LBST 492: Senior Seminar

Diversity in the Classroom

MW 3:30 - 5:55

DDH 103K

Dr. Karen Stocker

kstocker@csub.edu

Office hours:                                                    

MF 2-3, W 11:30-12:30  (or by appointment)

DDH CC207

 

Course Description:

Diversity refers to a multitude of characteristics that, in one way or another, often define particular students as “other” in the classroom. Race, ethnicity, social class, sexual orientation, immigration status, and many other aspects of current society are among the facets of diversity that teachers today will encounter in their classrooms. Students in this course will examine a variety of axes of diversity in the classroom in the United States, including those noted above. In addition to addressing these elements of diversity, students will explore various explanations for the relative academic success of students from underrepresented groups through time. Some of these explanations have been rejected and substituted with increasingly sensitive ones. Students will be responsible for readings and discussion of the topics presented through readings. In addition to leading class discussion (in small groups), each student will be responsible for writing a paper regarding the theoretical explanations of academic success or failure of minority students, a paper on their own schooling experience, in retrospect, and with regard to the topics discussed in class, and for writing a 10-page research paper using an ethnography of schooling to be selected from a list of choices that address various types of diversity in the classroom and related articles that students must find. Each student will also present an oral summary of his or her final project.

 

Course Objectives:

Students in this course will discuss sensitive topics with an open mind and with respect. Students will develop both oral and written skills as well as those related to critical thinking, as they apply critical thinking to their written papers, their leading of class discussion, and their oral presentations on the ethnography of their choice. Students in this course will also develop library research skills as they search for appropriate current articles on their topics of choice for the final project. Students will conclude the course better prepared to address diversity in the classroom, whether it be the classrooms they may have as future educators, or those that they attend as students, themselves. Indeed, the skills related to addressing diversity in the classroom in a respectful and conscientious manner are key to this class and to all others that students may attend. Students completing this course will be better able to address the Content Specifications for History and the Social Sciences demanded by their credential program. In particular, this course will address social scientific concepts (particularly from the areas of sociology and anthropology) such as institutions, social structure, and the role of socioeconomic class, race, ethnicity, and gender within those.

 

Required Texts:

Lois Weis and Michelle Fine, eds.,

1993    Beyond Silenced Voices: Class, Race, and Gender in United States Schools.

Albany: SUNY Press.

 

Berlak, Ann and Sekani Moyenda

2001    Taking It Personally: Racism in the Classroom From Kindergarten to College.

Philadephia; Temple University Press.

 

Rosenblum, Karen E. and Toni-Michelle C. Travis

2000    The Meaning of Difference: American Constructions of Race, Sex and Gender,

Social Class, and Sexual Orientation. Boston: McGraw-Hill.

 

Readings Packet of assorted articles – This packet is available on electronic reserve through the Walter Stiern Library. To access it, visit www.lib.csub.edu and click on “Course Reserves.” Find the reserve readings for LBST 491 by course number or by my last name. Click on “Electronic Reserve Readings For…” Click on the title of your required reading and login with your RunnerCard ID number and last name. If you need to download Adobe Reader to view the readings, you may do so at www.adobe.co.uk/products/acrobat/readstep2.html.

 

Grading and Assignments:

• Paper on theoretical explanations for minority school failure and success (due September 27)                                                                                      30 points

• Lead discussion                                                                                  20 points

• Select the ethnography on which you will write your final paper (September 29)                                                                                                                                  5 points

• List of at least 5 journal articles for your final paper (October 6)          15 points

• Paper on your own schooling experience and context (October 25) 30 points

• Preliminary outline of final paper, incorporating journal articles (November 1)

• Paper on Berlak and Moyenda                                                           40 points

• Final paper, analyzing an ethnography chosen from the attached list and incorporating at least five related journal articles on the central topic (November 29) 60 points

TOTAL POINTS:                                                                                200 points

 

Grading scheme:

100-93% =  A

92 - 89 =     A-

88-86 =       B+

85 - 83 =     B

82 - 79 =     B-

78-76 =       C+

75 - 73 =     C

72 - 69 =     C-

68 - 66 =     D+

65 - 63 =     D

62 - 59 =     D-

58 =            F

 

Classroom policies:

1. I will not accept late papers unless you have a documented excuse

(that proves illness, death in the family, or participation in university-sponsored events). See the guidelines below for policies related to response papers. All papers are due at the beginning of class on the date listed, and you must attend class that day to have your paper received. Response papers are due at the beginning of the class period following the event (movie or guest speaker) reported.

