EDLPS 549A, Winter 2008
Teaching Foundations in Teacher Education
Drs. Nancy Beadie and Joy Williamson
January 28: Re-framing the Purpose of Foundations in Teacher Education
Allen, Talking to Strangers, Prologue and Part I
Anderson, “Race Conscious Educational Policies”
Stanley, “Victoria Chinese Students’ Strike of 1922-23 Revisited”
Wineburg, et. al., “Common Belief and the Cultural Curriculum”
Three of this week’s readings--Allen, Anderson, and Stanley--speak explicitly about
notions of citizenship. Allen examines the black-white binary and its impact on
American democracy and the American personality. In particular, she discusses the
problem of interracial distrust as a symptom of a more general problem of citizenship.
According to Allen, American democracy has repeatedly failed to develop forms of
citizenship that help break down distrust and generate trust between blacks and whites,
nor has it developed citizenly habits that contend with the inequality produced by
political decisions. Though her project is not specifically about schools, she uses the
1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision and the 1957 desegregation of Little Rock’s
Central High School as anchors for her discussion, and she introduces debates over
schools as appropriate objects of politics action and the appropriateness of enlisting
children/youth in the political enterprise.
Anderson and Stanley will help us broaden our discussion of citizenship, democracy, and
interracial relationships. Anderson states that historians must look beyond the blackwhite binary and instead employ a multi-ethnic history in order to understand American
conceptions of citizenship and equality. His examination is anchored in the
Reconstruction Era discussions of what to do with American Indians, African Americans,
and Chinese/Chinese Americans in the polity. Though the piece focuses on the past, it
was motivated and inspired by contemporary issues like affirmative action and bussing.
Stanley expands our examination even further by discussing the Canadian context. Using
the theory of anti-racism, he discusses the linguistic frame, arguments, and results of the
battle over the segregation of Chinese/Chinese-Canadian students in the early 1920s.
Like Anderson, his historical piece is relevant for contemporary debates like the battle
over bilingual education and separate linguistically/culturally-focused classrooms.
The Wineburg et. al. reading takes us in another direction--into the classroom, or at least
into the historical understandings of high school students. Like Allen, Wineburg and his
colleagues examine the power of media (especially photographs and movies) in depicting
the concepts of “citizen,” a just society, and historical reality. They remind us that the
information in Allen, Anderson, and Stanley may be used in classrooms (whether in text
or pictures), but students actively interpret and filter what they learn in ways unintended
by the teacher.
What does all this mean for teachers or teacher preparation? As stated on your syllabus,
how can we prepare teachers who have the knowledge, courage, skill, and disposition
necessary to recognize and effectively address issues of race and social justice in their
work? More broadly, how can we prepare teachers to cultivate such political habits and
skills in their students?