Urban Education
Fall 2004 Advanced Seminars

71100 Area Seminar in AHSS: Curriculum Studies in the Humanities (Kincheloe: W 6:30-8:30 PM)

This seminar analyzes the field of curriculum studies and its relationship to pedagogy and knowledge production in the arts, humanities and social studies. In this context, the course addresses curricular questions as they relate to art and aesthetic education, history and philosophy education, cultural studies, language and literacy education, and social studies. Using the Bricolage as a conceptual tool, the course explores the inter-relationships among these domains and the synergy produced when educators in a particular area are acquainted with the discourses of the others. In this way common issues of theory, research, pedagogical practice, and cognitive studies are integrated with the particular concerns of each curricular domain. 

73100 Area Seminar in Educational Policy: Policies and Policy Praxis in Urban Education (Anyon: W 4:15-6:15 PM)

This course explores policies and policy praxis affecting urban education. Policies and praxis in and from many sources affecting urban education will be examined: government at all levels, major corporations, districts and schools, after-school and community settings, and families. 

73100 Area Seminar: American Education Policy: 1954 to the Present (Picciano: R 6:30-8:30 PM)

Educational policy in the United States has undergone major changes in the past several decades.  What was once the domain of communities and states, has become an intense vying for influence among and within all levels of government.   This seminar examines the evolution of education policy with special emphasis placed on the role of federal, state, local, and community governing bodies.   Throughout the seminar, the focus will be on the impact of these policies on schools and their communities.  Specific policies to be studied include:  the Elementary and Secondary Education Act/No Child Left Behind,  Title I, Special Education, Bilingual Education, Privatization, New York State School Finance, and the Reorganization of New York City School Governance.   

75100 Program Seminar: Researching the Practice of Urban Schooling (Tobin: W 4:15-6:15 PM) 

The course will employ an historical perspective on research in urban schools and the framing theories and social structures. Research in Urban Schools will extend beyond the boundaries of schools to explore how culture relates to urban schools and to identify and study the institutions that are most salient to learning.  Particular foci will explore the role of technology in urban schools and equity across the boundaries of ethnicity, gender, age, and social class. Intensive studies will be undertaken on the 10 largest urban school districts in the United States in an exploration of such issues as the diverse types of schools in the district, the distribution and levels of funding, the impact of choice on factors such as the distribution of students from different ethic groups and the impact issues such as out of field teaching, the ethnic distribution of teachers in relation to the distribution of students, turnover of teachers bas a function of career ladder, employment trajectories for urban teachers, tracking, block scheduling, uses of standards and high stakes tests, and accountability for administrators, teachers and students. Other large cities in the world will also be studied in a comparative analysis of urban schooling in countries such as England, France, Germany, China, Japan, and Spain. 

Because this is a program seminar the course will consist of a core of readings that will be undertaken by all participants and opportunities to identify and study scholarly works that are germane to interests in urban education identified by the student and approved by the instructor.  Based on readings from the area of specialization each student will plan and conduct a project in which a planned inquiry is undertaken in relation to a specified recurrent problem. 

Methodologies that are useful in undertaking research in schools will be explored in the context of ongoing research in urban schools and a variety of mixed methods designs will be explored along side of different forms of qualitative inquiry and research designs that employ quantitative measures. 

It is assumed that participants in the course have completed at least 12 credits, including Pedagogy and the Urban Classroom, Historical Contexts of Urban Education, Logics of Inquiry, and the Structure of Social Knowledge.