University of Washington, College of Education, Winter 2008
EdLPS 549: Special Topics in Educational Studies:
Teaching Foundations in Teacher Education
Miller 320
M: 4:30-6:50
Dr. Nancy Beadie
Office: Miller 303D
Phone: 221-3428
E-Mail: nbeadie@u.washington.edu
Office Hours: T, W (by appointment)
Dr. Joy Williamson
Office: Miller 315E
Phone: 685-7749
Email: joyann@u.washington.edu
Office Hours:
I. Objectives: Re-framing the Teaching of Foundations in Teacher Education
This course is a hands-on pedagogical seminar for developing new approaches to
teaching foundations in teacher education. Building on the tradition of historical and
philosophical foundations dating back at least to the 1920s and 30s, we take up the challenge of
teaching teachers for democracy and social justice in a demonstrably unequal and unjust world.
Specifically, the course has five objectives: 1) to confront the multiple challenges to
education for democratic citizenship that are presented by the ongoing history of racism, racial
injustice, and inequality in the United States; 2) to revise our ways of thinking about what it
means to educate for democratic citizenship and teach for social justice in light of that history; 3)
to explore examples of community-based approaches to doing this work; 4) to develop
pedagogical philosophies and strategies that effectively bridge the multiple scales of citizenship
and culture a teacher must negotiate—from home to community to classroom, and from school
to district to polity; and 5) to produce a useable syllabus, a bibliography, and a lesson plan for
teaching foundations in teacher education.
II. Content: Recognizing Sacrifice, Cultivating Trust
In 1932, George Counts criticized the “sublime faith” that Americans had in education.
Americans, he complained, seem to believe that education “is the one unfailing remedy for every
ill to which man is subject.” Writing in the midst of the Great Depression, Counts questioned
this faith and at the same time challenged educators to consider what it would really take to be
agents of social change. A leading foundations educator himself, Counts argued that “teachers
must abandon much of their easy optimism, subject the concept of education to the most rigorous
scrutiny, and be prepared to deal much more fundamentally, realistically and positively with the
American social situation than has been their habit in the past.”
Similar calls to realism are issued by critics of teaching and teacher education today.
This criticism comes from more than one direction. Some point to the failure of schools to
achieve even a minimum standard of basic education for significant numbers of students. They
ask whether in such circumstances teachers or teacher educators can afford to devote energy to
anything other than teaching basic skills. Others, meanwhile, highlight the injustice and inequity
of resources, teacher quality, recognition and attention on the part of schools for these same
students. They ask how in the face of these contradictions, teachers and teacher educators can
continue to perpetuate the “myth” of education for democratic citizenship in the United States.
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This course aims at reframing the teaching of foundations in teacher education in light of
these challenges and contradictions. To do that we first confront the implications of an enduring
history of racial injustice for how we conceive of citizenship and democratic education. In her
book, Talking to Strangers: Anxieties of Citizenship since Brown v. Board of Education,
philosopher Danielle Allen juxtaposes the pledge of allegiance against photographs of violent
white opposition to racial integration in Little Rock in 1957. She uses this juxtaposition to call
into question the pledge’s language of “one nation, indivisible,” and to highlight the enduring
racial divide in the experience of citizenship in the U.S. In particular, Allen highlights the
significance of “sacrifice” in the historical experience of citizenship, and the reality of unequal
sacrifice. She argues that failure to recognize such sacrifice is an obstacle to the political trust
necessary for democracy and goes on to imagine the political habits necessary for trust to form.
Allen’s project is fundamentally educational, but it is not one that she developed
specifically in relation to schools. Using the logic of her analysis as a template, 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?
To address these questions we draw on two studies of how race shapes the work of
teachers. In her classic book White Teacher, Vivian Paley reflects on the significance of race in
her efforts to foster trust with and among elementary students, as well as with their families. In
her ethnographic study Colormute, Mica Pollock analyzes the often unspoken but nonetheless
significant racial dimensions of teacher authority in high school, and of student responses to that
authority. Both studies provide rich cases for analyzing how foundations knowledge and
thinking can help teachers address real-life dilemmas of their work.
Next, we look at two pedagogical experiments with cultivating the social and civic
capacities of students in local schools and communities. The Jackson Street Project was an
experiment in place-based education that engaged elementary students in investigating the social
and cultural history of the area around their school. In the process they both explored evidence
of other people’s agency in history and imagined themselves as historical agents in that place.
The Cleveland High School project meanwhile casts students as radical agents of change by
engaging them directly in identifying, studying and acting upon of educational issues.
Cultivating a sense of agency is an important educational objective for teachers as well as
for students. It is the final focus of the course. “Society is never redeemed without effort,
struggle, and sacrifice,” Counts warned, and teachers must be able and willing to assume power
and leadership toward that end. “To refuse to face the task of creating a vision of a future
America immeasurably more just and noble and beautiful than the America of today,” Counts
concluded in 1932, “ is to evade the most crucial, difficult, and important educational task.”
