| CODE | EDS3103 | |||||||||
| TITLE | Understanding Schools | |||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 03 - Years 2, 3, 4 in Modular Undergraduate Course | |||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 6 | |||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 4 | |||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Education Studies | |||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | In the first part of this study-unit issues of diversity are considered. We start by looking at how groups and individuals are constituted as ‘subjects’ within specific discursive practices and relations of power. Amongst these are class, ‘race’, gender and dis-ability discourses. We then look at how the formation of pupil identities arises within specific social relations, often marked by injustice, prejudice and inequality. How do children deal with these differences? What implications do they have for them and their parents? In considering the ‘standpoint’ of oppressed groups we seek to develop a multicultural perspective which would transform curriculum and pedagogy. The focus of the second part is the curriculum. It is examined as a social construct, in the sense that it is contextually and historically embedded and shaped by a multiplicity of forces. Emphasis, therefore, will be placed on institutional cultures with their hidden messages and how these serve as contexts for curriculum practice. What makes for stability and change in the primary curriculum will also be critically examined. Part One: Learning, identity and difference “it is crucial that we not ignore the self nor the longing people have to transform the self, that we make the conditions for wholeness such that they are mirrored both in our own beings and in social and political reality” (hooks, 1993) In her introduction to the collection of essays on What Schools Can Do, Kathleen Weiler (1992) argues that in societies dominated by individualism and narrow forms of rationality that mask and justify inequalities ‘the political critiques of those who have been excluded and who are now speaking their own truths is vital in encouraging resistance and change.’ Taking the perspective of the excluded is a method that has been developed by different social theorists who have moved from critique of system inequalities of class, ‘race’ and gender to more grounded understanding of how groups and individuals are constituted as ‘subjects’ within different discursive practices, including relations of power. The concern with inequalities and social justice remains, but it is ‘embodied’ in the standpoint of members of the different groups of the excluded. Narrative is the main vehicle for having ‘voice’ and we will pay special attention to these narratives. Whilst the experience of inequality is specific and particular, it is also common to individuals as ‘members’ of discursively constructed groups. The reliable feminist slogan ‘the personal is political’ allows us to keep the focus on both the personal and the political, which leads to collective unity and political action. The critiques of and from the groups mentioned above called into question claims to unitary and transcendent truth, even claims to ‘unitary subjectivity’. In this course, the concept of ‘multiple subjectivities’ will be explored so as to deepen our understanding of how pupils and teachers are, or are not, able to construct different identities in different material and discursive locations. For each human person it is the constellation of difference ( of class, gender, sexuality, dis-Ability, ’race’) that leads to specific (non-reductionist or non-essentialist) identities. As prospective primary school teachers it is important to know what pupils make of difference. In an increasingly diverse classroom and school world, pupils are given many opportunities to learn from others with different cultures. Yet if schools continue to impose a dominant mono-culture, the richness of multiculturalism is lost. Moreover, some of the schools use ‘normalising’ or hegemonic discourses on pupils which not only impose one mono-cultural set of values and identities, but can be so oppressive to those who are ‘othered’ as to be considered sexist, racist, ablist and other forms of discrimination, prejudice and injustice. In this study-unit particular emphasis will therefore be placed on how we can change our pedagogies and our curriculum to have an authentic multicultural education. Children’s ways of dealing with cultural difference, teachers’ own response, will be studied in the light of what we also know from the standpoint of adults who have been able to critique the dominant school practices. Study-unit Outline Growing up in a world of contradictions and injustices-identities, standpoints and ‘othering’. This is an introductory lecture to the some of the more recent theories in sociology of education including correspondence and conflict theories. The critique of these theories from within feminist, multicultural and postmodern perspectives has lead to a new dimensions in our understanding issues of inequality in education. Looking at how discursive practices (regimes of truth/normalising discourses, institutional power) position individuals and groups, taking on standpoint positions and rejecting essentialising theories, we are better able to understand the complexity of pupils’ and teachers’ lives in schools. With these theoretical tools and standpoint narratives we are better equipped to understand difference and identity politics and their place in pupil learning. If school is the site for much identity/ies formation, what and who’s identity do pedagogy and the curriculum support? In what contexts and under what conditions of equality and inequality are these formed? Brah, A. (1996/2005) Cartographies