold: large group (chapters 1 through 15) work on reader’s guide #s 1-3
1) Collect Response Papers, Announcements / Current Events
2) Speak to Cultural Pluralism and Demographic Change -- Latinos have surpassed Blacks as #1 minority of school-age children --California is in fact a very unique situation, with highly politically-charged racial trends and dynamics. However what happens in California has very deep ruffling implications, and stirs up and causes far-reaching ripples. Many people concur that whatever trends and dynamics that play-out in California, often serve as a prophetic barometer to what can be expected for the rest of the country. Currently, demographic changes in the state’s ethnic balance are accelerating five years ahead of projections. In fact, changes in the racial composition of Californians are occurring so rapidly, that in the year 2000, no single racial/ethnic group will compromise a majority of the state’s population. -- California has indeed become a “majority-minority” state, with reports indicating the white population soon dropping to 50%, the lowest since the Gold Rush. It is also reported that while the numbers of whites is decreasing, the growing Latino population now accounts for almost a third of California’s 34 million people, with the projection that by the year 2021 Latinos will compromise the state’s largest ethnic group (estimated at 40%). As previously stated, these same disparities in growth starkly illustrate demographic trends occurring throughout the rest of the country. A new “minority‑majority” is radically transforming the complexion of the entire U.S. society (Johnson-Webb and Johnson, 1996). People of color: i.e. Asians, African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans are projected to surpass whites to become (numerically) the “majority” population of the United States by the mid‑point of the 21st century. This unfolding demographic transition has been referred to as the “browning of America” (Johnson, Farrell and Guinn, 1997).
3) Show video: Shadow of Hate -- I hope that this class helps raise your teacher-consciousness, and learn for yourselves what you think is acceptable and unacceptable behavior for students, as is perhaps providing an opportunity to deal with your own stereotypes regarding racial, ethnic and gender differences, and moreover, teach the capacity for recognizing and respecting the beliefs or practices of others. Further yet, to approach the issues of class bias, racism and sexism not from a psychological point of view, but rather cultural (including economic and political). -- Will show a video of some of the ugly history of bias and prejudice in the U.S. If some of the video is too graphic, feel free to close your eyes or leave the room momentarily. The purpose is not to make us feel guilty or gross us out, but to put it at the forefront as a divisive and complex factor that takes place in society and schools.
4) Debrief Video
5) Take Attendance; Break
6) Read Book Notes from Villaseñor’s Rain of Gold
7) Have a General Discussion of the Book, in Broad Strokes; Answering #s 1 - 3 of the Reader’s Guide 1) What social customs, rites and rituals are described? 2) How are the family structure and individual roles within the family described? 3) What are the roles relative to gender, age, occupation and social class?
CSUSB / Culture and Schooling / Murillo
Week Topics Class Reading Assignments Due Dates and Lectures Activities (Be ready to discuss) (In-class)
4A -- Understanding Race -- “Involuntary Minority Model”
4B -- Non-Majority -- Analysis and Discussion -- Villaseñor Group Perspectives of Rain of Gold: small group (chapters 16 through 25) work on reader’s guide #s 4-10
1) Announcements / Current Events
2) Pass Back Graded Response Papers, Discuss Format Tips for Written Assignments if Needed
FORMAT TIPS FOR WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS (follow these guidelines, otherwise I will deduct points) 1) Include a headings on your papers 2) Make sure to list which section you are officially enrolled in 3) Use only 12 point font 4) Use only white bond paper 5) Always use margins all around (right-left-top-bottom), but no more than 1-inch 6) Use page numbers on each sheet 7) Double-space your sentences 8) No spaces between paragraphs 9) No typos -- use spell check -- have a friend proofread your paper or use the learning center 10) Check for grammatical mistakes -- have a friend proofread your paper or use the learning center 11) Using a typewriter is ok, but you have to follow these same guidelines. Otherwise it’s in your interest to invest in a computer -- or use the computer lab at the library
3) Understanding Race
Theories of Race -- Omi & Winant discuss, if we discard euphemisms, that the contemporary United States has 5 color-based racial categories: black, white, brown, yellow, and red.
-- Drawing from Michael Goldfield (1991, p.14), three main social scientific approaches to the study of race can be identified; biological determinism, psycho-cultural, and socio-economic.
Biological theories -- Biological theories of physical variations in the human species have been created to “naturalize” racial superiority, inferiority and hierarchy. Race, and its ideology of racism about those physical variations, arise principally from two related historical processes: “taking land from and destroying indigenous peoples and enslaving Africans to work that land” (Loewen, 1995, p. 136). The images, characterizations, components, and classifications of race rationalized the conditions of genocide and enslavement. -- Here onward, oppression and the ideology of racial inferiority became intrinsically linked, and had both survived and thrived into the 18th and 19th centuries. By the 20th century, although slavery as an institution was gone, the idea of race remained. This points to the notion that race persists as an idea, despite its challenge and continual reshaping. In the present, even though the biological theories of race have largely been discredited, they had greatly determined much of the cultural practices and institutional policies of the United States throughout the better half of this century (a legacy that lives on today). A broad eugenics movement, which considered people of non-white races to be biologically inferior to whites, fortified political agendas and governmental practices from legal discourse, to scientific racism, to population control, to anti-immigrant laws, to school segregation.
psychocultural approach -- The second main social scientific approach to the study of race, more popular today, is the psychocultural approach. Under this approach, race prejudice is viewed as a set of attitudes. Ethnocentrism, through the inclination to categorize people, is the tendency to evaluate others with one’s own racial group as the norm. This form of prejudice, according to Bennet & LeCompte (1990, p. 203) results in two forms of behavior: stereotyping and the establishment of social distance. -- Stereotyping is the depiction of people based on preconceived notions and limited information, and leads to affective attitudes. That is, an uncritical mental picture held in common by members of one particular group, that represents a standardized and oversimplified judgement and opinion about members of another group. These create caricatures based on exaggerated beliefs about the characteristics of that group. Social distance is self-explanatory. -- The actual term “racism” is most closely and popularly associated with this approach to the study of race. It is used to describe behavior and attitudes based on the ethnocentric belief that one race (primarily whites) is superior to others (Native Americans, African Americans, Latinos, Asians, and members of other ethnic minority groups). Of primary concern is the impact of patterns of racism and prejudice on the experiences of racial minorities. Under this approach, racial bias is customarily understood in terms of individual acts. Drawing from Scheurich and Young (1997), two categories of racism typically defined as operating on the individual level are overt and covert racism. -- Both types of racism, overt and covert, are seen as individual, and lend themselves to the phenomenon that “if a person answers ‘no’ to the question of whether she or he is racist, the respondent typically means that she or he does not, as an individual, engage in conscious, intended racism or that she or he is not, as an individual, consciously racist” (Scheurich and Young, 1997, p. 5). (Scheurich and Young cite institutional racism, that which exists when institutions have standardized procedures that injure members of one or more race disproportionately to the members of the dominant race; societal racism, which functions similarly but on a larger and broader societal scale; and civilizational racism, which is at the broadest level of civilizational assumptions about the nature of our world and experience in it.)
