DINÉ COLLEGE
COURSE SYLLABUS
COURSE NUMBER:
EDU 353
COURSE TITLE & (CREDITS): Diversity in Navajo and American Indian Education
(3 credits)
SEMESTER:
Fall 2014
CLASS MEETING TIME(S):
Thursdays, 5:00 pm - 8:00 pm on 8/21, 8/28, 9/4, 9/11, 9/18,
9/25, 10/2, 10/9, 10/16, 10/23, 10/30, 11/6, 11/13, 11/20,
12/4
MEETING LOCATION:
NHC 510
INSTRUCTOR:
Cynthia Benally
OFFICE LOCATION:
NHC 601C
OFFICE PHONE NUMBER:
928.724.6817
E-MAIL:
cynbenally@dinecollege.edu
OFFICE HOURS:
Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, 3:00pm-5:00 pm
and by appointment
BEST CONTACT METHOD:
Email
PREREQUISITE (If any):
Acceptance in the Center for Diné Teacher Education B.A.
Elementary Education program.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course surveys theories on Native student learning and empowerment with implications for
Navajo and American Indian educational program development. It examines factors that affect
student learning; relations between schools, other social institutions, communities, language, culture, and power; teaching and assessment strategies for addressing differences among students;
and strategies for maintaining effective home-school and community-school relations.
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REQUIRED TEXTS
Canestrari, A. S. & Marlowe, B. A. (2013). Educational Foundations: An Anthology in
Critical Readings. Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications.
Epstein, Joyce & Associates. (2009). School, Family, and Community Partnerships:
Your Handbook for Action. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Instructional resources posted on the Blackboard: dine.blackboard.com
COURSE OUTCOMES
By the end of the course, teacher candidates will:
Nitsáhákees:
• Demonstrate understandings of ethnic studies, multicultural education, diversity, and best
practices for establishing school, family, and community partnerships.
Nahat’á:
• Use understandings about diversity, place-based culturally responsive teaching, and
school, family, and community partnerships to prepare successfully for NES-style multiple choice questions and short essays.
Iiná:
• Read and analyze critically.
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Engage effectively in thoughtful classroom conversations.
Write effectively.
Apply best practices for engaging family and community members in support of K-8 students’ learning.
Siih Hasin:
• Demonstrate confidence in working with students, parents, and community members in
K-8 schools.
• Demonstrate critical reflection and professionalism.
• Reflect on how own life experiences impact instructional practices.
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ESSENTIAL QUESTION
In what ways does my positionality influence my teaching?
InTASC STANDARDS
These standards were developed initially more than twenty years ago as guidelines for what
teachers should know and be able to do. InTASC stands for “Interstate Teacher Assessment and
Support Consortium.” The standards were adopted by the state of Arizona as criteria for the accreditation of teacher education programs. They were updated most recently in 2011. (New Mexico is an NCATE state. It uses NCATE standards as guidelines for what teachers should know
and be able to do.)
This course introduces you to the following InTASC standards (upper-level courses in the
BAEE program probe the same standards in more breadth and depth):
THE LEARNER AND LEARNING
#2: Learning differences. The teacher uses understanding of individual differences and diverse cultures and communities to ensure inclusive learning environments that enable each
learner to meet high standards.
PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY
#10: Leadership and collaboration. The teacher seeks appropriate leadership roles and opportunities to take responsibility for student learning, to collaborate with learners, families,
colleagues, other school professionals, and community members to ensure learner growth, to
advance the profession.
NES PROFESSIONAL KNOWLEDGE TEST COMPETENCIES
This course applies following NES professional knowledge test competencies:
0002 Understand learning processes, factors that can affect student learning and performance, and how to apply this knowledge to provide instructional environments and experiences that promote all students’ learning and achievement.
• Demonstrate awareness of factors in the home, school, and community that can affect
student learning and the implications of these factors for teaching and learning.
0003 Understand student diversity and how to provide learning opportunities and environments that are responsive to student differences, promote all students’ learning, and
foster students’ appreciation of and for diversity.
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Demonstrate knowledge of different types of student diversity, such as diversity in cultural or racial background, socioeconomic background, gender, linguistic background,
religion, and family structure, and the implications of given types of diversity for
teaching and learning.
• Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for enhancing one's own understanding of students' diverse backgrounds and needs, resources in the school and community for meeting individual student needs, and strategies for connecting students and their families to
these resources.
• Apply knowledge of strategies for planning and adapting instruction that is responsive
to the characteristics, skills, strengths, and needs of all students and for ensuring that all
students participate fully in classroom life and activities.
• Apply knowledge of strategies for creating a positive, supportive classroom environment for all students and for promoting students' understanding of and appreciation and
respect for diversity within the classroom and the community.
0004 Understand assessment instruments and practices, the relationship between assessment and instruction, and how to use assessment to guide instruction and monitor students' learning progress.
