Syllabus

“Urban Professional Multicultural Educator”

LSE 380-903

Philosophical Issues in Education

Instructor: Craig A. Cunningham, Ph.D.

Office:   University of Chicago

Office phone: 773-702-4885

Email:   c-cunningham@uchicago.edu

Office hours:   before or after class by appointment only

Required Text:   Book: Cahn, Steven M. 1997. Classic and Contemporary Readings in the Philosophy of Education . New York : McGraw Hill, Inc.

Conceptual Framework

This course serves the purposes and goals of the DePaul University School of Education's Conceptual Framework, “Urban Professional Multicultural Educators.”   Students in the course will learn about the implications of diversity for student learning and school structure, be prepared to related philosophical theories to school practices, consider multiple perspectives about the structure of schooling and appropriate responses to social dynamics and individual differences, lay a groundwork of understanding for lifelong learning related to the philosophy of education, reflect individually and as a group on what is needed for personal and social transformation, and internalize the qualities of Vincentian Personalism (that is, be ethical, collaborative, socially responsible, and service-oriented).   

Methods of Instruction

This course includes a variety of experiences oriented around a set of philosophical issues related to education and designed to help the students to meet the outcomes. These experiences will include reading, research, lectures, guided discussion, small group discussion, student presentations, and directed writing assignments. It is hoped that students will take the opportunity to relate these issues and experiences to the events in their own educational history and begin to develop an informed and reflective professional understanding of these events, so that they will help rather than hinder their own professional growth.

A course website, at http://craigcunningham.com/depaul , will contain an updated syllabi, course notes, and relevant links.   The web site will evolve during the quarter, and students should plan to visit it at least weekly to access new resources.

Program Performance Standards

A variety of organizations promote standards for teacher education.   The State of Illinois has its own standards, available at http://www.isbe.state.il.us/profprep/ .

The Council for Social Foundations of Education (CSFE, formerly known as the Council of Learned Societies in Education), which is one of the constituent members of the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), has produced a detailed set of Standards for Academic and Professional Instruction in Foundations of Education, Educational Studies, and Educational Policy Studies, available on the web at http://members.aol.com/caddogap/standard.htm . Program standards (for elementary education and certain secondary education fields) are available on the NCATE website at http://www.ncate.org/standard/programstds.htm .

Course Objectives:

Upon completion of the course , students will be able to:

• Critically read writings about education more specifically by: summarizing an author's point of view, evaluating the evidence used to support the point of view, drawing conclusions from the theories/ideologies of education and the evidence presented, and identifying the implications of various philosophical and historical ideas on educational development and teaching practices.
• Analyze and present educational ideas and ideas about education in a historical context, e.g. considering moral, social, and political influences on the shaping of classrooms, teaching, and elementary, middle, and high schools.
• Articulate theories about how the institutional, cultural, historical, and political relationships among schools, teacher training programs, and other educational agencies have influenced and continue to influence education practices in American schools.
• Demonstrate an understanding of the ways in which cultural differences in values, expectations, attitudes toward education, and differing beliefs about the importance of social conformity versus individual creativity influence schooling cultures and processes.
• Demonstrate an understanding of how contemporary issues in education represent recurring themes in the history and philosophy of education, by articulating various perspectives on these issues.
• Compare and contrast "traditional" and "progressive" educational orientations by analyzing the ideas of at least two proponents of educational ideas and the implications of their beliefs on schooling and classroom practice in elementary, middle, and high schools.
• Articulate and defend personal beliefs on: the purposes of education , the nature of virtue/excellence, what should be taught in school, the nature of the learner and the teacher/student relationships, focusing on elementary, middle, and high schools.
• Complete a project or paper in which the student applies historical, philosophical, and sociological analysis and synthesis to a contemporary issue or position concerning education in elementary, middle, or high schools.

Course Requirements

• Attendance at all sessions. Please inform the instructor in advance if you are going to miss a session. Students who miss more than three sessions will not pass the course.
• Regular and voluntary participation in discussions. This is seminar-style course, and it depends upon each participant for its energy and vitality. You should make a point of contributing at least once during each class session. (If you are not in class your participation grade for that class will be 0.) Participation constitutes 25% of the final grade in the course.
• Reading assignments as posted here and announced in class.
• One five-minute reading summary to be presented to the class at the start of a discussion. Students will sign up for the date of their reading summary during the second class session. You must supply a handout with your summary. A list of suggestions for the reading summary will be handed out in class and available on the course website. This constitutes 5% of the final grade.   .
• Three papers . The first paper (5 to 7 pages) will be on an assigned question related to Plato's Meno and will constitute 15% of the final grade. The second paper (6 to 8 pages) will relate to one of the readings by Dewey but will be on a question or topic of the students' choice, and will constitute 25% of the final grade. The third paper (8 to 12 pages) will be about a contemporary issue in education and will relate to readings selected by the student as well as readings discussed in the class. The paper is due on the last day of class. The final paper constitutes 30% of the final grade in the course. (Note that the final paper is due only one week after the second paper.   You should plan to work on the final paper throughout the quarter instead of saving it until the very end . You will be helped in this by having a series of preliminary assignments due earlier in the quarter.)

Schedule of Topics and Assignments

Assignments are listed on the day they are DUE. These assignments may change as the semester proceeds. Please check the web site for the latest version of this syllabus. http://craigcunningham.com/depaul .

March 30: Introduction to the course, students, texts, teacher, assignments.

April 6: Cahn, "Preface," "Introduction" and Plato, Meno. Sign-up for reading summaries.

April 13:   NO CLASS (American Educational Research Association)

April 20: Plato, Protagoras (selection).

April 27: Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics (selections). Reading summaries begin. Inform instructor of your choice of issue for third paper.

May 4: Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education (selections). First paper due.  

May 11: Rousseau, Emile (selections). Cahn, reading by Neill.

May18: Dewey, "The Child and the Curriculum." Cahn: reading by Egan. Provide instructor with a summary of two divergent perspectives on your issue for the third paper.

May 25: Dewey, Experience and Education. Cahn, reading by Greene.

June 1: Cahn, readings by Scheffler and Freire. Second paper due.

June 8: Cahn, readings by Noddings and Martin. Third paper due.