This course will support students’ understanding of and engagement with becoming effective educational leaders. It will do so by sustained investigations of the social, cultural, and historical conditions of schools in American society and the changing role of educational leaders in meeting such challenges. Readings of classic and contemporary texts will align with substantive in-class discussions and coursework to prepare educational leaders to view schools within the larger context of American society. Additionally, this course serves to support students’ dissertation proposal through a thorough engagement with the theoretical framework and literature review of their specific dissertation topic.
Syllabus (summer 2007)
Resources
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June 28 - Introduction
1) The Role of Theory in a Dissertation
2) Contextualizing the foundations in education
3) Confronting the lack of consensus read A.S. Neill's Summerhill (excerpt from Ch. 1) read E. D. Hirsch's essay "Why General Knowledge..." |
"There is nothing so practical as a good theory" ~ Kurt Lewin
more information about Summerhill: More information about Core Knowledge schools:
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July 5 - Theoretical Perspectives - The Role of Schooling in a Democratic Society
1) John Dewey's Democracy and Education, Ch. 13
2) Nel Noddings, "What Does it Mean to Educate the Whole Child?"
3) Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Ch. 2
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Educational theories
- InfEd; see especially their "thinkers" and more general "ideas" table of contents - Theory into Practice database - EmTech - UC-Denver Theory site - Timeline of recent critical theorizing - several critical and feminist theorists, U-Miami site
More about:
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July 12 - Cultural Competence and Issues of Diversity
1) Lisa Delpit, "The Silenced Dialogue"
2) John Ogbu, "Minority Status"
3) Richard Rothstein, "Class and the Classroom"
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Background resources Gary Orfield and Chungmei Lee, Racial Transformation and the Changing Nature of Segregation, Harvard Civil Rights Project, 2006 NAACP Call for Action in Education, 2003 National Council of La Raza, Hispanic Education in California, 2003. Helen Moore, “Testing Whiteness: No Child or No School Left Behind” Washington University Journal of Law and Policy v. 18 (2005) p. 173-202
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July 19 - Schools as (Bureaucratic) Organizations
1) Phillip Jackson, Life in Classrooms
2) Larry Cuban and David Tyack, Tinkering Towards Utopia
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July 26 - Implications of Foundations
1) David Labaree, How To Succeed in School Without Really Learning |
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August 2 - Conclusion |
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