socio-economic approach -- The socio-economic approach challenges the psychocultural view “which, while giving a certain independent weight to cultural and psychological features, argues that they are neither primary, nor completely autonomous” (p. 115). Instead, the socio-economic approach asserts race and racial oppression to be deeply affixed to changing economic and social conditions. -- The founding of the United States was a fabric interwoven by several rationales, carried over centuries. With military and cultural threats, and biological warfare through the introduction and dissemination of diseases, the killing of indigenous peoples and taking of Native American and Mexican land was rationalized by a “white” formulation and definition of private property. These were interlaced with unexamined notions of white racial superiority, a manifest destiny, and disparaging archetypical images of “primitivism” and “backwardness.” However, at base were the shifting social and economic conditions, particularly the economic demands and conventions of dominant classes. As a rule, by far the vast quantities of wealth appropriated in the Americas were the extraordinary amounts of fertile land. Land whose productivity demanded in turn extraordinary amounts of labor. -- In the newly-formed United States, the color line was unmistakable. Slavery was pivotal to the evolvement of the early economy. So much so that it was central and pervasive throughout all aspects of the Anglo-American colonies. However, this was not so until the creation of a “white” racial identity (whiteness). As already mentioned, slavery in Anglo-America was previously not exclusively racial. Alongside Africans were Irish, British, and other European indentured servants. But as M. Goldfield asserts, to maintain and increase their wealth “British colonialists, American capitalists, merchants, and plantation owners not only needed laborers, they needed to control them” (p. 117). Citing Theodore Allen, he believes there is an argument that a social buffer was needed to sustain control of the colonial laboring population. Particularly since many rebellions, sometimes interracial, were increasing. The color line was drawn with the creation of a “white” racial identity, serving as a “white” social buffer. -- How does whiteness operate? Answering this question is a powerful means to critique the reproduction and maintenance of systems of racial inequality within the U.S. (Hartigan, 1997). “Studies of whiteness are demonstrating that whites benefit from a host of apparently neutral social arrangements and institutional operations, all of which seem to whites at least to have no racial bias” (Hartigan, 1997, p. 496). White privilege along with continuing patterns of racial etiquette are processes that feed a system that is fundamentally established upon a social and economic order set in motion centuries past. Likewise, focusing on “racial problems” gives attention only to racialized groups, obscuring the invisible systems of dominance of whites.
two insights -- In the present, J. Perea (1997, p.3) argues that there are two insights that help us understand the history and status of race in the United States. The first is the theory of “Interest-Convergence” by Derrick Bell. Simply put, this theory states that the interest in achieving racial equality by African Americans, and by extension other racial minorities, will only be accommodated when it converges with the interests of whites. This is to say, that the treatment of people of color improves only with the interest of the white majority. -- The second insight is correlated with the first. This one argues that a major motivation to promote equal treatment of racial minorities through the proposal and enactment of Civil Rights was the American embarrassment at the mistreatment of its minorities, and the Soviet advertisement of those mistreatments, during the Cold War. In the absence of cold-war competition, the moral imperative of whites to promote racial equality is gone. These may partially explain the broad deterioration of concern for racial equality, and give us a framework by which to better interpret many events taking place at the end of this century, such as the increasing judicial attacks on Affirmative Action, and English-only movements.
4) “Involuntary Minority Model” (Ogbu)
Race is not a biological but a social fact (e.g. sex is a biological fact, but gender is a social fact)!
-- Today: dealing with Ogbu's "Cultural‑Ecological" theory of minority school performance. Also known as Labor Market Theory, see D & L (ed. III, pp. 281-283). Ogbu, Nigerian-born African‑American, fieldwork in California (Asian, Mexican and/or Latino, white, and black populations). His work is inherently comparative. Minority defined in terms of power, not in terms of numbers. -- Responding to genetic inferiority and cultural deprivation arguments in the 1970s. Part of the “cultural difference” school, but asks: if cultural and linguistic difference is the issue that most contributes to minority student failure, then why do students from radically different cultures and languages often succeed most in schools? -- Cultural: community (agency, perceptions); Ecological: system, society and school (structure) -- Labor Market: importance of minority community’s experiences in post-school opportunity structure and how minority community members’ perceptions of dismal future opportunities influenced their perceptions of & responses to schooling. So problem due to an Oppositional Cultural Frame.
-- Classification is not determined by race, but by histories (yet social structure is responding to race). (E.g., blacks of Caribbean origin often treated like African Americans). Further, this is discussion of group patterns: not all minorities think or act the same. There are differences within the categories. The different groups have different cultural models: the models a particular group has in mind about how the world works and how to act in that world. Different degrees of trust of white people and the institutions they control. So Society and school structures AND community forces, community orientation to schools, work together.
-- Three main classifications of minorities: Autonomous --- Voluntary --- Involuntary / Caste-like (main comparisons between Voluntary and Involuntary/Caste-like minorities).
-- Settler society: a society where the ruling or dominant group is made up of immigrants from other societies who have come to settle there because they want to improve their economic, political, and social status. (US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore). The dominant groups in settler societies have certain beliefs and expectations in common, including the belief in opportunity in their appropriated territory for self improvement, individual responsibility for self improvement, and expectations that people in the society should more or less conform or "assimilate," especially in language and culture.
-- Autonomous minorities: born in the US, and who (do not, or) no longer experience systemic discrimination, despite cultural differences, such as religion. Groups small in number, may suffer discrimination but are not dominated or oppressed, and their school achievement is little different from dominant group. E.g., Jews and Mormons.
-- Voluntary (immigrant) minorities: have come to settle for the same reasons as original settlers. Willingly moved to US because expect better opportunities; do not interpret their presence in the US as forced upon them by US government or white Americans. E.g., immigrants from African, Cuba, Korea, India, South America, etc... Frames of reference: Voluntary migrants have positive dual frame of reference; compare opportunities in US to those at home favorably. Folk theories of making it and role models: voluntary immigrants believe that hard work, following the rules, and good education will lead to success. Haven't been exposed to discrimination long enough to have internalized effects. Beliefs about the effect of adopting white ways on minority identity: for voluntary immigrants, adopting white ways of speaking and acting in schools is defined as helping them over come barriers, as an additive way of acting (new skills, behaviors, and language that will enable them to succeed in society while still retaining their own culture and language).