III. Readings
Three assigned books are available for purchase in the University Bookstore:
Danielle S. Allen, Talking to Strangers: Anxieties of Citizenship since Brown v. Board of
Education (Chicago, 2004).
Mica Pollock, Colormute: Race Talk Dilemmas in an American School (Princeton, 2004).
Vivian Paley, White Teacher (Harvard, 2000 [1979]).
Additional readings are available through the library on-line reserve system. For a complete list
see the bibliography at the end of this syllabus.
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IV. Written Assignments
Written assignments for this course include: three 1-2 page reader responses; a syllabus; a
bibliography; and a detailed plan for one class session. For more information on written
assignments, see section IX of this syllabus.
V. Oral Presentation
Students will take turns presenting their perspectives on the issues of course by initiating
discussion of the readings and/or exploring a particular pedagogical approach to teaching
foundations. For more information on the oral presentation see section IX of this syllabus.
VI. Course expectations
This course will be run as a seminar. That means that students are expected to come to class
prepared to share their interpretations of readings assigned for that class, as well as to share their
work on their own areas of study and research in education. Final grades will be based on class
preparation and participation (20%); three reader responses (30%); one oral presentation (10%);
and a course proposal: bibliography (10%); syllabus (20%) and detailed class session (10%).
VII. Schedule of Classes
1. January 7
Questions:
2. January 14
Readings:
Introductions: Teaching Foundations
A. From problems of democratic deliberation to...
B. Problems of trust and domination
What does teaching for social justice look like?
How do we teach teachers for social justice?
Historic Purposes of Foundations in Teacher Education
A. Democracy by imposition
B. Existential agency
C. Identifying and negotiating conflicts of value
Counts, “Dare the School Build a New Social Order?”
Greene, “Doing philosophy..." (from Teacher as Stranger)
Beadie, “From Teacher as Decision-Maker to…”
Syllabi for EdTEP 511 and 571
Grossman, McDonald, et. al., “Dismantling Dichotomies”
3. January 21
No Class—Martin Luther King Day
4. January 28
Re-framing the Purpose of Foundations in Teacher Education
A. Citizenship and Race--Historical Perspectives
B. Citizenship and Sacrifice—Philosophical Perspectives
C. Citizenship and Knowledge—Pedagogical Perspectives
Allen, Talking to Strangers, Prologue and Part I, xiii-xxii and 3-49
Anderson, “Race-Conscious Educational Policies”
Stanley, “Victoria Chinese Students’ Strike of 1922-3 Revisited”
Wineburg, et. al., “Common Belief and the Cultural Curriculum”
Response #1: Three Photos
Readings:
Due:
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5. February 4
Readings:
Due:
6. February 11
Readings:
Due:
Problems of Civic Culture—Issues from Elementary Education
A. Developing Trust and Reciprocity in the Polity
B. Naming Race and Recognizing Identity in the Classroom
C. Negotiating Issues of Class and Culture with Parents
Allen, Talking to Strangers, Part II, pp. 53-98
Paley, White Teacher
Valdes, excerpt from Con Respeto, pp. 1-29 and 168-189
Response #2:
Problems of Civic Culture—Issues from Secondary Education
A. Beyond Domination and Acquiescence
B. Acknowledging Racial Dimensions of Teacher Authority
C. Talking Race and Recovering the Possibilities of Public Speech
Allen, Talking to Strangers, Part III, pp. 101-186
Pollock, excerpts from Colormute, 44-73 and conclusion, 210-225
Green, "Public Speech"
Response #3: An Issue of Public Speech in Education
7. February 18
No Class—Presidents’ Day
8. February 25
Pedagogical Experiments and Opportunities
A. Jackson Street Project—Place-Based Education
B. Cleveland High School Project—Students as Change Agents
Gruenewald, “…A Critical Pedagogy of Place”
Hayden, excerpts from The Power of Place
hooks, "Homesite: a site of resistance"
Fielding, "Students as Radical Agents of Change"
Readings:
9. March 3
Readings:
10. March 10
Readings:
Due:
Education and Social Justice
A. Recognizing sacrifice
B. Framing choices
Williamson, "A Selected History of Social Justice in Education"
Dumas, “How do we get Dictionaries at Cleveland?”