• Demonstrate knowledge of important assessment concepts, such as reliability, validity,
and bias, and the characteristics, uses, advantages, and limitations of various types of
formal and informal assessments.
0009 Understand how to establish partnerships and collaborate effectively with families,
colleagues, and members of the community to enhance and support student learning.
• Apply knowledge of strategies for developing partnerships with families to support
student learning and for encouraging and facilitating the involvement of parents/guardians in their children's education.
• Demonstrate knowledge of the importance of school-home communication, factors that
facilitate or impede communication, and methods of initiating and maintaining effective communication with all students' families.
• Identify strategies for conducting effective conferences with parents/guardians, addressing the concerns of parents/guardians in various contexts, and interacting effectively and appropriately with all families, including those with diverse characteristics,
backgrounds, and needs.
0010 Understand roles and expectations for professional educators, legal and ethical
guidelines, and strategies for continuous professional growth and self-reflection.
• Demonstrate knowledge of important traits and behaviors associated with effective
teaching (e.g., curiosity and love of learning, tolerance and open- mindedness) and
strategies for using reflection and self-assessment to identify teaching strengths and
challenges and to improve professional practice.
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ASSESSMENTS AND GRADING POLICY
ASSESSMENTS:
• Autobiography. 100 points. You will write an autobiography examining your positionality. You should reflect on at least three different aspects of your identity such as gender,
race, class, age, nationality, sexuality and so on. The paper should be at least 1,000
words. A scoring rubric will be presented in class.
• Reading comprehension activities/quizzes. 50 points for each reading.
• Facilitate Discussion. 50 points. You will also be signing up in class to facilitate discussions of one of the readings in the book, Educational Foundations: An Anthology of Critical Readings. A scoring rubric will be presented in class.
• Bell work. 10 points for each class.
• Mid-term exam. 100 points. Will include multiple choice and short essay questions,
modeled after the NES
• Group project. 100 points. A scoring rubric will be presented in class. Observe classes
and/or families and identify what is being taught implicitly and explicitly about the various aspects of identity. Identify what and how it is being taught. What artifacts, conversations, and signals do teachers, parents, students, and/or communities use? Prepare and
present findings. A scoring rubric will be presented in class.
• Behavioral management plan. 100 points. Create a behavioral management plan or philosophy. A scoring rubric will be presented in class.
• Final exam. 100 points. Will include multiple choice and short essay questions, modeled
after the NES.
• Participation. 30 points per class session.
You will earn a course grade by compiling points-per-assignment. Each of the assignments is
worth a certain number of points as indicated above. You will receive no points for late assignments. Grades will be calculated by dividing points earned by total possible points, which creates
a percentage, which translates into a traditional letter grade as follows:
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100-90% = A
89-80% = B
79-70% = C
69-60% = D
59% or less = F
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
Candidates are responsible for the integrity of their academic work. Examples of academic dishonesty include, but are not limited to, obtaining unauthorized assistance in any academic work;
cheating on a test; plagiarism; quoting without proper credit; modifying any examination, paper,
record, report or project without the instructor’s approval for obtaining additional credit or an
improved grade; and representing the work of others as one’s own. Some of the penalties that
may be imposed include: warning (written or oral); reducing the grade for the assignment, test,
or project; reducing the grade for the course; assigning a failing grade for the course; dismissing
the candidate from the course and issuing a grade of “W”; academic probation or
suspension; expulsion; and recording the decision in the candidate’s academic record.
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COURSE SCHEDULE
Dates
Topics
Why teach?
Aug. 21
Schooling vs. education
Aug. 28
Diversity
Who are today’s students?
Sept. 4
Culture. What
does it mean?
Sept. 11
Culture as deficient
Readings/Assignments
Assessment
Read: Canestrari & Marlowe,
pp. 1-28.
Assignment: Autobiography
(Due 10/11)
Reading comprehension
quiz/activity
Read: Canestrari & Marlowe,
pp. 29-100.
Read: McDermott &
Varenne, Culture “as” Disability
Reading comprehension
quiz/activity
Reading comprehension
quiz/activity
What makes a good teacher?
Sept. 18
Culture in schools Read: Canestrari & Marlowe,
pp. 101-130.
Sept. 25
Empowerment
Read: McCarty, The Power
Within, pp. 47-66
What do good schools look like?
Oct. 2
Purpose of
Read: Canestrari & Marlowe,
schooling
pp. 131-158.
Oct. 6-10
Midterm
Oct. 9
Hidden curricuRead: Anyon, Social Class
lum
and the Hidden Curriculum
Assignment: Group Project
(Due 10/30)
Oct. 16
Ethnic studies &
Read: Sleeter, Value of Ethmulticultural edu- nic Studies
cation
How should we assess student learning?