-- Involuntary minorities a.k.a. caste like minorities: made part of US society against their will. They did not choose to be part of US and interpret their presence as forced on them by white people. E g., Native Americans, Alaskan Natives, African Americans, Mexican Americans conquered in Southwest, Puerto Ricans. Others in voluntary group may come to have an affinity, develop collective identity, with involuntary minorities and thus assume same orientation. E.g., Jamaican who marries African American (especially for their children). Frames of reference: Involuntary minorities have a negative dual frame of reference; compare their opportunities to those of middle class white Americans; and the lack of opportunities appears to be permanent. Folk theories of making it and role models: Involuntary minorities believe hard work and education are necessary too, but because they have faced employment and wage discrimination for generations, they have come to believe that wage and "opportunity structures" are permanently low, and that individual effort is not enough to overcome racism and discrimination. Beliefs about the effect of adopting white ways on minority identity: For involuntary minorities, adopting white ways is seen as a subtractive or replacement process, a rejection of their community and "buying into" the superiority of white ways. Resent white society's requirements to act white in order to succeed in school. This is partially because involuntary minorities develop collective identity IN OPPOSITION to white majority. "Getting above your raising"‑adapting dominant group's ways, which symbolically reject your own.
5) Take Attendance; Break
6) Analysis and Discussion of Villaseñor’s Rain of Gold:
-- break off into small groups (name off --- 1 through 7, making 7 groups of 3 to 4 people each)
-- small group work on reader’s guide #s 4-10
Group 1 4) What is the individual’s value / role relative to the family, group or tribe? Group 2 5) What is the value / role of the arts (music, drama, visual arts) in this culture? Group 3 6) How do individuals (the characters) communicate with one another in this culture? Group 4 7) What are the major external (outside the family) influences on the culture? (governmental, religious, economic, social) Group 5 8) How do the main characters interact with White culture / people? Group 6 9) What is the significance of a person’s name in this culture? Group 7 10) What is the value / role of schooling?
-- after ½ hour, report back each group’s discussion to the larger group
7) Field Any Questions for Upcoming Literature Paper Due Week 6
-- Write 3 - 4 double-spaced pages on either one of the literary works by Gates & Villaseñor. 1) Focus questions: a. What are the major theme(s) of the books? b. What kinds of cultural practices did the main characters participate in? (practices they were expected to participate in by members of their cultural group) c. How did these characters interact with members of the majority / White culture? d. What kinds of schooling experiences did they have? e. How would you describe their cultural identities? 2) Relate any of the information from (2 a-e) above to your own life experiences, where possible. 3) Identify barriers a student from the target cultures might encounter and have to overcome in schools. 4) What did you learn about the culture of the main characters from this book?
CSUSB / Culture and Schooling / Murillo
Week Topics Class Reading Assignments Due Dates and Lectures Activities (Be ready to discuss) (In-class)
5 -- Non-Majority -- Analysis and Discussion -- Gates, Jr. Group Perspectives of Colored People: small group (entire book) work on reader’s guide #s 1-10
1) Announcements / Current Events
2) Give Students a Chance to Field Any Review Questions on Understanding Race -- Involuntary Minority Model Lecture from Last Week
3) Read Book Notes from Gate’s Colored People
4) Attendance
5) Analysis and Discussion of Gate’s Colored People:
-- break off into small groups (name off --- 1 through 5, making 5 groups of 5 to 6 people each)
-- small group work on reader’s guide #s 1-10 Group 1 1) What social customs, rites and rituals are described? 2) How are the family structure and individual roles within the family described? Group 2 3) What are the roles relative to gender, age, occupation and social class? 4) What is the individual’s value / role relative to the family, group or tribe? Group 3 5) What is the value / role of the arts (music, drama, visual arts) in this culture? 6) How do individuals (the characters) communicate with one another in this culture? Group 4 7) What are the major external (outside the family) influences on the culture? (governmental, religious, economic, social) 8) How do the main characters interact with White culture / people? Group 5 9) What is the significance of a person’s name in this culture? 10) What is the value / role of schooling?
-- after 1 hour and 20 minutes, report back each group’s discussion to the larger group -- have students take their break during the span of the 1 hour and 20 minutes
6) Field Any Questions for Literature Paper Due Next Week
-- Write 3 - 4 double-spaced pages on either one of the literary works by Gates & Villaseñor. 1) Focus questions: a. What are the major theme(s) of the books? b. What kinds of cultural practices did the main characters participate in? (practices they were expected to participate in by members of their cultural group) c. How did these characters interact with members of the majority / White culture? d. What kinds of schooling experiences did they have? e. How would you describe their cultural identities? 2) Relate any of the information from (2 a-e) above to your own life experiences, where possible. 3) Identify barriers a student from the target cultures might encounter and have to overcome in schools. 4) What did you learn about the culture of the main characters from this book?
CSUSB / Culture and Schooling / Murillo
Week Topics Class Reading Assignments Due Dates and Lectures Activities (Be ready to discuss) (In-class)
6A -- Economic, Social, and -- Discuss Self-Ethnography -- Literature Cultural Reproduction Requirement Paper Due -- Structural Factors and Inequity
6B -- Community Institutions -- small group clarification -- Seller & Weis (S & W Introduction) -- D. Beck (S & W ch 2) -- Fine et al (S & W ch 13)
1) Collect Literature Papers, Announcements / Current Events
2) -- Theories of Economic, Social, and Cultural Reproduction build on TRANSMISSION theories such as CONSENSUS and FUNCTIONAL ‑ STRUCTURALISM, but take a critical MARXIST perspective, meaning it is CLASS based. They were the first critical challenges to the notion of meritocracy (social and economic power is, and will in the future, be held by those selected on the basis of measurable merit). Marx: primary divisions: 1) proletariat or labor: own no part of the place they work, tasks controlled by supervisors, must sell their labor. They produce surplus labor that results in profits for the ruling class. 2) capitalists: own the means of production, do not sell their own labor, purchase the labor of others. 3) petty bourgeoisie: own their means of production, do not sell their own labor, yet do not purchase the labor of others. Capitalism built on inequality, necessity of continuing proletariat (i.e. reproduction). This is an industrial model; many have critiqued and adapted Marxism to more contemporary globalized economic patterns. One of these that we'll deal with later is the growing importance of knowledge (as in, "knowledge workers" like computer scientists) in today's economic rhetoric. In general, theories of economic, social, and cultural reproduction are concerned with processes through which existing social structures maintain and reproduce themselves. Students are shaped by their experiences in schools to internalize or accept a class position that leads to the reproduction of existing power relationships and social and economic structures.
