MIAMI-DADE COMMUNITY COLLEGE
SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
Teaching Diverse Populations
HOURS CREDIT: Three
(3)
:INSTRUCTOR: Professor
Joseph D. McNair
OFFICE HOURS:
My office is in room 2256-5 on the
second floor of the Learning Resources Building (Wolfson Hall). My office hours
will be posted on my door. Alternative
times can be arranged.
TEXTBOOKS:
MULTICULTURALISM IN A PLURALISTIC SOCIETY
By Golnick and Chin
PERSONALTRANSFORMATIONS:
The Process of Multicultural
Awareness/Consciousness
By Joseph McNair
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course covers the sociological, social psychological, anthropological, philosophical, historical, and theoretical (educational) foundations of Multicultural Education and the strategies for teaching diverse populations in the United States of America. Special emphasis is placed on the social, psychological, anthropological and philosophical foundations as well as the tasks and issues of multicultural education, their bases and implications. This course meets teacher certification requirements in the area of sociological foundations of education.
INSTRUCTOR BIOGRAPHY:
Joseph D. McNair is a native of Augusta, Georgia. In a
career spanning twenty-seven years, he has taught and/or administered at every
level of public education in the United States and in Nigeria. At an earlier stage in his career,
Professor McNair held California-based positions of Director of Early Childhood
Education, middle school Assistant Principal, elementary/middleschool
Principal, and district level Manager of Programs and Personnel. In the1980's, Professor McNair enacted
a mid-career shift to the professorate and obtained a multi-year appointment as
Assistant Professor of Education at Ahmadu Bello University in Northern
Nigeria, the largest university in Black Africa. Since returning to theUnited States in 1990, he has continued to work in the
postsecondary education sector, holding joint appointments at Florida
International University as Adjunct Professor in the College of Education and
Director of the James L. and John S. Knight Excellence in Education Project: For Our Children in Urban Settings
(F.O.C.U.S.) Professional Development Component. However, his principal appointment from1991 to the present
has been that of Associate Professor of Education at Miami-Dade Community
College, North Campus, in Miami, Florida.
Professor McNair's academic background includes an undergraduate degree
in Political Science (Gonzaga University) anda masters degree in Educational
Administration (Antioch College), and additional doctoral level course work
taken at the University of San Francisco and Ahmadu Bello
University, Nigeria. His academic and experience-based
expertise has been highly sought by and generously shared with educators in
domestic and international settings. In Nigeria, Professor McNair worked
closely with a team of consultants assisting the Nigerian Government with its
transition to a 6-3-3-4 education
system design. In South Florida,
he has been the architect of multi-institutional collaborations for the
improvement of public education, working in partnership with nine Dade County public schools as well
as volunteer and advocacy social service agencies. Professor McNair's service to the educational community has
included conducting numerous workshops throughout the state of Florida on
issues of diversity, the development of multicultural awareness and
consciousness, and the establishment of Professional Development School(PDS)
partnerships. Through these varied
contributions, he has established a reputation of being an important community
resource and a leading advocate for multicultural education and increased
retention of underrepresented groups in higher education. He has been
successful in providing quality training of preservice interns in
developmentally appropriate practices,
multicultural and "understanding" pedagogies. Professor McNair
has spent his entire teaching career motivating countless numbers of students
to maximize their potential for achievement. He was awarded the 1995 JM (Jim
Moran) Family African American Achievement Award in Education and the 1997 Mitchell
Wolfson Endowed Teaching Chair for excellence in teaching. He was in addition a
1998 nominee for the The Green Family FoundationÕs American Family Values Award
and in 200=2001 was the recipient of the
Innovation of the Year award from the league of Innovations in the
Community Colleges.
RATIONALE FOR EDF EDG 2701:
There is a great deal being said about what education should
or should not be, what a school should or should not do, what a good teacher
isor is not. Much of the controversy surrounding education may be said to stem
in part from ambiguous, irrelevant or clashing educational values, deficits in
the education and training of teachers, ineffective and inefficient
administrative practices. poor financial compensation, teacher "burnout"
and the pre-eminence of societal problems in the school environment.
It is not enough for the prospective teacher to recognize
that controversy exists. If solutions to the manifold problems of education are
to be found, it is imperative that the prospective teacher is exposed to the
issues that form the bases of the many controversies. And if these controversies
are to be resolved, the prospective teacher must understand that this can be
done by first taking into consideration the sociological, social psychological,
anthropological, philosophical, historical and (educational) theoretical
contexts from which they spring, and secondly, by developing the requisite
skills e.g. inquiry, methodological and self-examination skills, to understand
them.
THE COURSE WILL COVER:
CORE VALUES OF EDG 2701:
á
Acceptance
and appreciation of diversity
á
Respect
for human dignity and universal human rights,
á
Responsibility
to a global community.
á
Reverence
for the earth.
á
A
commitment to learning and the discovery of truth, and
á
A
commitment to advance human progress.
INSTRUCTIONAL GOALS OF EDG 2701
1. The student will develop multiple
historical perspectives.
2. The
student will strengthen his/her cultural consciousness.
3. The
student will strengthen his/her intercultural competence.
