Re-envisioning Education & Democracy

Education & Political Science 59

Spring 2002

Course Staff:

Chuck Green

Political Science

651-696-6481 green@macalester.edu

Ruthanne Kurth-Schai

Education Political Science

651- 696-6035 kurthschai@macalester.edu

Research Assistant: Simone King

Course Homepage

Course Description:

Explorations of the theory and practice of education and democracy through collaborative community- based research and development leading to the design of innovative, principled, educationally and politically feasible solutions to central education policy challenges and opportunities.

Course Materials:

Fraser, James, Reading, Writing, and Justice: School Reform as if Democracy Matters. (State University of New York Press, 1997).

Matthews, David. Is There a Public for Public Schools?” (Charles F. Kettering Foundation, 1996).

McDonnell, Lorraine, Timpane, P. Michael, and Benjamin, Roger (eds.) Rediscovering the Democratic Purposes of Education (University Press of Kansas, 2000).

Supplementary materials on the course website (see below) and distributed in class.

Course Components:

Conversational Reading: an exploratory approach to assigned and supplementary texts emphasizing resonance, recursion, and social responsibility.

Public Intellectual Essay: informative, accessible, and compelling interpretations of theory, research and policy recommendations written to engage public reflection and participation.

Strategic Narrative: narrative compositions constructed strategically to develop and sustain informed empathy and policy imagination.

Ethnographic Futures Interviews: interviews with course colleagues, Macalester faculty and staff, and community participants, activists, and experts designed to articulate and extend individual insights and identify personal priorities.

Delphi Process: an iterative survey technique that synthesizes diverse resources (community visits and consultations, contemporary theory and research, etc.) to determine consensus goals and strategies for policy design.

Reform Initiatives: collaborative design of policy initiatives to support civic engagement and democratic practices in contemporary urban public high schools with detailed attention to the socio-economic and political contexts, educational philosophies, programs of instruction, school policies, resource acquisition and allocations, school-community relations, physical facilities, meeting state and local guidelines, etc.).

Consultation and Evaluation: review of collaborative design by peers and community consultants as well as the course faculty.

On-line Activities: use of ‘Nicenet’ to accommodate course scheduling, conferencing, and other design processes accompanied by on-going development of the course website as a community resource (display of public intellectual essays, annotated print and on-line resources, reform initiatives, etc.)

Course Schedule: (subject to minor revisions; individual and group production items in bold )

Week 1 - January 28

Introductions, Identifications, and Insights: pre-over-re-views

Course Map and Agenda

One-minute Education Metaphors

Conferencing begins on nicenet

Week 2 - February 4

Conversational Reading* PIE Previews

Education Metaphors on nicenet

Delphi: Statement Construction Workshop

One-minute Democracy Metaphors

Week 3 - February 11

Democracy Metaphors on nicenet

Delphi: Theories, Roles, and Responsibilities Statements*

Delphi: Interview Workshop

Conversational Reading

PIE I assigned

Week 4 - February 18

Interviews

Conversational Reading

Delphi: Interview Mini-Workshops

Delphi: Challenges to Democracy Statements [reading to date]*
Consultation with Mary Beth Blegen, Coordinator of Design Teams, St. Paul Blueprint Iniative

Week 5 - February 25

Interviews end by 1 March

PIE support and development

PIE identifications and contexts [IN Friday 1 March]

Delphi: Democratic Process Statements [PIE and reading to date]

Conversational Reading

Week 6 - March 4

PIE II assigned

Delphi: Interview Statements

Delphi Democratic Process Statements [reading to date]*

Delphi: Survey Construction begins

Course Map Overlay assignment

Consultation with Joe Nathan, Director of Center for School Change

Week 7 - March 11

Delphi: Survey Construction completed

PIE II (status report IN Wednesday 13 March)

Self-Evaluation I in Friday 15 March

Week 8 - March 18

Agendas and strategies for Part II

Delphi: Survey completed and ready for distribution

Convergent Conversations

Spring Break

Week 9 - April 1

Delphi Surveys returned - analysis and report construction

Conversational Reading [nicenet conference]

PIE workshops

Reform Initiative Workshops ---research and development strategies

Week 10 - April 8

Conversational Reading [nicenet conference]

Delphi---analysis and report reviewed for web posting

Reform Initiative Workshops ---research and development

PIE workshops

Consultation with Kwame JC MacDonald, Fellow, Center for School Change/St. Paul Blueprint Inititative

Week 11 - April 15

Reform Initiative Workshops ---research and development

Reform Initiatives: Strategic Narratives

PIE Working Drafts and Peer Review

PIE Social Poetry

Week 12 - April 22

Converging Conversations

Public Intellectual Essay IN [ready for web posting] Wed 24 April

Reform Initiative Workshops [abstract for nicenet.org posting]

Week 13 - April 29

Converging Conversations [nicenet conference]

Reform Initiatives IN [ready for web posting] Wed. 1 May

Education and Democracy Metaphors reconsidered [final nicenet.org posting]

Week 14 - May 6 [last class day]

Converging Conversations

Recognitions and Celebrations

Self-Evaluation II IN

Schedule of Readings:

Theories, Roles & Responsibilities of Public Schooling in a Democratic Society - (Weeks 1 & 2)

Matthews - 1 & 2

Fraser - Introduction & 2

McDonnell et al. - 1 & 2

Challenges to Democracy in Schools & Society - (Weeks 3 & 4)

Economic Issues: Fraser - 1; McDonnell et al. - 3

Youth & Society Issues: Fraser - 4

Race/Ethnicity Issues: Fraser - 3

Democratic Processes - Strategies for Design & Implementation - (Weeks 5 & 6)

Public Participation: Matthews - 3 & 4; McDonnell et al. - 8

Pedagogy: McDonnell et al. - 5

Organizational Change: McDonnell et al. - 6

Recursive Readings – Convergent Conversations - (Weeks 9 & 10)

McDonnell et al. - 4, 7, 9

Fraser - 5

Others to be assigned.

Evaluation:

Assessed Individually

Nicenet Conferencing - 4

Metaphors - 2

Conversational Reading - 2

Delphi Statement Constrution - 20

Public Intellectual Essay - 30

Issue Identification/Context - 3

Peer Review [Social Poetry] - 2

Final Essay (including annotated resources) - 25

Self-evaluation - 6

Midterm - 2

Final - 4

Assessed as Group

Delphi Survey Construction - 10

Reform Initiative - 30

Reform Initiative - 25

Peer Review [Strategic Narrative] - 5

Total: 100