-- Economic and Social Reproduction both refer specifically to the reproduction of class structures.
-- Economic Reproduction: Bowles and Gintis: Correspondence Principle: What is learned in schools corresponds to what is needed in the work place: not only in terms of knowledge, but also types of personal demeanor, modes of self presentation, self image, and social class identifications. Schools in industrial capitalist societies reproduce a stratified work force whose members accept their class position and who learn appropriate work discipline (punctuality, submissiveness, manual dexterity, etc.). The role of the state is to maintain conditions conducive to profit for the ruling class while widely distributing the social returns from capitalism, including to the working class ‑- this creates a tension between the goals of accumulation / profit and goals of equity / equalization. The educational system provides a legitimizing function for the state and the capitalist system: the rhetoric of meritocracy makes students believe anyone can succeed, if only they try hard enough. Schools defuse class antagonisms by getting students to believe that the position they attain is the best they can achieve. Meritocracy individualizes failure, and the work schools do to favor one group is "invisible," cloaked by the provision of education for ALL and by test and teacher bias.
-- Social Reproduction: According to Althusser, schools are ideological state apparatuses or state institutions that pass on ideologies. Schools prepare students to assume their place in the class structure. Two concepts are central to his writing: ideology and the subject. -- Ideology: a system of values and beliefs which provide the concepts, images, and ideas by which people interpret their world and shape their behavior toward other people. It is accepted as the natural and common‑sense explanation of the way the world operates. Ideologies often act to reinforce the power of dominant groups in society. -- Subject: the individual. {Althusser uses this word to avoid the assumption of free will implied by the term "individual.") -- in this view, schools train students in particular ideologies that favor the reproduction of current class relations (because the ruling class is in control and prefers it that way). Schools are not “innocent” sites of cultural transmission, or places for the inculcation of consensual values {as transmission theorists argued). Nor are they meritocratic springboards for upward mobility. Rather they perpetuate social inequalities. Schools respond to the capitalist need for an underclass and a ruling class.
-- Cultural Reproduction: refers to the reproduction of class cultures, knowledge, and power relationships. -- Bourdieu coined the concept “Cultural Capital”: which refers to the ways of talking and acting, moving, dressing, socializing, tastes, likes and dislikes, competencies, and forms of knowledge that distinguish one group from another. It's the language, knowledge, and patterns of interaction which are arbitrarily sanctioned as “proper” and valued. For Bourdieu, it's not just class, but the status markers or culture of class that matters. -- Cultural capital refers to a kind of symbolic credit which one acquires through learning to embody and enact signs of social standing. This credit consists of a series of competencies and character traits, such as “taste” and “intelligence”. Thus, the children of middle and upper class appear to be successful in school because of their natural intelligence, whereas in reality they succeed because they already practice the "ways of knowing" that are valued in school settings. (Ways of turn‑taking, answering questions, wondering aloud, dress, etc.) In other words, only those particular tastes and skills possessed by elite classes are recognized as signs of “intelligence” by schools. Schools employ elaborate testing procedures, qualifying requirements, etc. to maintain a neutral stance; never mind that the tests are "normed" around classed ways of speaking / thinking. Schools' relative autonomy allows them to serve capital's sorting demands under the guise of independence and neutrality, to conceal the social functions they perform and so perform them more effectively. Cultural capital is relational and situational; its meaning is derived from context. -- Symbolic violence occurs when non‑elite kids are taught not to value their culture. (not actual violence, but damaging nonetheless)
-- Reproduction theory dealt exclusively with class advantage, which did not adequately account for other systems of privilege such as race and gender. Obviously, neither economic, social, nor cultural reproduction leaves much room for the student subject to negotiate or challenge the imposition of ideology or of power. Anyone who has worked with a group of kids or teen‑agers knows very well they don't simply accept the meanings of the world you offer them. In the ‘80s, theorists developed cultural production theory to take better account of agency or will.
3) Lecture / Discuss “Structural Factors and Inequity” (Nieto)
-- “Schools are governed by a great number of structures, which often are contrary to the needs of students, to the values of their communities, and even to the expressed purpose of schooling in providing equal educational opportunity for all students.”
-- go through each item on the list that Nieto provides:
- Tracking: “Grouping decisions are often made on the most tenuous of grounds, and implicated with racial, ethnic, and social-class differences.” - Testing: “used as a basis for segregating and sorting students, and adverse ways have been used for linguistically and culturally-diverse students.” - The Curriculum: “mismatch is often evident in the irrelevance of the content to the lives and life-styles of students and their families.” - Pedagogy: “routine and rote learning often favored over creativity and critical thinking.” - Physical Structure: “Schools often uninviting and fortress-like places.” - Disciplinary Policies: “often imposed rather than negotiated, and often discriminatory” - Limited Role of Students: “schools not often organized to encourage student involvement” - Limited Role of Teachers: “discouraged from becoming involved in decision-making processes.” - Limited Role of Parents: “what is meant by involvement is not always clear.”
4) Attendance; Break
5) Discuss Self-Ethnography Requirement, Due Week 8
-- Write‑up a short essay (typed, double spaced) with two parts: (3 - 4 page paper)
- Part la should briefly describe each person’s “first memory” of diversity and summarize her or his ideas about why that particular incident is the one that he or she remembers. - In Part 1b discuss why you think the two of you (Person A and B, or A with someone else) had similar (or, dissimilar) first memories of diversity. - Part 2a should give a brief description comparing and contrasting the two schooling experiences regarding diversity. Specifically, compare and contrast the ways that social and cultural diversity became (or did not become) divisive and/or disruptive of schooling, at least for some of the students. - In Part 2b describe your joint insights about the ways in which schools exacerbate potential problems arising from diversity or, in contrast, turn them to good effects.
6) Small Group Activity – D. Beck (S & W ch 2) -- Fine et al (S & W ch 13)
-- break off into small groups (one for each reading) -- each group discusses the questions (found in the syllabus), and should be prepared to report back to the large group.
