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Academic Year 2003/2004

Cultural Politics and Educational Reform
SOC 249 SP

This course will examine public schools as critical sites of cultural reproduction and identity formation. It will focus on how particular meanings and experiences are legitimated through or excluded from educational knowledge and practices and how competing political interests and conceptions of democratic education have shaped past and current struggles over pedagogical strategies and curricular content. We will also discuss how students interpret and respond to what they are taught and assess how schooling experiences influence student identities and perspectives.

MAJOR READINGS

M. Apple, IDEOLOGY AND CURRICULUM S. Aronowitz and H. Giroux, EDUCATION UNDER SIEGE P. Bourdieu, REPRODUCTION IN EDUCATION, SOCIETY, AND CULTURE J. Dewey, THE CHILD AND THE CURRICULUM E.D. Hirsch, CULTURAL LITERACY E. Minnich, TRANSFORMING KNOWLEDGE L. Weis and M. Fine, BEYOND SILENCED VOICES A. Schlesinger, THE DISUNITING OF AMERICA and selected articles.

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Three short papers and a final research paper.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS

SOC and CHUM majors will be given admission preference.

COURSE FORMAT: Lecture/Discussion

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD    Credit: 1    Gen Ed Area Dept: SBS SOC    Grading Mode: Graded   

Prerequisites: SOC151 Links to Web Resources For This Course.

Last Updated on MAR-19-2004

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