Oct. 23
Funds of
Read: Canestrari & Marlowe,
Knowledge/Cultu pp. 159-185.
re-Based EducaAssignment: Behavioral
tion
management plan due
How does one develop a critical voice?
Oct. 30
Transformative
Read: Canestrari & Marlowe,
practices
pp. 187-213.
Nov. 6
Advocacy
Read: Kaomea, Cautionary
Tale, pp. 24-42
Who are today’s parents?
Nov. 13
Parent schooling
Read: Epstein & Associates,
experiences
pp.
Reading comprehension
quiz/activity
Reading comprehension
quiz/activity
Reading comprehension
quiz/activity
Reading comprehension
quiz/activity
Reading comprehension
quiz/activity
Reading comprehension
quiz/activity
Reading comprehension
quiz/activity
Reading comprehension
quiz/activity
Reading comprehension
quiz/activity
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Nov. 20
Intergenerational
trauma
How do we move forward?
Dec. 4
Culturally responsive teachers
and curriculum
Dec. 9-11
Read: Heart & DeBruyn,
American Indian Holocaust
Reading comprehension
quiz/activity
Read: Canestrari & Marlowe,
pp. 115-249.
Reading comprehension
quiz/activity
Final
OPTIONAL RESOURCES
Optional Readings: Available on Blackboard.
• Alaska Department of Education and Early Development. (2012). Guide to Implementing
the Alaska Cultural Standards for Educators. Juneau, AK: The Alaska Department of
Education and Early Development.
• Barnhardt, R. & Kawagley, O. (2005). Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Alaska Native Ways of Knowing. In Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 36(1): 8-23.
• Cummins, J. (1986). Empowering Minority Students: A Framework for Intervention. In
Harvard Educational Review, 56(1): 18-36.
• Deyhle, D. (1995). Navajo Youth and Anglo Racism: Cultural Integrity and Resistance.
In Harvard Educational Review, 65(3): 403-444.
• Lee, T. & McLaughlin, D. (2001). Reversing Navajo Language Shift, Revisited. In J.
Fishman, Can Threatened Languages Be Saved? Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
• McCarty, T. (2002). A Place to be Navajo: Rough Rock and the Struggle for SelfDetermination in Indigenous Schooling. Mahway, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Online Resources: Check out these websites for more information.
• http://www.ankn.uaf.edu. Resources for culturally-inclusive teaching and learning for
Native Alaskan students, applicable to Navajos and other American Indians.
• http://www.ascd.org/professional-development/webinars/ascd-webinar-archive.aspx. Free
online professional development webinars by the Association on Curriculum and Supervision Development (ASCD) on parental involvement and many other connected topics.
• http://www.navajonationdode.org/resources.aspx. The Navajo Nation’s new Diné Content standards in Oral Language, Culture, History, Government, and Character Building.
• http://www.glsen.org. Resources for teaching respect about gender education and sexuality issues.
• http://www.rethinkingschools.org. A wealth of resources on multicultural teaching.
• http://www.tolerance.org. Thought-provoking news, resources, and support for teachers
who care about diversity and respect for difference in K-12 schools.
• http://www.zinnedproject.org. Resources for multicultural social studies lessons.
ATTENDANCE POLICY:
Consistent with policies in the BAEE Candidate Handbook, I will take attendance at the beginning of each class session. If you are late signing in, you will be marked as tardy. Two tardies
will count as one absence. For each unexcused absence, I will deduct points from your final
course percentage. If you must be absent due to extraordinary circumstances, tell me before
class. I will not allow assignments to be turned in late.
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GRADING CRITERIA:
We will employ a points-per-assignment approach. Each of the assignments will be worth a certain number of points as indicated above. You will receive no points for late assignments. Grades
will be calculated by dividing points earned by total possible points, which creates a percentage,
which will translate into a letter grade as follows:
• 100-90% = A
• 89-80% = B
• 79-70% = C
• 69-60% = D
• 59% or less = F
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY:
Candidates are responsible for the integrity of their academic work. Academic dishonesty includes the following:
• Obtaining unauthorized assistance in any academic work.
• Cheating on a test.
• Plagiarism: Defined as a student using another student’s or another author’s work or
ideas i.e. magazine, newspaper, web site, book, or other source(s) and submits it without
giving that person or source proper credit. This is not allowed and students who commit
plagiarism will be dealt with according to the Student Code of Conduct.
Some of the penalties that may be imposed include, the choices of penalties are the decision of
the instructor:
• Warning (written or oral).
• Reducing the grade for the assignment, test, or project.
• Reducing the grade for the course.
• Assigning a failing grade for the course.
• Dismissing the candidate from the course and issuing a grade of “W”.
• Academic probation or suspension or expulsion.
Candidates who have been academically dishonest (including plagiarism) will fail the course.
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