1) What is the basic THESIS or argument of the reading? Identify at least 3 basic themes? 2) What is the impact of RACE / ETHNICITY in the lives of student informants? Communities? School? GENDER AND / OR SEXUAL PREFERENCE SOCIAL CLASS LANGUAGE RELIGION HOME EXPERIENCES IMMIGRATION AND / OR SETTLEMENT 3) How do(es) IDENTITY affect school achievement? FAMILY LIFE COMMUNITY INSTITUTIONS 4) What issues are raised about INCLUSION / EXCLUSION in schools and the larger society? Does this reading CHALLENGE the traditional definition of “minorities.” 5) What methods do the author(s) use to gather data? Are these sufficient? 6) Are there points, theories or suggestions with which you disagree? Or if you’re unsure, any that you would like to further explore for clarification? 7) Can you suggest other ways to interpret and explain the dynamics described in the reading? 8) Cite at least one point or issue from the reading assigned that you could apply to your own teaching? Explain how you will accomplish that?
7) Debrief the Small Group Activity
-- come together as a large group after approx. 35 - 40 minutes -- each group reports back on their discussions
CSUSB / Culture and Schooling / Murillo
Week Topics Class Reading Assignments Due Dates and Lectures Activities (Be ready to discuss) (In-class)
7A -- Understanding Gender -- small group clarification -- S. Fordham -- Gender and Intersectionality (S & W ch 4) -- Social Capital -- Min Zhou (S & W ch 9)
7B -- Gender and Sexuality -- Video: “It’s Elementary” -- D. Carlson and discussion (S & W ch 11)
1) Announcements / Current Events / Pass Back Graded Literature Papers
2) Lecture: Sex vs. Gender
-- Trinity = Race / Class / Gender Others as well, but these are the big ones. We evoke them as a litany in social science
-- All 3, triple oppression (de la Luz Reyes)
-- Intersectionality (bell hooks, Patricia Hill Collins) – can’t untangle the separate effects of race/class/gender, e.g., on school experiences – we treat it as a separable unit, we need to explore the intersections. The spaces that cross, where meanings are constructed.
-- Distinguish Between Sex and Gender
- sex: is the visible attributes acquired at birth. I.e., the physical characteristics associated with being male or female. It is the biological traits and distinctions, more in terms of reproduction (organs & so forth)
- gender: think of it more in terms of how we have treated IDENTITY, in broader- social-processual terms. It extends beyond physiology, to include learned cultural behaviors and understandings. E.g., the social meanings we attribute to sex, like arbitrarily picking blue for boys and pink for girls, and treating boys rougher. Gender is what we negotiate and construct and perform – like our masculinity or femininity, or sexuality, or sexual identity.
- Sex is biological; gender is cultural and social, – the patterns of behavior in which we are socialized and socialize others with respect to male and female roles (e.g., clothing and activities)
3) Sexism and Patriarchy
-- Differential patterns of socialization and treatment which females get in schools puts them in positions very similar to other minority groups. Sexism is the ideological cousin to racism, namely one sex is superior to another – patriarchy.
-- Some general patterns with respect to schooling and gender: a) limited number of female role models in reading texts (the nurse but not the doctor) b) contribution of women often ignored in history textbooks (women’s history mistreated as not part of “real” history) c) administratively, the teaching force is feminized and administrators higher in the hierarchy tend still to be men. d) sex of students often used as an organization tool for structuring activities in classroom, which may lead to unnecessary and differential treatment. Like–girls do the “traditional” chores like cleaning and straightening the room, while the boys do the physical chores like carrying books. e) teaching techniques that are competition-based vs. collaboration-based f) male students tend to receive more attention, praise and time, but also more harsh reprimands and discipline. g) sexist language (debilitating). E.g. fireman, policeman, mailman, mankind, manpower, etc . . . h) female students get higher grades and do better in language-related courses like literature. Males in math and science. –hierarchy of knowledge. In general, this reproduction is the continuation of patriarchal society and sexual domination. Some theoretical points to think about in class here, and in your teaching praxis are: social / sexual division of labor (types of work expected), politics of the body (childbirth, abortion, symbolic capital of attractiveness), politics of sexual object choice (heterosexual “sexuality” pressure on homosexual students. 4) Small Group Activity – S. Fordham (S & W ch 4) -- Min Zhou (S & W ch 9)
-- break off into small groups (one for each reading) -- each group discusses the questions (found in the syllabus), and should be prepared to report back to the large group.
1) What is the basic THESIS or argument of the reading? Identify at least 3 basic themes? 2) What is the impact of RACE / ETHNICITY in the lives of student informants? Communities? School? GENDER AND / OR SEXUAL PREFERENCE SOCIAL CLASS LANGUAGE RELIGION HOME EXPERIENCES IMMIGRATION AND / OR SETTLEMENT 3) How do(es) IDENTITY affect school achievement? FAMILY LIFE COMMUNITY INSTITUTIONS 4) What issues are raised about INCLUSION / EXCLUSION in schools and the larger society? Does this reading CHALLENGE the traditional definition of “minorities.” 5) What methods do the author(s) use to gather data? Are these sufficient? 6) Are there points, theories or suggestions with which you disagree? Or if you’re unsure, any that you would like to further explore for clarification? 7) Can you suggest other ways to interpret and explain the dynamics described in the reading? 8) Cite at least one point or issue from the reading assigned that you could apply to your own teaching? Explain how you will accomplish that?
6) Attendance; Break
7) Video: “It’s Elementary”
-- For the remaining time in class, watch “It’s Elementary” (video), that explores gay/lesbian intersections with schooling issues.
-- Prep the video by explaining “normalization” theory (“bird” example with concentric circles)
-- center vs. margins (use article by D. Carlson, S & W ch 11, to further prep the video),
-- expand our notions of deficit theories we’ve previously discussed – and recent current events like the Matthew Shepard case.
After the video -- debrief: expand on some themes from the video: parent vs. school curricula, school gives “facts” and confusion from outside school, hidden curriculum, students return home to parents confused about the events that transpired at school, need for affirmation in the classroom, teachers don’t notice the symbolic violence taking place in the hallways – use of the words “fag” or “faggot,” school’s purpose for community – social values, etc . . .
8) Field Any Remaining Questions about the Self-Ethnography Assignment Due Next Week
-- Write‑up a short essay (typed, double spaced) with two parts: (3 - 4 page paper)
- Part la should briefly describe each person’s “first memory” of diversity and summarize her or his ideas about why that particular incident is the one that he or she remembers. - In Part 1b discuss why you think the two of you (Person A and B, or A with someone else) had similar (or, dissimilar) first memories of diversity. - Part 2a should give a brief description comparing and contrasting the two schooling experiences regarding diversity. Specifically, compare and contrast the ways that social and cultural diversity became (or did not become) divisive and/or disruptive of schooling, at least for some of the students. - In Part 2b describe your joint insights about the ways in which schools exacerbate potential problems arising from diversity or, in contrast, turn them to good effects.