 

2. There is no extra credit offered. Please focus your efforts on the regularly assigned work.

 

3. Do not come into class late or leave early, unless you have a compelling reason that you have discussed with me prior to class.

 

4. If you miss class, it is your responsibility to find out what you missed. Any more than three unexcused absences will negatively affect your grade.

 

5. Please turn off your cell phones or pagers.

 

6. All students must adhere to CSUB’s policy on Academic Integrity, as outlined under Rights and Responsibilities on page 48 of the Fall 2004 Class Schedule. Students who do not do so will receive an F in the course and will face disciplinary sanction by Student Discipline and Judicial Affairs. Please read the following for specifics about what constitutes plagiarism: http://www.csub.edu/ssric/Modules/Other/plagiarism.htm.

 

7. Qualified students with disabilities who need appropriate academic adjustments should contact me soon as possible to ensure that your needs are met in a timely manner. Any disability needs to be verified by Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD). Upon such verification, all handouts and assignments will be available in alternative accessible formats upon request.

 

8. Students are responsible for tracking their own grade progress (see “Grading and Assignments,” and “Grading Scheme” above).

 

9. When I grade your papers, I do not want to know who you are, so as to avoid any unfair bias in grading. To this end, I request that you turn in all papers with your name typed on the right corner of the first page only. I will fold over this corner of each paper before I begin grading to assure your anonymity.

 

Assignments are due on the day under which they are listed. For example, students must have read the articles by Jordan and Jacob, Moll, Gearing, Emihovich, Hansen, and Ogbu by Monday, September 20.

 

 

Wednesday, September 14

Introduction

 

Monday, September 20

Topic: Past Theoretical Explanations of Minority Student Failure and Success in School

Jordan, C. and Jacob E.

1993    “Contexts of Education, Contexts of Application: Anthropological

            Perspectives and Educational Practice,” pp. 253-271 in E. Jacob and C.

            Jordan, eds., Minority Education: Anthropological Perspectives.

            Norwood, New Jersey: Ablex Publishing Corporation.

 

Moll, Luis C.

1994    “Mediating Knowledge Between Homes and Classrooms,” pp. 385-410

            in Deborah Keller-Cohen, ed., Literacy: Interdisciplinary Conversations.

            Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, Inc.

 

Gearing, Frederick and Paul Epstein

1982    “Learning to Wait: An Ethnographic Probe Into the Operations of an

            Item of Hidden Curriculum,” pp. 240-267 in George Spindler, ed.,

            Doing the Ethnography of Schooling: Educational Anthropology in

            Action. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, Inc.

 

Hansen, Judith Friedman

1979    “Education and the Transmission of Knowledge,” pp. 25-40 in Judith Hansen

            Friedman, Social Perspectives on Human Learning: An Introduction to

            Educational Anthropology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

 

Ogbu, John U.

1978    Minority Education and Caste: The American System in Cross-Cultural

            Perspective. New York, San Francisco, and London: Academic Press. [Selections;

Chapters 1 and 7]

 

Wednesday, September 22

Topic: More Recent Theories in Minority Student Success and Failure

Giroux, Henry A. and Peter L. McLaren

1989    Critical Pedagogy, the State, and Cultural Struggle. Albany: State

            University of New York Press. [Selections: Chapters 8 and 10]

 

Bourdieu, Pierre and Jean-Claude Passeron

1977    Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture. London and Beverly

            Hills: SAGE Publications. [Selections; Chapter 3]

 

Cummins, Jim

1993    “Empowering Minority Students: A Framework for Intervention,” pp. 101-118 in

Fine and Weis.

