Brown V. Board Images

Videos about Kenneth Clark's Doll Study








Obama's Speech on Race: A More Perfect Union

On Being an Ally



Dave Chappell on the Importance of Talking about Race

The Ethic of Care

Another text that is not on our syllabus but may be interesting to you for your general knowledge and/or for your projects is the work of Nel Noddings.

Noddings is best known for her work on the "ethic of care" -- you can read more about her and this work here.

Interest in Intrinsic/Extrinsic motivation

While we didn't officially read anything on different motivation strategies, several of you have been interested in this topic. For more, check out Alfie Kohn's work on this topic...

--> For the dangers of rewards and praise, Five Reasons to Stop Saying Good Job

Hi folks,

I am sorry I didn't get this up until just now... here are the "readings" for this week. Rather than being due on Sunday night by midnight, they are due Monday night by midnight. Do the best you can to get them up as soon as possible so that others can read them before class on Tuesday.

The readings for this week are not exactly readings, but things to check out online. This week marks a shift in the syllabus. Up until this point, we have been reading about broad theories about diversity and difference:

Be the Change
Culture of Power
Normalizing Community
Public Identity v. Private Identity
White Privilege

Now we are going to start to look at historical moments where these topics came into view in our schools. Our topic this week is about Brown vs. Board of Education (1954). You have THREE tasks for this week:

1) I want you to explore this website to give you some background on Brown v. Board of Education.

2) Then I want you to watch these two videos that highlight the work of Tim Wise, author of "Between Barack and a Hard Place"





3) Now blog about it.
What is the relationship between the historical issues you see in the website on Brown v. Board of Education and the contemporary issues of race that Tim Wise raises here.

Leave comments if you have any questions...

And please note... your midterm letter is NOT due this week. I will hand it out in class on Tuesday and it will be due the following week.

LB :)

Why do we do Service Learning?

When I first came to RIC, I was a bit skeptical of the service learning requirement in FNED 346. I felt very uncomfortable with the idea that throwing a bunch of college students -- (mostly) white college students -- into urban schools to work with (mostly) students of color who live at or below poverty would somehow "make a difference" for anyone. I worried that the experience might even reinforce some of the stereotypes about urban school in the US, and that this would be a big ol' bandaid on a broken leg.

Today, I still have those concerns, but I also know that I would not teach this course without the service requirement. I love that we can talk about real kids, real teachers, real classrooms, real issues when we have our discussions about Delpit or Rodrigues or Carlson. I think that the service learning placement makes theory (all the stuff we read and discuss) into practice. But I believe, like Kahne and Westheimer, that it can only be useful and productive if we bring critical self reflection to the project.

I know that the Kahne and Westheimer piece is a little less exciting than some of the other articles we have read so far this semester.... but be patient with it. I think that they have really important things to say about WHY we do what we do and HOW we approach the task of service learning.

I like to think of the why-and-how as my purpose, my reasons for doing things, my philosophy of teaching, my pedagogy... remember the Michel Foucault quote I have shared with you before in class:

"We know what we do. We know why we do what we do. But what we don't often know is what what we do does."

Kahne and Westheimer are all about trying to get us to consider what what we do does. Think about it...

Media Literacy in/for a Democratic Society

I hope you enjoyed the Linda Christensen article for this week. If you want to read more about teachers who work for social justice in their classrooms, you should check out the journal Rethinking Schools where Christensen is an editor.

So why media literacy?
What does media literacy have to do with Schooling in a Democratic Society?

There are lots of folks who are invested in thinking about this questions... check out Media Education Foundation, the Center for Media Literacy, the Media Literacy Project (out of New Mexico), and even some corporate interests that are asking questions (see the Dove Real Women Campaign).

And I see that several of you have already started trolling on youtube to find the many people who are exploring media literacy work on their own. I am looking forward to talking about all of this in class on Thursday!!

Hope you had a good long weekend... and in a gesture closely related to the many issues of power and privilege we talk about in FNED 346, give some thought to why you have a day off on Monday.




LB :)

Schools as Safe Spaces

This week seems an appropriate time to talk about LGBT issues in schools. Last week, there were FIVE SUICIDES (that we know of) of LGBT students who were bullied and harassed in their schools. This reminds me that no matter what your politics are, no matter what your religious background is, no matter what your personal opinions are, teachers MUST WORK HARDER to make schools safe spaces for all students.

The most extensive collection of educational resources for teachers is the Gay Lesbian Straight Educators Network. GLSEN is full of statistics, information, lesson plans, activities, and other resources for educators. Talk a look at everything that is available for you.

And you may have seen this video from Ellen Degeneres that has been widely floated around Facebook. It is worth watching and sharing.


Further, there is a powerful campaign on youtube right now, started by blogger Dan Savage, called the itgetsbetterproject. Check it out.

We will talk much more about all of this in class.. see you Tuesday!

LB :)