9) Students Sign up for Presentations on Field Experience and / or Self-Ethnographies for Weeks 9b-10-11
-- Pass around the sign-up list (statutes require some form of activity for finals week) -- Potluck for week 11? Only if students suggest, desire & plan! CSUSB / Culture and Schooling / Murillo
Week Topics Class Reading Assignments Due Dates and Lectures Activities (Be ready to discuss) (In-class)
8A -- Language Diversity, Culture -- Pai & Adler -- Self-Ethnography and Learning -- Discussion (chapter 7) Due -- Community Funds of Knowledge
8B -- Identity and Cultural -- Video: “Language, -- A.L. Davidson -- Course Evaluation Production Identity, and Culture” (S & W ch 1) Due -- Cultural Conditions -- K. Leonard for Learning (S & W ch 8)
1) Announcements / Current Events / Collect Self-Ethnographies
2) Language, Culture and Power
-- The historic link between language, culture and power in the U.S. is reflected in the struggle over what should be the dominant official language of public school instruction. This conflict is caused by the intersection of immigrant, dominated, and dominant cultures. And one recent response (1968) had been the development of bilingual education programs for non- and limited-English speaking students.
-- The majority of criticism if bilingual education comes from groups wanting to maintain the dominance of English language and traditional European American culture. And there are more liberal opponents who oppose the programs for not providing the student with the language tools necessary to compete in the mainstream economy. Proponents and advocates want the programs to maintain primary language and cultural traditions. This is because of the link between culture and language, bilingual programs most often are bi-cultural programs.
-- Proposition 227 is solely the most current manifestation of this systematic exclusion. Passed on June 2, 1998 with a vote of 61% “yes” to 39% “no,” the 227 law attempts to dismantle bilingual education for limited-English-proficient and non-English-proficient students, specifically Latino/Chicano/Mexicano immigrant students attending public schooling. In essence it is designed to eliminate instruction in the native language (mostly Spanish) to these same students. This law currently epitomizes the most current educational crisis faced by Latinos, given our long history of struggle and plight for educational rights in this country during the last 150 plus years. -- Despite these obstacles, at this stage of research, bilingual education remains the most promising method for helping non- and limited-English speaking students to learn English.
3) Bilingual Theory
-- We bother to teach children to read in Spanish, though the obvious need may be to learn English, because learning theories demonstrate that it isn't conversational English(BICS) that leads to Academic English(CALP) but rather Academic Spanish(CALP) that leads to Academic English(CALP). The best means to an academic road for limited English proficient(LEP) students is the students' native language.
-- Contrary to the false 2 balloon theory, a student learning his or her native language isn't just learning that language but all the literacy and academic skills that go with it. These skills can transfer over to English, where studies prove that students achieve higher test scores and parents can continue later to reinforce the primary language. Students hold only one book of knowledge or common underlying proficiency(CUP), to where if we combine comprehensible input(CI) in English with academic Spanish(CALP), the Spanish literacy merges with English literacy.
-- Transfer of learning refers specifically to the movement from one sound/symbol system(Spanish) to another sound/symbol system(English). Essentially, a child only learns to read once. The academic skills learned in the native language are then applicable to a second language. Both the written and oral forms of language share a mutual relationship and are interdependent. The child learns to construct meaning as he or she learns to read and write.
-- Therefore, the stronger the comprehension\perceptual\sensory-motor\cognitive processes and skills learned and practiced in the native language, the stronger the potential for transfer of learning to a second language.
-- Symbolically, we invest money in pesos now, to be cashed in dollars later. In end, it is comprehensible English input together with native language academic instruction that best suits the child.
4) Community Funds of Knowledge
-- Luis Moll and Carlos Velez‑Ibañez's concept of Funds of Knowledge (also reffed to in video) prompts educators to re‑conceptualize the way that Latino students are perceived. Funds of knowledge can be thought of as Latino social and cultural capital. Funds of knowledge can are defined as a family's, or community's, historical and collected skills and knowledge base which allows for their survival and growth. Tapping into a community's funds of knowledge is one way to legitimate what counts as knowledge in schools. Michael Apple writes that traditionally "what counts a s legitimate knowledge is the result of complex power relations and struggles among identifiable class, race, gender, and religious groups" (1992) Latino teachers are in an ideal situation to SABE QUE IBA A ESCRIBIR. The skills and knowledge are hidden community and household resources. They are "hidden" from teachers, unaware of their existence or relevance in the classroom. Schools have yet to tap into Latino communities funds of knowledge. A community might have experts at hand: in agriculture; animal husbandry; folk medicine; economic and household management; business and trade; import and export; auto‑mechanics; plumbing; electrical wiring; carpentry; catering and cooking; masonry; arts and crafts; artists; international/national /regional/local history; storytellers; poets; musicians; languages (Spanish or Mixteco, Nahuatl, Quiche...); ceremonies and rituals; indigenous ways; and so forth. A socio‑cultural approach to curriculum and instruction all but guarantees a more complete acceptance and understanding of the Brown bodies in the classroom. Perceived cultural incongruencies between home and school can be bridges with a Funds of Knowledge approach. Many teachers hold fast to the missionary nature of their vocation; believing that they must "rescue" their students from their deprived families and communities, rescue them from themselves. Moll conducted research with Mexican American communities in the southwest, while Olmeda adopted Moll's framework to conduct research with Puerto Rican women in New York. Both studies succeed at debunking the myth that working class communities have no legitimate knowledge base. The formation of strong social exchange networks allow individuals to accomplish in community what they could otherwise not have accomplished alone.