 

Monday, September 27

TURN IN YOUR PAPER ON EXPLANATIONS FOR MINORITY SCHOOL FAILURE AND SUCCESS

Topic: The Larger Context of Education: Social Policy and Barriers to Equal Education

 

Fine, Michelle and Lois Weis

1993    “Introduction,” pp. 1-8 in Fine and Weis

 

Mickelson, Roslyn Arlin, Stephen Samuel Smith, and Melvin L. Oliver

1993        “Breaking Through the Barriers; African American Job Candidates and the Academic Hiring Process,” pp. 9-24 in Fine and Weis.

 

Haney, Walter

1993        “Testing and Minorities,” pp. 45-74 in Fine and Weis

 

Delpit, Lisa D.

1993        “The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People’s children,” pp. 119-142 in Fine and Weis

 

Wednesday, September 29

 

In-class workshop on journal searches by Norm Hutcherson

Topic: Gender

TURN IN YOUR CHOICE OF ETHNOGRAPHIES TO READ AND ANALYZE FOR THE FINAL PAPER

Gilligan, Carol

1993        “Joining the Resistance: Psychology, Politics, Girls, and Women,” pp. 143-168 in Fine and Weis

 

Christian-Smith, Linda K

1993        “Voices of Resistance: Young Women Readers of Romance Fiction,” pp. 169-190 in Fine and Weis

 

Connell, R.W.

1993    “Disruptions: Improper Masculinities and Schooling,” pp. 191-208 in Fine and

Weis.

 

McLaren, Peter

1982    “Bein’ Tough: Rituals of Resistance in the Culture of Working-Class

            Schoolgirls,” Canadian Woman Studies 4(1): 20-24.

 

Monday, October 4

 

Topic: Sexuality

Katz, Jonathan Ned

2003    “The Invention of Heterosexuality,” pp. 152-154 in Rosenblum and Travis

 

Heyl, Barbara Sherman

2003    “Homosexuality: A Social Phenomenon,” pp. 155-164 in Rosenblum and Travis

 

Levine, Heidi and Nancy J. Evans

2003    “The Develeopment of Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Identities,” pp. 165-172 in

Rosenblum and Travis

 

Friend, Richard A.

1993        “Choices, Not Closets: Heterosexism and Homophobia in Schools,” pp. 209-236 in Fine and Weis

 

Sears, J.

1992    “Researching the Other/Searching For Self: Qualitative Research on (Homo)

Sexuality in Education,” Theory into Practice, vol. 32 (2).

 

Wednesday, October 6

TURN IN A LIST OF AT LEAST 5 JOURNAL ARTICLES THAT YOU WILL USE IN YOUR FINAL PROJECT

Topic: Social Class

 

Ortner, Sherry B.

2003    “Reading America: Preliminary Notes on Class and Culture” pp.127-134  in

Rosenblum and Travis

 

McMurrer, Daniel and Isabel Sawhill.

2003    “Getting Ahead: Economic and Social Mobility in America,” pp. 144-150 in

Rosenblum and Travis

 

Weis, Lois

“White Male Working-Class Youth: An Exploration of Relative Privilege and Loss,” pp.

237-258 in Fine and Weis

 

Monday, October 11

Topic: Race

 

Davis, F. James

2003    “Who Is Black? One Nation’s Definition,” pp. 38-45 in Rosenblum and Travis

 

Nobles, Melissa

2003    “Race, Censuses, and Citizenship,” pp.47-55 in Rosenblum and Travis

 

Foster, Michele

1993    “Resisting Racism: Personal Testimonies of African-American Teachers,” pp.

273-288 in Fine and Weis

 

Cohen, Jody

1993    “Constructing Race at an Urban High School: In Their Minds, Their Mouths,

Their Hearts,” pp. 289-308 in Fine and Weis

 

McCarthy, Cameron

1993    “Beyond the Poverty Theory in Race Relations; Nonsynchrony and Social

Difference in Education,” p. 325-346 in Fine and Weis

 

Wednesday, October 13

Topic: Ethnicity

 

Jaimes, M. Annette

2003    “Federal Indian Identification Policy,” pp. 60-72 in Rosenblum and Travis

 

Fernandez, Carlos A.

