Examples of Course Readings

EDUC 5305: Proseminar in Teaching & Learning (for Secondary Master’s Plus students)

• Cushman, K. (2003). Fires in the Bathroom: Advice for Teachers from High School Students. New York: The New Press.
• Vitto, J. (2003). Relationship-Driven Classroom Management. Thousand Oaks: Corwin Press
• Michie, G. (1999). Holler if you hear me: The education of a teacher and his students. New York: Teachers College Press.
• Boo, Katherine. (January 15, 2007) Expectations. The New Yorker
• Sanon, F., Baxter, M., Fortune, L. & Opotow, S. (2001). Cutting class: Perspectives of urban high school students. In J. Schultz & A. Cook-Sather (Eds.). In our own words: Students’ perspectives on school, (pp. 73-91). Lanaham: Rowman & Littlefield.
• Wilson, B. L. & Dickson Corbett, H. (2001). The teachers students wanted: Listening to urban kids: School reform and the teachers they want (pp. 63-92). New York: State University of New York Press.
• Eckert, P. (1989). Jocks and Burnouts: Social Categories and Identity in the High School. New York: Teacher College Press.
• Finn. P. (1999). Literacy With an Attitude: Education Working-Class Children in Their Own Self-Interest. Albany: State University of New York Press.
• Tatum, B. (1997, 2003). “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?” A Psychologist Explains the Development of Racial Identity. New York: Basic Books

EDUC 6328: Advanced Child Growth and Educational Development

• Nasir, N.S. (2004). “Halal-ing” the child: Reframing identities of resistance in an urban Muslim school. Harvard Educational Review, 74(2), 153-174.
• Noguera, P. (2002). “Joaquin’s dilemma:” Understanding the link between racial identity and school-related behaviors. In M. Sadowski (Ed.), Adolescents at school: Perspectives on youth, identity, and education (pp. 19-30). Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.
• Orellana, M.F., Reynolds, J., Dorner, L., Meza, M.. (2003). In other words: Translating or “para-phrasing” as a family literacy practice in immigrant households. Reading Research Quarterly, 38(1), 12-34.
• Valenzuela, A. (2005). Subtractive schooling, caring relations, and social capital in the schooling of U.S.-Mexican youth. In L. Weis & M. Fine (Eds.), Beyond silenced voices: Class, race, and gender in United States schools (pp. 83-94). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

EDUC 6804 Gender Issues in Education

• Guène, Faïza. (2006). Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow. New York: Harvest/Harcourt.
• Gilligan, Carol. (1993). In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development, 2nd ed. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
• Hooks, Bell. (2000). Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center. New York: Routledge.
• Maher, Frances A. & Mary Kay T. Tetreault. (2001). The Feminist Classroom: Dynamics of Gender, Race, and Privilege. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
• Pharr, Suzanne. (1997). Homophobia as a Weapon of Sexism. Chardon Press.
• Young, Iris Marion. (1990). Justice and the Politics of Difference. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. (Chapter 2).
• EDUC 8250 Qualitative Methods In Educational Research or EDUC 6325 Culture & Ethnography in Schools
• Anderson-Levitt, Katie, ed. (2003). Local meanings/Global schooling. New York: Palgrave Macmillian.
• Carter, P. (2005). Keepin’ it real: School success beyond black and white. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Davidson, Ann. (1996). Making and molding identity in schools: Student narratives on race, gender and academic achievement. Albany: State University of New York Press.
• Fine, Michelle. (1991). Framing dropouts: Notes on the politics of an urban public high school. Albany: SUNY Press.
• Foley, Douglas. (1990). Learning capitalist culture: Deep in the heart of Tejas. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
• Fordham, Signithia. (1996). Blacked out: Dilemmas of race, identity, and success at Capital High. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• González, N. (2006). I am my language: Discourses of women and children in the borderlands. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press.
• Holland, D.C
  . & Eisenhart, M.A. (1990). Educated in romance: Women, achievement, and college culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Lamphere, L. (Ed.) (1992). Structuring diversity: Ethnographic perspectives on the new immigration. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Lareau, A. (2003). Unequal childhoods: Class, race, and family. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
• Levinson, Bradley, et al., eds. (2000). Schooling the symbolic animal: Social and cultural dimensions of education. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishing.
• Limón, Jóse. (1994). Dancing with the devil: Society and cultural poetics in Mexican-American South Texas. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.
• Mehan, Hugh, Hertweck, Alma and Meihls, J. Lee. (1986). Handicapping the handicapped: Decision making in students' educational careers. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
• Solomon, R. P. (1992). Black Resistance in high school: Forging a separatist culture. Albany: SUNY Press.
• Tillmann-Healy, Lisa. (2001). Between gay and straight: Understanding friendship across sexual orientation. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press.
• Tsing, A.L. (2005). Friction: An ethnography of global connection. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
• Willis Paul. (1977). Learning to labor: How working class kids get working class jobs New York: Columbia University Press.
• EDUC 8260: Qualitative Methods in Educational Research
• Thorne, B. (1993). Gender play: Girls and boys in school. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers.
• Delgado-Gaitan, C. (1993). Researching Change and Changing the Researcher. Harvard Educational Review, 63(4), 389–411.
• Goodwin, M.H. (2002). Exclusion in girls’ peer groups: Ethnographic analysis of language practices on the playground. Human Development, 45, 392-415.
• Gutiérrez, K. D., & Rogoff, B. (2003). Cultural Ways of Learning: Individual Traits or Repertoires of Practice. Educational Researcher, 32(5), 19–25.
• Villenas, S. (1996). The Colonizer/Colonized Chicana Ethnographer: Identity, Marginalization, and Co-Optation in the Field., Harvard Educational Review, 66(4), 711–731.

