Education as a Moral Endeavor - University of Washington



EDLPS 520

Education as a Moral Endeavor

Spring 2009

4:30-6:50, MLR 104

Professor: Joy Williamson-Lott

Office: Miller Hall, 315E

Email: joyann@u.washington.edu (this is the best way to reach me)

Phone: 685-7749

Course website:

Office hours: M/Tu by appointment

Objectives and Goals:

In the United States, “school” is the only compulsory institution in which we must all participate. Formal schooling developed for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was the moral training of the American populous (many folks thought that the “family” was shirking its duty). Political and educational leaders have battled over the issue since the founding of the Republic, and moral education remains a hot button issue in contemporary times as we argue over which morals should be taught and who gets to define/choose the morals being taught. The battle is so heated because people link education to the creation of the good and just society, a very tall and contentious order. Therefore, the purpose of this class is to make plain the existing morals in schools, interrogate them, understand why they are present, and think deliberately about their intended outcome. In doing so, we will engage question such as: What makes something good or bad, right or wrong? Are there universal truths and conceptions of good or right--or are they situational/individually/culturally specific? What do you/we believe MUST be taught or transmitted to the next generation? What is the ultimate purpose of education for the individual and society? And, what is your/our conception of the “good” society?

I will help us frame the daily discussions but will not lecture at length. Instead, most of the class time will be focused on your thoughts and opinions on the topics at hand. The point is to get you thinking more deeply and deliberately about education and the moral consequences of it. Therefore, in our conversations we will work to:

• Recognize ethical and moral issues in everyday situations

• Develop analytical skills including methods of argument and reasoning

• Elicit a sense of moral obligation and personal responsibility

• Uncover and dissect your (often) hidden moral and ethical beliefs

This type of format depends entirely on you. I expect you to come to class prepared (meaning you have done the readings and thought about them) and to participate in the learning community we will create together. My role will be more like that of a facilitator than an instructor in that I plan to launch the discussion but will leave the nature of that discussion up to you as a group. The point is NOT for us to come to some kind of moral consensus but to become more informed about education as a moral endeavor and more thoughtful about our particular roles in the enterprise.

Readings:

There is one required book for the course, Vivian Paley’s White Teacher, which is available at the UW bookstore. All other readings will be available on the course website.

As you read the materials and participate in the discussion, keep these questions in mind:

• What are the problems with which this author is concerned?

• What kind of society does this author appear to favor?

• What values do they reflect?

• What new problems might arise if the author’s suggestions were enacted?

• How does the author define “good education”? Do you agree?

Evaluation:

This course is credit/no credit, however, I strongly encourage you to treat the class and assignments with respect. This includes attending and participating in class discussion and turning in all the assignments on time. Should you receive no-credit on one of your assignments (a (=credit while a 0=no credit), you will be given the option to re-write your essay. Please note, however, that making minor changes is unlikely to significantly change my evaluation of it. A rewritten paper should show substantial rethinking of the assignment. You will have two days after your paper is returned to rewrite the assignment. **If you are absent, you are required to write an extra response paper for that day’s readings.**

Reaction papers: Each student will write three 2-3 page responses to the readings during the course. You may write your responses at any time but must submit a total of three on three different days. These are what we will use to inform our class discussions. Your responses may reflect what you learned (or did not learn) from a particular source, what you found interesting and convincing (or the opposite), or how it extended (or failed to extend) your knowledge and understanding of significant issues in education. The hope is that you will demonstrate that you have read thoughtfully and considered seriously the merits of the ideas, perspectives, information, and proposals you have read. Avoid the detailed recounting of the readings as well as the simple assertion of opinions. And, do not feel compelled to comment on each of the readings for the day. Choose a paragraph/concept/sentence from the reading and ponder it in writing. This is meant as a self-reflective exercise to get you to think more deeply about how the readings speak to you. **They are due at the beginning of the class in which we will discuss that particular reading (you can submit them early if you like!). To submit them, go to the course website and select ‘submit your work here’ and choose the ‘response paper’ option. Label them with your last name and the number of the response paper (for instance, mine would be labeled Williamson-Lott1, Williamson-Lott2, Williamson-Lott3).**

Critical analysis/final paper: Select one of the readings for the course and find a paragraph/concept/passage that illustrates a point you find compelling and relevant (you should cite the paragraph/concept/passage, but it should not count in the page length requirements). Then, interpret and interrogate the author’s ideas and be sure to use at least one other author in the course to make sense of them. The authors need to have been assigned on two different days of class (in short, I do not want you to expand on a reaction paper you already wrote). This, like the reaction papers, is not a summary or re-hashing of the author’s statements but a thoughtful analysis and comparison of his/her work with another author(s) pondering the same (or even different!) sorts of issues. **The final product should be approximately five pages and is due June 5. To submit it, go to the course website and select ‘submit your work here’ and choose the ‘critical analysis paper’ option. Label this document with your last name (i.e. Williamson-Lott critical analysis).**

All of your papers should have 12pt. Times New Roman font, 1 inch margins, left-justification, double-spacing, and page numbers on each page (basically, just hit ‘open’ in Microsoft Word and start typing).