2003    “La Raza and the Melting Pot: A Comparative Look,” pp. 73-80 in Rosenblum

and Travis

 

Espiritu, Yen Le

2003    “Asian American Panethnicity,” pp. 81-90 in Rosenblum and Travis

 

Tierney, William G.

1993    “The College Experience of Native Americans: A Critical Analysis,” pp. 309-324

in Fine and Weis

 

Deyhle, Donna

1995    “Navajo Youth and Anglo Racism: Cultural Integrity and Resistance,” Harvard

Educational Review, 65 (3), 403-444.

 

Monday, October 18

Topic: Ethnicity, continued and whiteness as an unmarked category

 

Romero, Mary Eunice

1994    “Identifying Giftendness Among Keresan Pueblo Indians: The Keres Study,”

Journal of American Indian Education, 34 (1).

 

Frankenberg, Ruth

2003    “Whiteness as an “Unmarked” Cultural Category,” pp. 92-97 in Rosenblum and

Travis

 

McIntosh, Peggy

1997    “White Privilege and Male Privilege: A personal Account of Coming to See

Correspondences through Work in Women’s Studies,” pp. 291-299 in Richard

Delgado and Jean Stefanic, eds., Critical White Studies. Philadelphia: Temple

University Press.

 

Wednesday, October 20

Topic: Ethnicity, continued, and immigration Status

Sapon-Shevin, Mara

1993    “Gifted Education and the Protection of Privilege: Breaking the Silence, Opening

the Discourse,” pp. 25-44 in Fine and Weis

 

Vélez-Ibáñez, Carlos G. and James B. Greenberg

2000    “Formation and Transformation of Funds of Knowledge Among U.S.-Mexican

Households,” pp. 207-232 in Bradley A. U. Levinson et al, eds., Schooling the

Symbolic Animal: Social and Cultural Dimensions of Education. Boston: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

 

Stanton-Salazar, Ricardo D. and Stephanie Urso Spina

2003    “Informal Mentors and Role Models in the Lives of Urban Mexican-Origin

Adolescents,” Anthropology and Education Quarterly 34 (3); 231-254.

 

Ogbu, John

1991    “Immigrant and Involuntary Minorities in Comparative Perspective,”

            pp. 3-33 in Margaret A. Gibson and John U. Ogbu, eds., Minority Status

            and Schooling. New York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc.

 

D’Amato, John

1987    “The Belly of the Beast: On Cultural Differences, Castelike Status, and

            the Politics of School,” Anthropology and Education Quarterly 18(4):

            357-360.

 

Monday, October 25

TURN IN YOUR PAPER ON YOUR OWN SCHOOLING EXPERIENCE AND CONTEXT

 

Topic: Dropping Out

Stevenson, Robert B. and Jeanne Ellsworth

1993    “Dropouts and the Silencing of Critical Voices,” pp. 259-272 in Fine and Weis

 

Fine, Michelle

1986    “Why Urban Adolescents Drop Into and out of Public High School,” Teachers

            College Record 87(3): 393 – 409.

 

Wednesday, October 27

Topic: How to apply this knowledge to your own classroom

Peshkin, Alan

1982    “The Researcher and Subjectivity: Reflections on an Ethnography of

            School and Community,” pp. 48-65 in George Spindler, ed., Doing the

            Ethnography of Schooling: Educational Anthropology in Action.

            Prospect Heights, Illinois: Waveland Press, Inc.

 

Spindler, George and Louise Spindler

1982    “Roger Harker and Schönhausen: From Familiar to Strange and Back

            Again,” pp. 20-46 in George Spindler, ed., Doing the Ethnography of

            Schooling: Educational Anthropology in Action. Prospect Heights,

            Illinois: Waveland Press, Inc.

 

Monday, November 1

TURN IN YOUR PRELIMINARY OUTLINE OF YOUR PAPER ON YOUR CHOSEN ETHNOGRAPHY

Topic: How to apply this knowledge to your own classroom, continued

 

Anderson, G., Herr, K., Nihlen, A.

1994 Studying Your Own School, CA: Corwin Press [Selections: Chapters 2-3]

 

Wednesday, November 3

Topic: Classroom Methods

Moll, Luis C. and Stephen Díaz

1987    “Change as the Goal of Educational Research,” Anthropology and

            Education Quarterly 18(4): 300-311.