EDUC 8348: Youth Development in Communities and Schools

• Flores-Gonzalez, N., Rodriguez, M., & Rodriguez-Muniz, M. (in press). From hip-hop to humanization: Batey Urbano as a space for Latino youth culture and community action. In S. Ginwright, P. Noguera, & J. Cammarota (Eds.) Beyond resistance: Youth activism and community change: New democratic possibilities for policy and practice for America's youth. Oxford, UK: Routledge.
• Moje, E. (2000). “To be part of the story”: The literacy practices of gangsta adolescents. Teachers College Record. 102 (3).
• Morrell, E., & Duncan-Andrade, J. (2004). What they do learn in school: Hip-hop as a bridge to canonical poetry. In J. Mahiri (Ed.) What they don’t learn in school: Literacy in the lives of urban youth (pp. 247-268). New York: Peter Lang.

Examples of Course Assignments

Multicultural Education (EDUC 8014)

The “Publishable” (25 page) Paper: People in the class come from different program areas: ICCA, EFPP, EECD, REM, and EPSY. Thus, there cannot be a “one size fits all” for this assignment. Within this context, you will be expected to write a publishable paper from your area of study. That is, you will need to think about how Multicultural Education applies to your particular area/discipline. If your area is Math or Science education, for example, you will need to understand how multicultural education (broadly defined) is being treated/discussed in your field. Thus, you will have to conduct a literature review, meet with your advisor to talk about a possible topic, and try as much as possible to address the issue/question you raise. You will have to think about style and format of the journal you plan to target. This assignment is a stepping-stone toward your professional development.

Gender Issues in Education (EDUC 6804)

Thematic Group Presentations on topics such as: The Making of Gendered Inequalities and The Relationship Between Sexism and Heterosexism and Homophobia.

Doctoral Seminar in Educational Equity and Cultural Diversity (EECD)

In this course we examined critical issues in the development and implementation of Bilingual Education and English as a Second Language Programs with a focus on the implementation of these programs in various socio-political contexts of the United States. Course topics included theoretical perspectives, political issues, policy and practice issues, and cultural and linguistic issues.

The major assignment was to complete a group project.

Background: The August and Hakuta (1997) book, "Improving schools for language minority children: A research agenda," is now 10 years old. While other research syntheses have been written since 1997 (e.g. Slavin & Cheung, 2003; August & Shanahan, 2006), these syntheses have largely focused on literacy, thereby being less comprehensive than the 1997 August and Hakuta book.

Assignment: We individually and collectively examined the work of August and Hakuta and then reviewed the new research that has been conducted over the past 10 years since their report. We also noted areas where we are still in need of further research. Each student identified one of the topics in the August and Hakuta book to examine and update.

Examples of Student Projects in the Doctoral Curriculum

EDUC 8260: Qualitative Methods in Educational Research II

• “We don’t care about skin color: Race and first graders’ interactions on a playground”
• “Jump Over the Bars: Equity and Creativity in a Student-Created Game”
• “Mixing It Up: The Roles of Adults and Children in the Evolution of Gendered Play”
• “Takin’ Care of Your Own: The Influence of Families, Schools, & Society on Children’s Beliefs & Values about Aggression”

EDUC 6328: Advanced Child Growth and Educational Development

• “Acting for Change - Engaging in Ethnic Identity Development: The Impact of Social Activism on Adolescent Ethnic Identity”
• “Helping Privileged White Adolescents Achieve Social Justice Action in School”
• “Culturally-Relevant Writing Instruction”

EDUC 8348: Youth Development in Communities and Schools

• “Denver’s Urban Youth Center: A Study of ‘The Spot’”
• “Coming Full Circle: Reflections from Current and Former Dropouts Seeking to Complete the Educational Milestone”
• “The Gay/Straight Alliance in Support of Positive Youth Development”

EDUC 8055 Theoretical Issues in Education Policy

• “Leaving Diverse Schools Behind: Is the Diversity Penalty an Inadvertent Outcome of Marketized Education Policies?”
• “Sins of the Father: Social Constructions of Educational Policy for Undocumented Immigrant Children”
• “Beliefs and Relationships: Unifying Themes in Literature about Culturally Relevant Pedagogy”
• “DREAM Act Legislation: A Matter of Education vs. Immigration Reform”
• “Equity vs. Excellence?: An Examination of Tracking and Ability Grouping in our Schools”

EDUC 8730: Measurement in Survey Research

• “Girl Scouts’ Attitudes Towards Science, Computing, and Math: An Analysis of Process”
• “Measuring Attitudes Toward the Educational Value of Diversity: A Pilot Survey’
• “Culture in Learning? Teacher beliefs about the impact of cultural diversity on learning”
• “Measuring the Understandings of Affirmative Action Among the Voting Public.”

Examples of Doctoral Dissertations:

• Carlone, Heidi. The cultural production of “science” and “scientist” in high school physics: Girls’ access, participation and resistance.
• Davis, Kathleen. Science support groups for women and girls.
• Diggs, Greg. ‘Yo mamma’s oppositional’: The cultural production of the educated African American.
• Dino, Angela. Making fun: How urban black girls craft identity.
• Johnson, Angela. Women, race and science: The academic experience of 20 women of color with a passion for science.
• McClam, Sherie. Fitting in or opting out: Deconstructing the marginalization of women in science.
• Meador, Elizabeth. The social organization of schools and student’s identity construction: The practice of becoming a student in middle school among newly immigrated Mexican girls.
• Woodrow, Kelli. Culturally responsive middle school science: A case study of needs, demands, and challenges.