--- Velez‑Ibañez and Greenberg (1988). Formation and Transformation of Funds of Knowledge among U.S. Mexican Households. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 23:4. "Our position is that public schools often ignore the strategic and cultural resources, which we have termed funds of knowledge, that households contain. We argue that these funds not only provide the basis for understanding the cultural systems from which U.S. Mexican children emerge, but that they are also important and useful assets in the classroom."‑‑‑‑‑‑p. 207 "We argue that grasping the social relationships in which children are ensconced and the broad features of learning generated in the home are key if we are to understand the construction of a cultural identity and the emergence of cultural personality among U.S. Mexican children." p. 207 "The key to understanding the forces that shape U.S. Mexicans lies in the historical struggle of their households over control of labor and resources, and for economic security....these transformations of the cultural and behavioral practices, or funds of knowledge, that form the core of regional U.S. Mexican cultural identity." P. 208 Wolf (1966) was first to speak of a household economy. "We define such funds as those bodies of knowledge of strategic importance to households."p. 208 "Small favors are constant features of exchange relations"....Much more important than these is "the exchange of information and special funds of knowledge ... finding jobs housing and better deals on goods and services and in dealing with institutions and government agencies is of far greater significance to survival than material types of aid that these households usually provide one another." P./ 213 "Because households depend on their social networks to cope with borderlands complex political and changing economic environment, they are willing to invest considerable energy and resources in maintaining good relations with their members...these event bring members of one's network together ritually to reaffirm their solidarity, but staging them also requires members to cooperate by investing their labor or pooling their resources." P. 213 Ritualized household visits, such as mi tia rosalina's whole family coming over on weekends for carne asada and such "help maintain social ties and to provide a context for the exchange of information through which funds of knowledge constantly are renewed and updated." P. 214 Velez conducted research on the mother infant interaction and found that Mexican infants receive more stimulus, tactile and sound stimulation both from the mother and relatives. Important here is the socialization of the infant into dense social context. "It would appear that the early "thick" social context that surrounds Mexican children leads to the emergence of social expectations that are different from those of non‑Mexican populations that do not have equivalent social characteristics. " this results in different expectation orientations‑"internalization of many other significant object relations with more persons, and expectations of being attentive to, and investing emotionally, in a variety of relations. Such psychodynamic and psychological processes entailed in cultural expectations of confianza ...are the cradle from whence expectations for exchanges relations emerge." P. 215 These "thick contexts" or social density contexts "are the social platforms in which the funds of knowledge of the cluster of households are transmitted." P. 215 "children not only are exposed to multiple domains in which funds of knowledge are used, but that they are afforded also the opportunity to experiments with them in each domain...transmission process is largely experimental one." P. 215 "Children are expected to ask questions during the performance of household task. Thus, the question‑answer process is directed by the adult." "Wide latitude allowed for error and the encouragement that children are given to experiment further...to persevere, to experiment, to manipulate, and delay gratification" P. 215‑6 "A major characteristic of the transmission of the funds of knowledge is that multiple household domains provide children with a zone of comfort that is familiar yet experimental, where error is not dealt with punitively and where self esteem is not endangered." P. 216 "In economic terms, such zones of comfort, and the relationships that support their expression, become the basis of confianza and place children within the appropriate cultural frame for adulthood." P. 216 CONCLUSION "Social exchange between households, clusters of households, and kinship networks not only continues to provide individuals access to historic funds of knowledge, but also provides the cultural matrix for incorporating new understanding and relationships in a "Mexican" way....Yet, in spite of these difference, the basis of social density and the multiplicity of relations, regardless of rural urban dimensions, occupation, or language preference, remain at the core of the way households have unfolded within the life cycle." P. 217
5) Attendance / Break
6) Identity and Cultural Production
-- Identity (processual)
-Stuart Hall defines two ways at looking at identity Sociological Subject -- interaction between Self & Society Postmodern Subject -- fragmented, shifting, contextual & constantly reformulated (processual)
- Enrique Trueba writes that new human experiences require changes in behavior and a “new” presentation of self. -Physical and mental growth, rites of passage, changes in lifestyle and personal relationships, and changes in language and culture are often associated in modern mobility and worldwide political and economic instability. Adequate coping with these changes demands a reconceptualization of the self. -Multiple (incompatible) selves and identities, a common phenomenon in multicultural (post)modern societies, do not reflect pathology but adaptive strategies to a changing world, a fast-changing world that creates bizarre and complex interactional settings among people from diverse cultural, linguistic, ethnic, social, economic, and educational backgrounds.
--Cultural Production - resistance, consciousness, transformation, ideology. - Builds on interpretive theories, especially phenomenological sociology that emphasized social construction of knowledge (critiques positivism), but adds analysis of symbolic and material power structures (limits within which social construction occurs). - Influenced also by Frankfurt School, Gramsci's concept of consciousness, and Freire. - Ground their work in a moral, political imperative to the project of human liberation and equality. Trying to understand how reproduction could be both contested and accelerated through actions by the same people in the same educational institutions.
- Example: Paul Willis. Lads, construct themselves in opposition to "Earholes," (having a laf , girls, and teacher authority. Masculine {value manual labor, fighting ability), sexist (built on sexual use of girls, but `saving’ virgins for marriage) and racist (virulent racial superiority discourse, "Paki‑bashing"). Importance of a counterculture among students, how through their own activity and ideological development they reproduce themselves as a working class. The mechanism is their opposition to authority, their refusal to submit to the imperatives of a curriculum that encourages social mobility through acquisition of credentials. Truancy, counterculture, and disruption of the intended reproductive outcomes of the curriculum and pedagogy of schools yield an ironic effect: the `lads' disqualify themselves from the opportunity (?) to enter middle class jobs. - Willis: "Social agents are not passive bearers of ideology, but active appropriators who reproduce existing structures only through struggle contestation and a partial penetration of those structures."
- Similar example: black kids are accused of "acting white" when they succeed in school. If a black youth culture of resistance to school is elaborated, then some black kids disqualify themselves from the school credential necessary for their own social mobility. - Another: Girls often search for an alternative source of self-esteem, finding sexuality (and sexual displays) and/or motherhood as an alternative. Many either drop‑out and marry or get pregnant and are forced by various factors (health, institutional, time, monetary) to drop out. The ideology of romance works effectively on girls (see Holland and Eisenhart}.
- Foley: Cautionary tale. Speech patterns and culture generally are not PERMANENT; they are fluid and change over time, and can be used strategically. "Cultural groups in modern complex societies have no stable, essential cultural identities which are transmitted unproblematically from generation to generation. There are only `discursive skirmishes' between ethnic, gender, and class identity groups in the ceaseless production of shifting cultural images." - Indians construct oppositional cultural identities through their expressive cultural forms. Silence is not simple enactment of language pattern and speech style (quiet in the white man's presence --cultural essentialism--). They use it strategically to avoid work. Don't psychologize it to `self esteem.' But silent rebellion can have its price (drop‑outs).
- Cultural and social production theory instituted long period of studying counterculture and youth culture in US and Britain. Emphasize RESISTANCE, COUNTER‑CULTURES, AGENCY within STRUCTURES, RACE & CLASS & GENDER IDENTITIES (and how they interact). Not all studies are of ultimate reproduction of the system, although they do emphasize the limits of the power structures that people live within.
7) Video: Language, Identity and Culture
8) Cultural Conditions for Learning
-- Debrief the video, and discuss the readings (--A.L. Davidson, S & W ch 1 -- K. Leonard S & W ch 8) within a context of cultural conditions for learning. For example--discuss Marbella’s strong oppositional character within a school setting that works to discourage, silence, and discipline her toward more silent and separatist manifestations of power. She performs a public ethic identity that is both pro-academic and oppositional.
