MAJOR STUDY UNITS:
| Topics | Readings |
Assignments |
|
Introduction to Course What is Democracy? Who is John Dewey? |
Dewey, J. (1997). Democracy and education. New York: Free Press (online text) Horton, M., & Freire,
P. (1990). We make the road by |
Apr 3 - BlackBoard Orientation |
| What is school and classroom democracy? |
Dewey chps 1,2,3,4,7 |
Apr 10 -
Online Discussion |
|
Describe the democratic ramifications of
current school issues such as bilingual education, privatization, standards,
sex education, vouchers, testing, tracking, grading practices, and core curriculum. |
Dewey chps 5, 6, 8, 9, 10 |
Apr 18 |
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| Who is Paulo Freire? | ||
| Theoretical
notions of democracy and social change, theories of justice, philosophical
and psychological approaches. |
Dewey chps 11-15 |
Apr 25 (5-6:30) |
| Ethical dilemmas of schooling, issues of race, class, gender, and multi-ethnicity in daily school practice. | Horton & Freire chps 1-3 |
May 2 (5-6:30) |
| Who is Myles Horton? | ||
| Alternative Education: |
Group Project/Movie: |
|
| School reform movements and degree of democratic commitment, eg. "good" schools, Coalition of Essential Schools, etc. | Horton & Freire chps 4-6 |
May 9 |
| Relationships among democracy, social change and education: can schools build "a new social order" or are the schools reflections only of existing social arrangements? | Dewey chps 16-21 |
May 16 |
| Craft personal definitions of democracy, social change, and their relationships. | ||
| Dewey chps 22-26 |
May 23 |
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| Paper Requirements |
|
Individual PowerPoint/Movie Presentations |
| The "ideal" example of democratic classrooms and schools; designing democratic action plans for school implementation. | Presentations |
May 30 |
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