FALL 1999
This information effective for Fall 1999.
Check with instructor the first day of class for any changes.
Professor Swanger
Prospectus
I. What kinds of questions and issues will be pursued in this course?
II. How does the course work?
This course provides a survey of these and other major topics in educational philosophy and practice. The lectures and readings are chronologically comprehensive, beginning with Plato and culminating in the work of contemporary thinkers; at the same time, the lectures and readings are issue oriented and somewhat idiosyncratic. That is, they reflect the professor's intellectual priorities, rather than a strict historical progression in the study of educational thought. Furthermore, given the number of questions and authors considered in the course, both the lectures and readings are introductory; it will be up to students to pursue in greater depth those topics they find of particular importance.
The lectures, for the most part, do not interpret the readings, but provide a conceptual framework within which they may be explored. Occasionally, and in particular when a given author is especially difficult, the lecture will offer a gloss on the reading; but otherwise, it is your responsibility to understand and analyse the readings, bringing questions to section meetings if you wish.
III. What are the course requirements?
The course meets twice a week in lecture, and there are opportunities for voluntary participation in sections. Section arrangements will be announced at the beginning of the course. Course requirements include satisfactory performance on a midterm and a final exam which cover both lecture and reading material.
Generally, the course requires that students commute, conceptually, across centuries of educational thought, analysing current educational thought and practice in terms of its historical antecedents.
IV. What are the course readings?
All required readings for the course are contained in the anthology, The Evolution of Education, available from the Baytree Book Store. Selections in The Evolution of Education are grouped by topic, and correspond to each week's lectures. No other text is required.
Professor Swanger
Course Goals--Range of Inquiry:
The course will enable us to study in depth major thinkers in education in Western culture; we approach this venture in the spirit of the liberal arts as described by Aristotle, to know the nature of causes, not merely effects.
Our work will enable us to explore the origins of contemporary educational thought, to understand how ideas in education have evolved and changed, to use philosophy and theory to analyse and critique current educational ideologies and practice. Note: as one example of how extensively and critically educational thought and practice has changed, see Frederick Wiseman's documentary film, High School.
Our inquiry will also enable us, as of this moment, to put into practice certain contemporary ideas about pedagogy and learning . Specifically, we will act on the idea that learning should be active rather than passive; the idea that learning is typically more significant as dialogue, rather than monologue; the idea that learning can be cooperative as well as competitive; the idea that learning is most salient when constructed by the student; the idea that different persons learn in different ways, albeit the dominant expression of learning in our culture is written exposition; the idea that assessment of learning can be multifold and ongoing; and the idea that the student her or himself can most intimately and cogently assess what she or he is learning.
Course Method--Process of Inquiry:
The course method is designed to enable us to act on the goals described above.
The bibliography comprises major texts in education, ranging from Plato to Giroux (with Swanger also included). Within this framework, we will, at the first course meeting, collectively identify topics of inquiry--issues, questions and problems--we wish to explore. You will be responsible, collaboratively, for thoroughly understanding each text weekly, and connecting it to a topic you choose that week, our aim being to know the text, and apply this knowledge to current issues.
In order to accomplish the understanding and connection of each text to your own inquiry, you will work as teams of approximately six persons throughout the quarter, studying each text together (this will require weekly critical dialogue within each team about that week's work).
Every third week (at least three times during the Quarter), each team will report to the class as a whole on its investigation of a question or questions concerning that week's text; these reports can take the form of a collaboratively authored research paper read to the class; a carefully planned, team-led discussion of the text in terms of given topics; a skit or drama enacted by the team which enlarges understanding of the text and the team's inquiry into it, etc. Each team presentation to the class will be approximately a half-hour long.
In addition to team presentations at weekly class sessions, there will be lectures by Professor Swanger on a particular issue, question or problem raised by the author under discussion. As an further resource, there will be a voluntary section, led by Professor Swanger, as well as office hours held by Supervisor Wilson and Professor Swanger each week. The sections and office hours will provide an opportunity, beyond class and team conversations, for clarification of texts, a possibly deeper pursuit matters raised in class, and general discussion.