of Diaspora: Contesting Identities, Introduction, Routledge, Taylor and Francis Lynch, K. and J. Baker (2005) Equality in Education: an equality of condition prespective, theory and Research in Education, vol 3 (2) , pp 131-164 Ramsey, P. G. (1998) Growing up in a world of contradictions and injustices: a multicultural response, in Teaching and Learning in a Diverse World: Multicultural Education for Young Children, New York, Teachers College Press Social Class Identities Much of the early work in sociology of education took a macro-perspective which looked at how large groups of pupils from different social class backgrounds fared in the educational system. It became clear that education was reproducing large scale inequality. But questions as to how this happened and what was the experience of different pupils remained unanswered until scholars looked into particular schools and their cultures as well as into classroom processes. Particular social class pedagogies were noted. Social class intersects with other forms of difference providing, for example, different outcomes for boys and girls. Other issues include the demands schools make on parents (particularly mothers) and the resources these have to respond. Children are now severely drawn into a cycle of consumption which serves as a politics of representation or marker of social class difference. How often do they reject each other on these grounds? What can teachers do to change this? Reay, D. (1998) chapter 6, ‘A labour of love’ and chapter 7, ‘Just talking to the Teacher? In Class Work: Mothers’ Involvement in their Children’s Primary Schooling, London, UCL Press Ball, S. J. (2009) , chapter 11, Circuits of Schooling : a Sociological exploration of parental choice in social class contexts, in Education Policy and Social Class Routledge Cote, J. E. (1996) Sociological perspectives on identity formation: the Culture/Identity Link and Identity Capital, Journal of Adolscence, no 19, pp. 417-428 Ramsey, P. (1998) chapter 4, The economic context, in Teaching and Learning in a Diverse World: Multicultural Education for Young Children, New York, Teachers College Press Darmanin, M. (1995) Classroom practices and class pedagogies, in J. Salisbury and S. Delamont (Eds.) Qualitative Studies in Education, Aldershot, Avebury Gender Difference and Identity Here we will approach gender through an exploration of the identity construction of femininities and masculinities. New understandings of subjectivity indicate that humans have multiple subjectivities which arise out of different discourses and different sites of power relations. Within these, girls and boys ‘learn’ femininities and masculinities. The school ethos, peer group fashions and cultures, teen romance or macho-movies, division of roles within the family are examples of some of these sites and discourses. Whilst for each person the constellation of these discourses in identity is unique, there are also commonalities that demonstrate the overpowering effect of some of these ‘normalising’ discourses. The spread of an ideology of romance through girls’ teen fiction is an example of a global market influencing individual identity all over the world. Some of these discourses and practices can be experienced positively by teachers and pupils, but others do not work for us in ways that lead to personal and social fulfilment. What types of girls and boys, women and men can we be in our society? What are the social implications of contemporary femininities and masculinities? Ramsey, P. (1998) chapter 6, Gender Identification and Roles, in Teaching and Learning in a Diverse World: Multicultural Education for Young Children, New York, Teachers College Press Murphy, P. (2001) Gendered learning and achievement, in J. Collins and D.Cook (Eds.) Understanding Learning: Influences and Outcomes, London, Paul Chapman Jackson, D. (1999) Breaking out of the binary trap: boys’ underachievement, schooling and gender relations, in D. Epstein, J. Elwood , V. Hey and J. Maw (Eds. ) Failing Boys? Issues in Gender and Achievement, Buckingham , OUP Francis, B. (2000) The gendered subject: students’ subject preferences and discussions of gender and subject ability, Oxford Review of Education, vol. 26, no. 1, pp 35-74 Sexuality - Body Politics and the Construction of the Sexual Other Sexuality plays a big part in pupils’ experience of schooling even from the earliest days at school. Despite the myth of childhood innocence and asexuality, schools are sites where sexual and other identities are developed, practised and actively produced. Although this identity production is never final, Epstein and Johnson (1998) argue that it can have ‘lasting ramifying consequences’. Many pupils and teachers experience school as a place where their sexuality is regulated and ‘normalised’. This is more so for gay and lesbian subjects though heterosexuals also conform to dominant discourses of desire, the body and sexual activity. The intersection of sexuality and age, class, dis/ability and ‘race’ shows how sexuality discourses can be hegemonic or subordinate, how they are used to oppress subordinate groups further and give more power to the dominant. Policing or regulating of ‘other’ sexuality in school give us stories of sadness as well as fun, of repulsion as much as attraction, of love and involvement but also of individual isolation and ‘difference’.. Much bullying is now sexual and can be both misogynist as well as homophobic. Ramsey, P. (1998) chapter 6, Sexual Orientation, in Teaching and Learning in a Diverse World: Multicultural Education for Young Children, New York, Teachers College Press Epstein, D. (1999) Real boys don’t work: ‘underachievement’, masculinity and the harassment of ‘sissies’, in D. Epstein, J. Elwood , V. Hey and J. Maw (Eds. ) Failing Boys? Issues in Gender and Achievement, Buckingham , OUP Epstein, D. (1997) Cultures of schooling/cultures of sexuality, International Journal of Inclusive Education, vol 1. , no 1, pp37-54 Racial and Ethnic Oppression We live in a global system of racial advantage in which some groups have unearned privileges and power over other groups by virtue of their physical characteristics. ‘Whiteness’ becomes an ‘invisible’ norm by which other groups are measured. Cultural differences based on ethnicity are further used to separate groups and to deny access to resources, to discriminate directly and indirectly between them, and to ‘other’ so-called minorities. These racialised discourses intersect with other discourses of gender, class, sexuality and disability to provide different experiences for different pupils. The curriculum itself is a site of the production of racialised identities. Classroom interaction, school discipline practices also show serious ‘colour-blind’ or racist practices. Multicultural and anti-racist education shows how we must move away from essentialist racist discourses and find suitable pedagogies that respect the diversity of pupils. Pupils have complex and contradictory responses to ‘race’ which is shown in friendship choices, in name-calling/language and in others. What can we do to move away from stereotypes, to value ethnic diversity, to produce a counter-hegemonic curriculum and pedagogy? Archer, L. and B. Francis (2007) chapter 2 Theoretical perspectives on race, gender, class and achievement, and chapter 7, Understanding and addressing educational inequalities in Understanding Minority Ethnic Achievemen t: Race, gender, class and ‘success’, Routledge, Taylor and Francis Ball, S. J. Reay, D. and M. David (2003/2009) chapter 14, ‘Ethnic choosing’ Mnority ethnic students, social class and higher education choice, in Ball, SJ. (2009) Education Policy and Social Class, Routledge Ramsey, P. (1998) The Context of ‘Race’, in Teaching and Learning in a Diverse World: Multicultural Education for Young Children, New York, Teachers College Press Gillborn, D. (1995) Racism, identity and modernity: pluralism, moral antiracism and plastic ethnicity, International Studies in Sociology of Education, vol 5., no 1, pp3-24 Disability and Special Challenges Disability provides special challenges to the disabled who go about their everyday life coping with the effects of an impairment including the difficulties the able-bodied create for them through discursive and social practices. It is also a challenge to the able-bodied whose fears or incomprehension have lead them to classify disability in ways in which they can be distanced from contact with or responsibility for disability. We reject these classifications and take difference as a positive form of identity politics for disabled people. Taking the standpoint (in narrative analysis) of those specially challenged by disability, we can explore some of the structural and social systems that make their impairment socially disabling. This includes a critical approach to the ableist discourses of the able-bodied. What factors of social life in and out of school compound to construct ‘social’ disability? How can we become an enabling society? In the primary school what understanding do pupils have of what it means to have an impairment? How do they and their teacher contribute to the further disabling of pupils? Do they engage in joint activities, make friendship choices which are cross-cultural? Ramsey, P. G. (1998) The context of abilities and disabilities, Teaching and Learning in a Diverse World: Multicultural Education for Young Children, New York, Teachers’ College Press Kerzner Lipsky D. and A. Gartner (1996) Equity requires inclusion: the future for all students with disabilities, in Christensen, C. and F. Rizvi (Eds) Disability and the Dilemmas of Education and Justice, Buckingham, OUP Napolitano Sue (1996) Mobility Impairment, in Hales, G (ed) Beyond Disability: Towards an Enabling Society, London, OUP Barnes Colin, (1996) Visual Impairment and Disability, in Hales, G (ed) Beyond Disability: Towards an Enabling Society, London, OUP Ford Sheila (1996) Learning Difficulties, in Hales, G (ed) Beyond Disability: Towards an Enabling Society, London, OUP Conclusion: Challenging Injustice, Changing Lives Finally we are faced with the difficult question ‘What is to be done?’. Challenges can be made to dominant structures and discourses but a deeper understanding of the politics of identity suggests that we also need to make personal commitments of acceptance of difference, of commitment to recognising the right to be different, of being honest about our own identities, of showing real solidarity with real people, whether they are pupils or teachers, in our schools. This could well involve changing our own relationships with others as well as changing the circumstances of our social life. It means involvement in the politics of schooling even beyond our work in the classroom- we are advocates against injustice. What are the practical applications of changing our assumptions and the status quo? How can we develop critical and supportive communities in which all our pupils can flourish? Ramsey. P. G. (1998) Everyday multiculturalism: practical applications, Teaching and Learning in a Diverse World: Multicultural Education for Young Children, New York, Teachers’ College Press Lynch, K. and A. Lodge (2002) chapter 11 Inequality and the 3Rs-redistibution, recognition and representation, in Equality and Powerin Schools: Redistribution, Recognition and Representation, London, RoutledgeFalmer Part 2: Understanding Schools The second part of the study-unit will deal with the various discourses and ideologies that inform the curricular experience. The different curricular