EDC G 606 Sociocultural Foundations of Education

This course examines the interrelationships among students, schools, and society. Participants learn about the ways in which race, class, language, and ethnicity influence how we define ourselves and each other in our various encounters within the broader culture of US society. The course examines the historical antecedents influencing how the lives of the immigrant and colonized peoples in the US are defined. It is designed as a foundation for understanding the policies, goals, assumptions, strategies, and practices of multicultural approaches to education. It draws on a variety of models to construct educational curricula that are multicultural and socially reconstructionist. Readings are placed within the context of public schooling today in order to develop students’ “cultural consciousness” and awareness of the individual and shared societal assumptions we bring to our teaching experiences.

3 Credit(s)