III. Assessement of learning:
We will assess learning as follows:
1. at the end of each weekly class, we will reflect on the learning that has taken place, in terms of our assigned topics and as we generate spontaneous investigation of questions and issues,
2. at approximately the mid-point of the Quarter, you will write a Mid-Term Paper describing the effect that philosophy of education has had thus far on your thinking about educational policy and practice, with specific reference to authors read. This paper will be due at the end of the fifth week of the course, on November 6th. Because the instructors will read more than 50 papers, late work will not be considered except in the case of documented personal emergency.
3. at the end of the course, you will write several short essays in response to a Take Home Final Exam. Questions on the exam will be formulated in consultation among all of us, although the final decision on questions to be set rests with the instructors. The Final Exam will be due December 16, one week after the last class meeting.
IV. Practical Suggestions:
This course is an experiment in combining philosophy, learning theory, pedagogical theory, and practice--doing, in fact, what we say we ought to do in theory.
The obstacles to our integration of theory and practice are
considerable, and primarily structural--the size of the class
foremost among them. For the experiment to succeed, we will need not
only our willingness to undertake it, and belief in its worth, but
also some practical strategies. To wit: the teams can be skillfully
organized to share and delegate tasks; labor divisions within teams
can shift from week to week, and teams can build on individual
members' strengths as you allocate responsibilities; similarly, teams
can vary the ways that they present their inquiry to the class, using
particular abilities within each team, as well as the team's
collective impetus. While we are designating the teams arbitrarily,
we anticipate they will be heterogeneous and provide a variety of
talent, predilections, backgrounds and interests among members.
Finally, we can assess the progress of the experiment as we progress,
modify it as necessary, sustain our sense of adventure
throughout.
V. Bibliography--In Chonological Order:
Plato, The Republic
Rousseau, John Jacques, Emile, Julie and Other Writings
Montessori, Maria, The Montessori Method
Dewey, John, Democracy and Education
Freire, Paulo, Pedagogy of the Oppressed/Lee, Spike:
film, Malcolm X.
hooks, bell, Teaching to Transgress.
Rodriguez, Richard, The Hunger of Memory
Giroux, Henry, Teachers as Intellectuals: Toward a Critical
Pedagogy of Learning
Swanger, D., Essays in Aesthetic Education
All books are available through The Literary Guillotine, an independent bookstore owned and managed by an alumnus. The Literary Guillotine is located downtown, at 204 Locust St.
VI. Schedule of Work and Team Presentations: 8 Teams of approx. 6 persons per team:
Week:
I. Course introduction, organization, goals, method. Major questions set. Teams convene and plan.
II. Plato: Teams 1,2,3:, Presentations. Instructor lecture and discussion.
III. Rousseau: Teams 4,5,6, Presentations. Instructor lecture and discussion.
IV. Montessori: Teams 7,8,1, Presentations. Instructor lecture and discussion.
V. Dewey: Teams 2,3,4, Presentations. Instructor lecture and discussion.
VI. Freire: Teams 5,6,7, Presentations. Instructor lecture and discussion.
VII. hooks: Teams 8,1,2, Presentations. Instructor lecture and discussion.
VIII. Rodriguez: Teams 3,4,5, Presentations. Instructor lecture and discussion.
IX. Giroux: Teams 6,7,8, Presentations. Instructor lecture and discussion.
X. No Team Presentations: Swanger on aesthetic and moral education.
VII. Amenities:
Because the class runs 3 1/2 hours, and does so through dinner time, we shall take a light supper break mid-way through each session, commencing Week II. Each week a different team will be responsible for bringing food and non-alcoholic beverages. Our clean-up after class thus becomes critical, for the sake of the custodian.