Formalities:

To request academic accommodations due to a disability, please contact Disability Resources for Students, 448 Schmitz, 206-543-8924/V, 206-543-8925/TTY. If you have a letter from Disability Resources for Students indicating you have a disability which requires academic accommodations, please present the letter to me so we can discuss the accommodations you might need in this class.

Plagiarism, submitting someone else's words or ideas as your own work, is serious academic offense. Cases of suspected plagiarism will be referred to the Associate Dean for Academic Programs for adjudication. Possible penalties range from disciplinary warnings to dismissal from the university.

Course Calendar

March 30 Introduction to the course

April 6 Education and the Formation of the State

Plato, excerpt from The Republic

Various writings by Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Rush, and Noah Webster

April 13 NO CLASS (AERA conference)

April 20 Morals, Indoctrination, and Education

Counts, excerpt from Dare the School Build a New Social Order

Morrison, “How Can Values be Taught in the University?”

April 27 What’s Wrong with Being Colorblind?: Liberalism and Racism

Paley, White Teacher (entire book)

Video: A Class Divided

May 4 “I Saw it in Forrest Gump”: Textbooks, History, and “Truth”

Schlesinger, excerpt from The Disuniting of America

Williamson, “A Tale of Two Movements”

Excerpts from textbooks

May 11 Education as a Radical Venture: In Theory

Freire, excerpt from Pedagogy of the Oppressed

hooks, Teaching to Transgress, chapter 1

May 18 Education as a Radical Venture: In Practice

SNCC materials from Radical Teacher

Perlstein, “Teaching Freedom”

May 25 NO CLASS (MEMORIAL DAY)

June 1 How should we define “social justice” in education?

Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District, syllabus

Amicus Brief of the United States (in support of the petitioner)

Amicus Brief of the Alliance for Education et. al. (in support of the respondent)

Amicus Brief of Historians (in support of the respondent)

June 5 Final Papers Due

Bibliography

Plato, The Republic, translated by Francis MacDonald Cornford (New York: Oxford University Press, 1945): 227-235.

Various writings by Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Rush, and Noah Webster, in James Fraser, The School in the United States: A Documentary History (Boston: McGraw Hill, 2001): 17-20, 24-46.

George Counts, Dare the School Build a New Social Order (New York: John Day, 1932).

Toni Morrison, “How Can Values be Taught in the University?,” Michigan Quarterly Review 40 no. 2 (Spring 2001): 273-278.

Vivian Gussin Paley, White Teacher (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000).

Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. “E Pluribus Unum,” in The Disuniting of America. New York: Norton, 1992.

Joy Ann Williamson, “A Tale of Two Movements: The Power and Purpose of Misremembering Brown,” in With More Deliberate Speed: Achieving Equity in Literacy: Realizing the Full Potential of Brown v. Board of Education, edited by Arnetha F. Ball (Washington, D. C.: National Society for the Study of Education, 2007): 36-57.

William Holmes McGuffey, Old Favorites from the McGuffey Readers, edited by Harvey C. Minnich (New York: American Book Company, 1936).

Harold Rugg, “The Making of the American Constitution” and “Did Democracy March Forward under the Republicans?” in America’s March Toward Democracy, History of American Life: Political and Social (Boston, Ginn and Company, 1931).

Daniel J. Boorstin and Brooks Mather Kelley, excerpts from A History of the United States, Teacher’s Edition (Needham, Mass.: Prentice Hall, 2003).

Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (New York: Herder and Herder, 1967).

bell hooks, Teaching To Transgress: Education and the Practice of Freedom (New York: Routledge, 1994), pp. 13-22

SNCC materials from Radical Teacher 40 (Fall 1991).

Daniel Perlstein, “Teaching Freedom: SNCC and the Creation of the Mississippi Freedom Schools,” History of Education Quarterly 30, no. 3 (Fall 1990): 297-324.

Noah Webster, “Declaration of Linguistic Independence”, J. D. C. Atkins, “Barbarous Dialects Should be Blotted Out”, Spanish Language Rights in California: Constitutional Debates”, Theodore Roosevelt, “One Flag, One Language”, and S. I. Hayakawa, “The Case for Official English,” in Language Loyalties: A Source Book on the Official English Controversy, edited James Crawford (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992).

Nirej Sekhon, “A Birthright Rearticulated: The Politics of Bilingual Education,” New York University Law Review 74 (November 1999): 1407-1450.

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