models will provide the backdrop for an analysis of the national curriculum document and other local and international policy documents. The models will also provide the framework for an interrogation of the micro curricular experiences that unfold within our Primary schools. Set Texts Marsh, C.J. (2005) Key Concepts for Understanding Curriculum, Vols.1-2. London: Falmer Press Borg, C., Cardona, M. and Caruana, S. (2009) ‘Letter to a Teacher’: Lorenzo Milani’s Contribution to Critical Citizenship, Malta: Agenda. Additional Reading is indicated below. Session 1: Towards a Definition of Curriculum This introductory lecture will examine a list of definitions of curriculum in order to arrive at a collective understanding of the complex and multifaceted nature of the curricular experience. Readings: Marsh, C.J. (2005) Key Concepts for Understanding Curriculum. London: Falmer Press, Vol.1 - Chapters 1 and 2. Session 2: Ideologies and the Curriculum This session will serve to puncture the idea that curriculum is apolitical, innocent or neutral. The term ideology is introduced and the session will illustrate how ideologies are reproduced and contested through the curriculum. Set Readings: Marsh, C.J. (2005) Key Concepts for Understanding Curriculum. London: Falmer Press, Vol. II - Chapters 24, 25, 26 and 27. Suggested Reading: Apple, M. (1990) Ideology and Curriculum (2nd ed.), New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Session 3: Ideologies and the Curriculum – The Conservative Model This lecture will familiarise participants with the conservative - teacher-centered, subject- oriented, assessment-driven - model of curriculum development and design. Participants will examine the impact of such a curricular framework on the teaching-learning process within primary schools. Set Readings: Marsh, C.J. (2005) Key Concepts for Understanding Curriculum. London: Falmer Press, Vol. II - Chapters 24, 25, 26 and 27. Suggested Reading: Apple, M. (1990) Ideology and Curriculum (2nd ed.), New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Session 4: Ideologies and the Curriculum – The Liberal/Interactionist Model This lecture will familiarise participants with the liberal/interactionist approach to curriculum development. This approach emphasises rational thinking and child-centeredness. Participants will examine their own primary, curricular experience as students and as prospective primary-school teachers in the light of this curricular model. Set Readings: Marsh, C.J. (2005) Key Concepts for Understanding Curriculum. London: Falmer Press, Vol. II - Chapters 24, 25, 26 and 27. Suggested Reading: Miller, J.P and Seller, W. (1990) Curriculum Perspectives and Practice, Toronto: Copp Clark Pitman. Session 5-6: Ideologies and the Curriculum – The Transformative Model These sessions will deal with the transformative model of curriculum development. Participants will examine the extent to which the local primary curriculum experience emphasizes inter-disciplinarity, community learning, social commitment, alternative forms of assessment and the concept of a liberatory teacher. Set Reading: Freire, P. (1998) Teachers as Cultural Workers: Letters To Those Who Dare Teach, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press. Letter Four. Session 7: The Transformative Curriculum Model in Action Participants will analyse the curriculum process as experienced by the children of Barbiana, back in the 1960s. Participants will discuss the relevance of the Barbiana experience to today’s primary education. Borg, C., Cardona, M. and Caruana, S. (2009) ‘Letter to a Teacher’: Lorenzo Milani’s Contribution to Critical Citizenship, Malta: Agenda. Session 8: ‘Letter to a Teacher’ – Curriculum and Students’ Voice Participants will reflect on primary curriculum issues through the voice of the eight boys from Barbiana who wrote the famous ‘Letter to a Teacher’. Curricular issues discussed during this session include: relevance; immediacy; commitment; time-on-task; moral and ethical choices; selectivity; critical citizenship, collective dimension of learning; peer tutoring; and structural failure. Borg, C., Cardona, M. and Caruana, S. (2009) ‘Letter to a Teacher’: Lorenzo Milani’s Contribution to Critical Citizenship, Malta: Agenda. Sessions 9 -11: Local Policy Documents and the Curriculum Three policy documents will be examined in the light of the curriculum models discussed in sessions 3-6. The aim of these sessions is to examine the ideological underpinnings and curricular values foregrounded by the documents. Ministry of Education (1999) The National Minimum Curriculum, Malta: Klabb Kotba Maltin. Ministry of Education (2000) Creating Our Future Together, Malta: Salesian Press Ministry of Education (2005) For All Children to Succeed – A New Network Organisation for Quality Education in Malta, Malta: Salesian Press. Sessions 12-14: The Infrastructure of the Secondary Curriculum The success of the curriculum depends on the infrastructure that enables or stifles the teaching-learning experiences. These sessions will examine the extent to which issues of tracking, resourcing, examinations and testing, subject options, etc. are influencing curricular experiences. Set Readings: Marsh, C.J. (2005) Key Concepts for Understanding Curriculum. London: Falmer Press, Vol.I - Chapters 4, 5 and 7; Vol. II – Chapters 16 and 20. Reading List Recommended Text See each session. |
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| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture | |||||||||
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| LECTURER/S | Carmel P. Borg Louise Chircop |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2023/4. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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