4. The
student will develop the skills to combat all forms of chauvinism, prejudice
and
discrimination.
5. The
student will increase his/her awareness of the state of the planet and global
dynamics.
6. The
student will build social action skills.
7. The
student will develop critical thinking skills, and
8. The
student will strengthen symbolic skills and competencies.
9. The
student will begin to understand:
1. The value of diversity within the
classroom.
2. The influence of demographics upon
the educational process.
3. The foundations of prejudice and
discriminations.
4. The structure and complexity of
culture.
5. The political and philosophical
roots of diversity and commonality.
6. Exceptional needs of individuals.
7. Barriers to cultural
understanding.
BEHAVIORAL OBJECTIVES (Cognitive)
1.
The
student will be able to describe current research on diversity and multicultural/antibias/social
justice educational theory.
2.
The
student will be able to express verbally and in writing personal philosophical
positions/values as they regard various
educational and related issues.
3.
The
student will be able to express verbally and in writing the basic issues of
diversity and the concepts of cognitive development, learning theory and multicultural/antibias/social
justice education.
4. The student will be able to identify significant issues of diversity and the problems of multicultural clientele in contemporary American education.
5. The student will demonstrate basic inquiry skills and recognize the need to continue inquiry in to all aspects of professional education.
6. In content
specific areas, the student will:
6.1. demonstrate knowledge of
sociological terms as they relate to teaching diverse populations by defining
key concepts such as culture; macroculture; microcultures; acculturation; assimilation;
pluralism; beliefs, values, attitudes and stereotypes; prejudice;
discrimination and chauvinism/oppression; ethnicity and ethnocentrism; race and
racism; gender and sexism; sexual orientation and heterosexism; language and
linguicism; social class and classism; religion and religious chauvinism; age
and ageism; and exceptionality and ableism
6.2. demonstrate knowledge of the
lower socio-economic class including inner-city youth, homeless individuals,
and migrant farm workers by identifying the learning and family life
characteristics of these diverse populations and communication patterns
utilized within a child's home environment by differentiating between an
elaborated and restricted language code.
6.3. demonstrate knowledge of
unifying beliefs, values and attitudes shared by several American subcultural
groups.
6.4. demonstrate comprehension of
psychological concepts as they relate to diverse populations by defining:
self-concept; self-esteem; self-fulfilling prophecy; law ot reciprocity; social
learning theory; cognitive restructuring; internal and external locus of
control; convergent and divergent thinking; and empowerment of the individual.
6.5. demonstrate comprehension of
the self-actualization process by identifying the individual states and
characteristics of self-actualization, and adoption of one's cultural identity.
6.6. demonstrate knowledge of the
functions of formal schooling within our American society by describing how these
functions apply to need fulfillment of cultural and exceptional need
populations.
6.7. demonstrate knowledge of
bilingual education by identifying the objectives of this instruction.
6.8. examine the current
responsiveness of school systems to diverse students' needs, by identifying
school philosophies, policies, practices, curricular materials and
instructional strategies which inhibit G. enhance academic success among
diverse populations, and suggest ways schools can prevent forms of cultural
trauma that such students may subsequently experience.
ATTENDANCE:
Classroom
attendance is required. Final grade will be adversely affected by poor
attendance or a pattern of tardiness. You must be in class on time. You must
attend 85% of the classes to receive an ÒAÓ grade. You must attend at least 75%
of the classes to earn a ÒBÓ. No one will be allowed in class 15 minutes late.
If you plan to drop the course, please inform me and followthe official college policy in the Miami-Dade
Community College catalog. If you stop attending class and fail to officially
drop the course, you will receive a failing grade.
GRADING POLICY:
Students
will earn letter grades (A,B,C,D,F,) for all work assigned. Your final
grade will be determined by a
weighted average of all assignments, tests and papers. All tests will be take
home tests. Tests and assignments will either be objective, essay or a
combination of the two. There will be a provision for make-up exams by
arrangement with the instructor. Late assignments will be penalized by point
reduction. It is important that the student understands that course
requirements will not be fulfilled until all assignments are turned in. The
instructor will accept any late assignment. The grading scale is as
follows:
A = 92-
100%
B = 84- 91%
C = 74- 83%
D = 60- 73%
Tests: 30%of
final grade
There
will be at least five (5) possibly seven (7) take home tests
Assignments: 30%of
final grade
There
will be weekly take home assignments including reflection papers throughout the
course.
Portfolio: 20%of
final grade
The
student will be required to keep a portfolio of his or class performances
including tests, assignments, handouts, reflection papers, etc as mutually
agreed upon by the student and the instructor.
Options (Fall and Winter terms
only): 20%
of final grade
Students
will be afforded the opportunity to earn the final 20% of in various ways:
1.
While every student must volunteer fifteen (15) hours as a requirement for this
course, participation in tutorial programs for 30 hours per term at designated
elementary schools can satisfy this requirement and augment oneÕs performance
by ten (10%) per cent of the final EDF 1005 grade.
2.
Various special assignments can be used to offset poor performances on tests/assignments as approved by the
instructor for up to ten (10%) percent of the grade. Students must understand,
however, that an extra credit assignment is not a substitute for failure to
complete and hand in a required
assignment.