Green, "Policy Questions"
Teachers as Agents of Social Justice
A. Cultivating agency
B. Public intellectuals
Baldwin, “A Talk to Teachers”
Giroux, “Teachers, Public Life and Curriculum Reform"
Greene, “Excellence: Meaning and Multiplicity”
Foundations Syllabus
Detailed Plan for One Class Session
Foundations Bibliography
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IX. Assignments
A. Three Reader Responses
1. Find and present three photos that open up issues of social justice in education, Jan 28.
2. Find and present one , Feb. 4.
3. Find and present one illustration of an issue of “public speech” in education, Feb 11.
B. One Oral Presentation
C. One Course Proposal for Teaching Foundations in Teacher Education—March 10
1. Syllabus
2. Detailed Plan for One Class Session
3. Course Bibliography
X. Bibliography of Assigned Course Readings
Historic Purposes of Foundations in Teacher Education
Beadie, N. (1995). "From 'Teacher as Decision Maker' to 'Teacher as Participant in Shared DecisionMaking,' Reframing the Purpose of Social Foundations in Teacher Education," Teachers College Record
98:1 (Fall): 77-103.
Counts, G. (1978 [1932]). Dare the School Build a New Social Order? Carbondale, Ill: Southern Illinois
University Press.
Grossman, P., McDonald, M., et. al. (2006). "Dismantling Dichotomies," unpublished paper….?
Greene, M. (1973). “Doing Philosophy and Building a World,” from Teacher as Stranger: Educational
Philosophy for the Modern Age. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing, 3-25.
Reframing the Purpose of Foundations in Teacher Education
Anderson, J. (2007). “Race-Conscious Educational Policies Versus a ‘Color-Blind Constitution’: A
Historical Perspective. Educational Researcher 36:5, 249-57.
Stanley, T. (2002). "Bringing Anti-racism into Historical Explanation: The Victoria Chinese Students'
Strike of 1922-3 Revisited," Journal of the Canadian History Association 13, 141-165.
Wineburg, S. et. al. (2007). “Common Belief and the Cultural Curriculum: An Intergenerational Study of
Historical Consciousness,” American Educational Research Journal 44:1, 40-76.
Problems of Civic Culture--Issues from Elementary Education
Valdes, G. (1996). Con respeto : bridging the distances between culturally diverse families and schools :
an ethnographic portrait. New York: Teachers College Press, pp. 1-29 and 168-189.
Problems of Civic Culture--Issues from Secondary Education
Green, T. F. (1993). Public Speech. San Francisco: Caddo Gap Press for The Society of Professors of
Education.
Pollock, M. (2004). “Race Doesn’t/Does Matter”and conclusion in Colormute: Race Talk Dilemmas in an
American School Princeton: Princeton University Press, 44-73 and 210-225.
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Pedagogical Experiments and Opportunities
Fielding, M. (2001). "Students
123-41.
as Radical Agents of Change," Journal of Educational Change 2:
Hayden, D. (1995). “Contested Terrain,” and “The Sense of Place and the Politics of Space,” The power of
place: Urban landscapes as public history. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 2-13 and 14-43.
Hooks, B. (1990). “Homeplace: a site of resistance.” Yearning race, gender, and cultural politics. Boston,
MA: South End Press, 41-55.
Education and Social Justice
Dumas, M. "Why are there no dictionaries in Cleveland High School?" forthcoming chapter….
Green, T. “Policy Questions,” Educational Policy Analysis Archives 2:7 (April 15, 1994): 975 lines.
Williamson, J., L. Rhodes, and M. Dunson (2007). A Selected History of Social Justice in Education,
Review of Research in Education (American Educational Research Association).
Teachers as Agents of Social Justice
Baldwin, J. “A Talk to Teachers,” in Essays….
Giroux, H. (1993?) "Teachers, Public Life and Curriculum Reform," Peabody Journal of Education, 35-47.
Greene, M. (1984). “Excellence”; Meanings, and Multiplicity. Teachers College Record. 86 (2), 283-97.
XI. Foundations knowledge and outcomes for Teacher Education—working document:
1.
2.
3.
4.
understanding of roles and responsibilities as a teacher
a. able to identify and critically engage the public purposes of schooling and his or her public
responsibilities as a teacher
b. recognizes the multiple and often competing purposes of schools in society
social and historical knowledge and understanding
a. is aware that different students, families and communities have different social and historical
relationships to schools
b. recognizes that schools are sites of social and historical struggle for many
c. is able to recognize what’s at stake in an educational issue from more than one perspective
philosophical knowledge and understanding
a. knows and understands how social values and public purposes are often in tension in education
and with each other
b. does not expect to find easy resolutions of such tensions, but is inclined to wrestle with them and
look for ways to balance or manage them in practice
c. has experience recognizing issues of equity and evidence of other social values in practice
self-understanding
a. understands that he or she is implicated in ongoing struggles over education, equity, and purposes
of schools by virtue of his or her formal roles as a teacher
b. has capacity to critically examine his or her relationship to such struggles as well as to power and
privilege
Summary Statement: TEP graduates know and understand how they are implicated in ongoing struggles over
education, equity, and the purposes of schooling by virtue of their formal roles as teachers. They seek and recognize
evidence of those values and struggles in practice; they critically examine their own and others' performance of them
in their work.
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