 

Wilcox, Kathleen

1982    “Ethnography as Methodology and Its Application to the Study of

            Schooling: A Review,” pp. 456-488 in George Spindler, ed., Doing the

            Ethnography of Schooling: Educational Anthropology in Action.

            Prospect Heights, Illinois: Waveland Press, Inc.

 

Monday, November 8

Topic: Case study

 Berlak and Moyenda, Part 1 and 2

 

Wednesday, November 10

Topic: Case study, continued

Berlak and Moyenda, Part 3, Chapters 5 and 6

 

Monday, November 15

Topic: Case Study, continued

Berlak and Moyenda, Part 3, Chapters 7 and 8

 

Wednesday, November 17

PAPER DUE ON BERLAK AND MOYENDA – turn it in to my box in the main office of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology (DDH AA209) by 5 pm.

There will be no class today on account of the American Anthropological Association meetings.

 

 

Monday, November 22

Student presentations on chosen ethnographies

 

Final Exam Day: Monday, November 29 5:00

Final papers on selected ethnography due to my box in the main office of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology (DDH AA209).

 

 

 

 

 

 


Select an ethnography from the following list for your final project.

 

Ferguson, Ann Arnett

2001    Bad Boys; Public Schools in the Making of Black Masculinity. Ann Arbor:

University of Michigan Press.

 

Fine, Michelle

1991    Framing Dropouts: Notes on the Politics of an Urban Public High School.

Albany; SUNY Press.

 

Foley, Douglas

1990    Learning Capitalist Culture Deep in the Heart of Tejas. Philadelphia: University

of Pennsylvania Press.

 

Foley, Douglas

1995    The Heartland Chronicles. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

 

Foster, Michele

1997    Black Teachers on Teaching. New York; The New Press.

 

García, Eugene E.

2001    Hispanic Education in the United States: Raíces y Alas. Boulder: Rowman and

Littlefield Publishers, inc.

 

Holland, Dorothy C. and Margaret Eisenhart

1990    Educated in Romance: Women, Achievement, and College Culture. Chicago:

University of Chicago Press.

 

Howard, Gary R.

1999    We Can’t Teach What We Don’t Know; White Teachers, Multiracial Schools.

            New York: Teachers College Press.

 

Lewis, Amanda E.

2004    Race in the Schoolyard: Negotiating the Color Line in Classrooms and

Communities. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

 

Lippi-Green, Rosina

1997    English With an Accent: Languge, Ideology, and Discrimination in the United

States. London, New York: Routledge.

 

MacLeod, Jay

1987    Ain’t No Makin’ It: Aspirations and Attainment in a Low-Income Neighborhood.  Boulder: Westview Press.

 


McCarthy, Teresa

2001    A Place to Be Navajo: Rough Rock and the Struggle for Self-determination in

Indigenous Schooling. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc.

 

Oboler, Suzanne

1995    Ethnic Labels, Ethnic Lives: Identity and the Politics of (Re)presentation in the

United States. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

 

Orenstein, Peggy

1994    Schoolgirls: Young Women, Self-esteem, and the Confidence Gap. New York:

Anchor Books.

 

Peshkin, Alan

1997    Places of Memory: Whiteman’s Schools and Native American Communities.

Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

 

Romo, Harriett T. and Toni Falbo

1996    Latino High School Graduation: Defying the Odds. Austin: University of Texas

Press.

 

Sears, James T.

1991    Growing Up Gay in the South: Race, Gender, and Journeys of the Spirit. New

York: Haworth Press.

 

Streitmatter, J.L.

1999    For Girls ONLY: Making a Case for Single-Sex Schooling. Albany: SUNY Press.

 

Valdes, Guadalupe

1997    Con respecto: Bridging the Distances Between Culturally

Diverse Families and Schools. New York: Teachers College Press.

 

Willis, Paul

1977    Learning to Labor: How Working Class Kids Get Working

Class Jobs. New York: Columbia University Press.

 

Yon, Daniel A.

2000    Elusive Culture: Schooling, Race, and Identity in Global Times. Albany: SUNY

Press.