6
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SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
EDUCATION 240-3
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SOCIAL ISSUES IN EDUCATION
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(D1.00)
Fall Semester, 1994
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Instructor: Celia Haig-Brown, Ph.D.
(September 6-December 5)
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Office: ?
MPX 8635
Mondays & Wednesdays
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Phone: ?
291-3459
14:30-15:20 (+ tutorials)
Location: AQ 3150
By"critical" I mean a philosophy that is aware of the limits of knowing, Gayatri Spivak 1994.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
"It is open season on schools," claims Sandro Contenta. This course provides students an opportunity for
critical examination of a range of social issues in education, from schooling to political correctness.
Inherent in the course is the understanding that education always exists in a social and historical
context. To make visible the impact of these contexts particularly on schooling and to question the
unquestionable about education are goals of the course. Lectures are used to present the issues while the
required texts and articles provide additional perspectives on the topics under discussion. In tutorials,
with teaching assistants, students have the opportunity for deeper, focused discussion based in their
own education. Assignments and exams allow for synthesis of developing ideas. There will be a
variety of guest speakers and videos.
OBJECTIVES:
Through the introduction of critical educational analysis, it is anticipated students will develop their
abilities to engage in informed discussions of the purposes and practices of schooling. Examination of
schools as sites of struggle over resources and ideologies, as locations of complex power relations, and as
places of possibility are all aspects of the analysis.
TOPICS:
The social construction of education and schooling, current issues in British Columbia schools, political
correctness versus academic freedom, racism, sexism, heterosexism, and class bias in schools; and
sociological orientations to schools such as functionalism, reproduction, and cultural production,
meritocracy, hegemony and agency.
COURSE ASSESSMENT
Two short papers (in class) ...................................................................20% each
Mid-term ............................................................................................25%
Finalexam or paper.............................................................................35%
REQUIRED TEXTS
Sylvia Ashton Warner.
Teacher.
New York: Simon Schuster.
Sandro Contenta.
Rituals
of
Failure.
Toronto: Between the Lives.
Linda Jaine.
Residential Schools: The Stolen Years.
U. of Sask.: Univ. Extension.
Jane Gaskell et al.
Claiming an Education.
Garamond Press.
B. C. Ministry of Education.
Legacy for Learners Report of
Royal Commission on Education.
Province of
B.
C., (1993).
B. C. Ministry of Education. Gender Equity 1991. Province of B. C.
