Fall Semester 2003 ?

EDUC 240 ?

-3 ?

41

?

In CharlesBingham

Social Issues in Education ?

Office: EDB 8653

Tuesdays 8:30-10:20 ?

Phone: 268-6578

C9000 ?

D02.00

?

email: cwb@sfu.ca

PREREQUISITE:

None.

This course introduces students to a number of social mechanisms that work inside and outside of educational

institutions. The social mechanisms to be studied will be authority, recognition, reproduction, and resistance.

The assumption of this course is that one cannot be an effective educator, nor can one be knowledgeable

about education in general, without thinking about the ways that social mechanisms inform educational

practices. To that end, one of the goals of this course is to encourage fruitful dialogue about social issues in

class discussions, and to encourage personal re-valuing of some of the ways that we engage with others in

educational institutions. This course is not about a list of facts or certain solutions/outcomes. It is about

learning some of the mechanisms that exist in educational situations, and about becoming aware, becoming

wide awake, to the social dangers and the social benefits that arise during the educational process.

What do you need to participate? You need to be receptive to various perspectives and thoughts on

educational issues. If you can imagine connections between, on the one hand, educational institutions and all

of the things that people do therein, and, on the other, the social dynamics that get enacted in the world

around us, then you will be prepared to participate in this course. Participation includes voicing your

thoughts, completing all of the readings (they are challenging), and doing the required writings and group

projects under the guidance of your tutorial instructors.

COURSE WORK

&

EVALUATION

• 30% Final paper based on course readings

• 25% Tutorial participation

• 25% Two reflective writing pieces

• 20% Group presentation

REQUIRED READING: 5 books, 1 small course reader

Gaines, E.,

A Lesson Before Dying,

Vintage Books, 1997

Freire, P.,

Pedagogy of the Oppressed,

Continuum, 2000

Gussin Paley, V.,

You Can't Say You Can't Play,

Harvard UP, 1992,

Fugard,

A., My Children! My Africa!

Theatre Communications Group, 1990

Kohl, H.,

I Won't Learn From You,

New Press, 1994

Educ 240 custom courseware.