UNIVERSITY  OF NORTH CAROLINA                          UNIT: School of Education

AT GREENSBORO                                                      DEPT: Educational Leadership and Cultural Foundations

COURSE SYLLABUS

1.     Course Prefix and Number: ELC 609

2.     Course Title: Epistemology and Education

3.     Credits:     3.0

4.     Course Prerequisites/Corequisites: 696 or 697 or their equivalents

5.     For Whom Planned: Elective course in the Masters of School Administration, the Ed.S. and Ed.D. in Educational Leadership, the Ph.D. in Cultural Foundations, and other departments in the school of education.

6.     Instructor Information: 

7.     Course Purpose/Catalog Description: An overview of several systems of knowledge and the problems of knowing, knowing how, and belief. Deals with intellect, rationality, and positional knowledge.

8.     Teachers Academy Conceptual Framework Mission Statement: The mission of professional education at UNCG is to prepare and support the professional development of caring, collaborative, and competent educators who work in diverse settings. This mission is carried out in an environment that nurtures the active engagement of all participants, values individual as well as cultural diversity and recognizes the importance of reflection and integration of theory and practice. UNCG's professional education programs are guided by shared commitments to: (a) equity and excellence in teaching, research, and service; (b) professional integrity and ethical deliberation in dealing with students and colleagues (university-based, school-based, and community-based); (c) the construction of a professional knowledge base through collaboration and collegiality; and (d) the dissemination of professional knowledge, skills and dispositions through the preparation and continuing professional development of teachers, principals and other school personnel.

9.     Course Goals and/or Objectives/Student Learning Outcomes: Instructor's statement of learning outcomes OR goals/objectives from state or national professional standards (please identify the organization, e.g. DPI, CEC, etc.)

      This course will examine the study of knowledge, centralizing gender and race as necessary aspects of epistemology.  We will ask:  what constitutes knowledge? who can know? what is the place of experience and social position in knowledge? and what is the interplay of knowledge and power?  We will read classic philosophical texts in conversation with recent work in feminist standpoint epistemology, as well as feminist post-structuralist criticisms of standpoint epistemology.  Our overarching concern will be to interrogate our understanding of knowledge, particularly with reference to how we make and justify knowledge claims in education.  Of particular interest will be how the variety of epistemologies we examine ãand what they are variously haunted byã help us to understand contemporary debates over school curricula, multiculturalism, gender and schooling, and debates over the canon. 

10.  Teaching Strategies: For example, lecture, class discussion, group work, conferences, student presentations, electronic chat room, etc.

11.  Evaluation Methods and Guidelines for Assignments: Statement of how students will be evaluated in the course and/or list of course requirements

                 Attendance:  Always a good idea.

Participation:  Each student will be responsible for active participation as well as one presentation on a substantial reading (10%).  Your presentation should briefly  remind us of the main ideas of the reading(s) for the day largely in your own words (indicate clearly when you are quoting directly) and then substantially engage in a detailed analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the authorπs argument as it pertains to a contemporary educational/political issue.

Written Assignments: On Feb. 21, you will submit a 4 page prospectus for your seminar paper detailing your preliminary argument (10%).  A full draft of your seminar paper will be due Apr. 11 (10%).  The seminar paper, due during exam week, will be 12-15 pages in length and engage in depth with class materials on a question dealing with education or schooling (70%).  Arrange in advance should lateness be unavoidable.

12.  Required Text(s)/Readings/References: Use full citations

Descartes, A Discourse on Methods (Penguin); Mill, On Liberty (Oxford); Melville, Benito Cereno (Dover Thrift); James, Pragmatism (Dover Thrift); DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk (Dover Thrift); Morrison, Beloved (Plume); on line reserve readings (see instructions; also available at reserve desk)

13.  Topical Outline: This might also be your calendar.  The course outline should contain sufficient detail to permit assessment of agreement between actual content and stated objectives and catalog description.

Schedule of Readings

1.     Introduction

2.     On line reserve:  Plato, Meno

3.     Descartes, Discourse on Method, 27-91

4.     Mill, On Liberty

5.    Melville, Benito Cereno, video:  ≥A Jury of Her Peers≤

6.     On line reserve: Dewey, ch. 1 and 2 from The Quest for Certainty, James, selections from Pragmatism

7.   DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk, Prospectus due, bring enough copies for your research group and one to hand in to me.  Groups will discuss each otherπs work next week.

8.     Prospectus discussion

9.     Spring Break

10.  On line reserve:  Freud, ≥The åUncanny,π≤ from The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, vol. 17, trans. and ed. by James Strachey, London:  Hogarth Press, 1955, 219-256.

11.  Morrison, Beloved

12.  On line reserve: Gloria Anzald˙a, ≥La conciencia de la mestiza:  Towards a New Consciousness,≤ from Making Face, Making Soul:  Haciendo Caras edited by Gloria Anzald˙a, San Francisco:  Aunt Lute Books, 1990:  377-389; Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, "Can the Subaltern Speak?" from The Post-Colonial Studies Reader, edited by Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin, NY:  Routledge, 1995, 24-28.

13.  On line reserve: Joan W. Scott, ≥The Evidence of Experience,≤ from The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader edited by Henry Abelove, Michele Aina Barale, and David Halperin, New York:  Routledge, 1993:  397-415. Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, ≥Epistemology of the Closet≤ from Epistemology of the Closet, Berkeley:  University of California Press, 1990:  65-90.  Draft of paper due next week.

14.  On line reserve: Monique Wittig, ≥One is not Born a Woman≤ from The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader edited by Henry Abelove, Michele Aina Barale, and David Halperin, New York:  Routledge, 1993:  103-109, Cheryl I. Harris, ≥Whiteness as Property,≤ from Critical Race Theory:  The Key Readings that Formed the Movement, edited by Kimberle Crenshaw, Neil Gotanda, Gary Peller, and Kendall Thomas, New York:  The New Press, 1995:  276-291.  Paper draft due

15.  On line reserve: Donna Haraway, ≥Modest_Witness@Second_Millennium≤ from Modest Witness@Second Millenium.  FemaleMan Meets OncoMouseTM, NY:  Routledge, 1997, 23-45. video:  "Blade Runner"

16.   Paper discussions, overflow

Final drafts of papers due at scheduled exam time.

14.  Other Information: Any other items you normally include on your course syllabus such as Academic Honor Code, Attendance Policy, Additional Requirements, etc.

15.  Recommended Text(s) and/or Readings: A bibliography or list of references highlighting recent scholarship (pedagogy and research) in the subject area

16.  Alignment with State and National Standards: Attach a matrix aligning the course goals/objectives with INTASC and/or NBPTS, DPI guidelines or competencies, standards of your professional organization (CEC, NCTM, NCTE, NCSS, NASD, etc.).  See the CUI 553 matrix as an example. If these were included as part of the course goals/objectives listed #9, you do not have to repeat them in a matrix.