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PHIL-330 CBL: Foundations of Education
Spring only
This course is organized as a group investigation into the following question: Is public education necessary?
To address the question, we will first need to spend time figuring out what the question could be taken to mean. Our inquiry will also lead us to examine our most basic assumptions about education and learning, such as the necessity of compulsory formal schooling for young people, and the capacities and rights of people under 18. We'll ask whether schools are good for children or and our society, and whether education should be organized and distributed in the way that it is.
Since the specific questions to be raised through the class's inquiry will be determined in part by the students themselves as the semester unfolds, the specific content of the course will also be determined in part by the students. While the specific content is currently indeterminate, the course (in any case) will be a cross-disciplinary examination the ideals and practices of American education and schooling: to address the question that the course raises we will need to delve into the philosophical, historical, sociological, and political disciplinary foundations of education.
We will read the original writings of individuals who have influenced the practice and theory of schooling and education in order to gain insight into the historical expectations about the role of public schooling in the United States and to see if those ideas have merit. We will look at public policies as artifacts that represent particular views about the purposes of schooling and education, the nature of the good society and life, and the role of the state. Given the ideals of liberal democracy that permeate our culture and our system of schooling, we will focus much of our attention on the nature of these ideals, their implications for education, and the challenges they present. We will also need to be attentive to the fact that schooling has been and continues to be a means of both empowering and denying power, of transmitting privilege across generations, and providing opportunity. Throughout our inquiry we'll need keep in mind the distinction between facts and norms, between questions about what is and those about what ought to be, and between actual practices and ideals.
Since our inquiry relates to things that occur in the world and things that we want to see happen in the world rather than just the realm of ideas, in addition to philosophical argument and analysis, our inquiry will need to be attentive to the world around us. For this reason, this course has been designated a community-based learning (cbl) course; students will be required to commit a total of 12-14 hours during the semester participating in off-campus activities related to the course. The local schools and the many community groups focused on education provide a rich environment for our inquiry, and the hours you spend in the community will provide you with direct experiences in that environment in order to enhance your understanding of education in a way that is simply not possible through readings and classroom based experiences alone. The specific community activities to satisfy the cbl requirements will be selected by the professor.
The other course assignments reflect a recognition of the time commitment required to complete the community-based learning work. Much of the course will be conducted through discussion. The primary assignments for the course will consist of short written responses (in the form of blog entries) to the professor's prompts throughout the semester; these prompts will require that you reflect on themes from the course readings and engage in an online interactive discussion with your classmates. You will also guide small group discussions about your community-based experiences, and submit short written analyses of the experiences as well.
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: None
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