-- Use the guide questions to discuss as a large group. 1) What is the basic THESIS or argument of the reading? Identify at least 3 basic themes? 2) What is the impact of RACE / ETHNICITY in the lives of student informants? Communities? School? GENDER AND / OR SEXUAL PREFERENCE SOCIAL CLASS LANGUAGE RELIGION HOME EXPERIENCES IMMIGRATION AND / OR SETTLEMENT 3) How do(es) IDENTITY affect school achievement? FAMILY LIFE COMMUNITY INSTITUTIONS 4) What issues are raised about INCLUSION / EXCLUSION in schools and the larger society? Does this reading CHALLENGE the traditional definition of “minorities.” 5) What methods do the author(s) use to gather data? Are these sufficient? 6) Are there points, theories or suggestions with which you disagree? Or if you’re unsure, any that you would like to further explore for clarification? 7) Can you suggest other ways to interpret and explain the dynamics described in the reading? 8) Cite at least one point or issue from the reading assigned that you could apply to your own teaching? Explain how you will accomplish that?
9) Have students hand over their Course Evaluations (everyone gets 5 points, since it is anonymous)
CSUSB / Culture and Schooling / Murillo
Week Topics Class Reading Assignments Due Dates and Lectures Activities (Be ready to discuss) (In-class)
9A -- Cultural Awareness -- I. Villanueva -- Multiculturalism -- Theater of the Oppressed (S & W ch 3) as Social Action -- Pai & Adler -- Transformative Pedagogy (chapters 4 & 6)
9B -- Student Presentations on Field Experience or Self-Ethnographies -- SETEs
1) Announcements / Current Events / Pass Back Graded Self-Ethnographies
-- Either the take-home final or the field experience report due next week (one or the other, but at least one of them, so that I can have ½ the grading done that week)
-- students turn in their LOG and EVALUATION forms with their field experience reports (pages 75 & 77 of Handbook), which I in turn, turn in to the Multiple-Subject office (in turn CASE)
-- ask students to e-mail if they want their grades. (Field reports should be copied and kept as back-up proof)
2) Multiculturalism / Transformative Pedagogy
-- Go through some themes for discussion on approaches to multiculturalism in the classroom. This should be more of a summative lecture/dialogue, and not extensive due to time constraints.
e.g. --- instruction for diversity and cultural tolerance,
-- social empowerment -- prepare students to reconstruct society,
-- peace education,
-- teaching of conflict-resolution skills,
-- consciousness-raising about oppression,
-- teachers continually examine their own feelings and assumptions, their methods, and own subjective realities
-- impact of a global work-force on classrooms and the spread of world culture,
-- teaching similarities between cultural groups yet also significant cultural differences
-- Bring out some themes from Freire’s method
-- one of the basic principles of Freire’s method is that teachers often impose their own subjective interpretation of reality and experience on students.
-- So teachers must examine their own attitudes and teaching methods.
-- And rather than assuming your students feel and see the world in a particular way, teachers learn to continually carry on dialogues with students.
-- Ignorance and arrogance are interferences in critical learning.
-- And you learn to utilize students’ lives as a social text, and give experience a political and conceptual dimension.
-- basis of education: education either liberates or oppresses -- no neutrality
-- BANKING vs. DIALOGIC domination / teacher talk illumination / generative themes
3) Theater of the Oppressed
-- make lots of room in the classroom, or take students outside for this activity
-- provide background story about Augosto Boal (contemporary of Freire)
-- facilitate three activities
1) HAND-FACE Ask for volunteer to sample Activity in partners, then switch Ask students how they felt Someone feel powerful or powerless That powerless person in turn becomes the center of the cogwheel activity Ask students about the experience This illuminates issues of oppression and power, particularly of the role of teacher
2) SCENES Two people face to face in the middle, play out a scene as they please The rest of students project onto what they think the two people are acting out Repeat with two other people if need be This illuminates how teacher projects onto students their subjectivity and categories of the world e.g. social construction of intelligence
3) SCULPTING Ask for volunteer to sample Students list off feelings or adjectives, perhaps powerful or powerless from hand-face activity Pick one feeling or adjective and do activity in partners Sculptors walk around and look at the rest of the sculptures Ask sculptors to compare and contrast Switch, and repeat This illuminates the importance of realizing and dignifying the existence of multiple-meanings
4) Attendance / Break
5) Student Presentations
-- 5 - 7 minute presentations on students’ self-ethnography and field experience.
-- Run through list, #s 1 through 8---student presentations
6) SETE Student Evaluations
-- Allow sufficient time at end of class for this activity (approx. 20 minutes)
-- I leave the classroom at this time, a student leads the activity and follows the instructions in packet
CSUSB / Culture and Schooling / Murillo
Week Topics Class Reading Assignments Due Dates and Lectures Activities (Be ready to discuss) (In-class)
10 -- Student Presentations on Field Experience -- Field Experience or Self-Ethnographies Report Due
1) Announcements / Current Events / Collect Assignments
-- Collect the take-home final or the field experience report (one or the other, but at least one of them, so that I can have ½ the grading done this coming week)
-- Collect LOG and EVALUATION forms with their field experience reports (pages 75 & 77 of Handbook), which I in turn, turn in to the Multiple-Subject office (in turn CASE)
-- ask students to e-mail if they want their grades. (Field reports should be copied and kept as back-up proof)
2) Student Presentations
-- 5 - 7 minute presentations on students’ self-ethnography and field experience.
-- Run through list, #s 9 through 22
-- Take a break in-between if need be, by students
CSUSB / Culture and Schooling / Murillo
Week Topics Class Reading Assignments Due Dates and Lectures Activities (Be ready to discuss) (In-class)
11 - Finals Week -- Student Presentations on Field Experience -- Take-Home or Self-Ethnographies (2 hours max) Finals Due
2 Hours Max
1) Announcements / Collect Assignments
-- Collect the take-home final or the field experience report
-- Collect LOG and EVALUATION forms with their field experience reports (pages 75 & 77 of Handbook), which I in turn, turn in to the Multiple-Subject office (in turn CASE)
-- ask students to e-mail if they want their grades. (Field reports should be copied and kept as back-up proof)
2) Potluck???
3) Student Presentations
-- 5 - 7 minute presentations on students’ self-ethnography and field experience.
-- Run through list, #s 23+ |
2A -- Social Structure vs. Cultural -- Pai & Adler
