Decolonizing Education
EDST 221
Fall 2020
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01
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Who determines what is true and worth knowing? How has the construction of knowledge and academic traditions from across the globe been impacted by such phenomena as (post)modernity, (neo)colonialism, and (neo)liberalism? Why do any of the questions above matter to your own personal history, beliefs, and identity? This course will provide a space for students to critically examine the history and development of the discourses that have shaped their educational experiences and their understanding of the purpose of education. The first half of the course will focus on texts and assignments that interrogate how some of our modern epistemological discourses were formed and maintained through the lens of postcolonial studies and critical educational studies.
The second half of the course will center on ways people have worked within these dominant modes of thought to resist hegemonic modern discourses that privilege logical positivism, quantification, objectivism, and Western European histories and ideologies above all else. This course will involve reflection essays on weekly readings, intergroup dialogue, and activities that will encourage students to examine their own connection to the theoretical concepts presented in class. The culminating project/final will be a scholarly personal narrative wherein students will synthesize both what they learned about themselves and the content that was presented during the course. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS EDST |
| Course Format: Discussion | Grading Mode: Credit/Unsatisfactory |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (EDST-MN)(EDST) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
1. Required Readings (all readings will be provided in a course packet):
We Want to Do More than Survive by Bettina Love
Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paolo Freire
Luz en lo Oscuro (Light in the Dark): Rewriting Identity, Spirituality, and Reality by Gloria Anzaldua
The Reorder of Things: The University and Its Pedagogies of Minority Difference by Roderick A. Ferguson
Contract and Domination by Carole Pateman and Charles Mills
Decolonizing the Mind by N'gugi wa Thiong
Deschooling Society by Ivan Illich
Sentipensante Pedagogy: Educating for Wholeness, Social Justice, and Liberation by Laura Rendon
Knowledge and Critical Pedagogy by Joe Kincheloe
Forging the Ideal Educated Girl by Shenila Khoja-Moolji
Can the Subaltern Speak by Gayatri Spivak
Deculturalization and the Struggle for Equality by Joel Spring
Rethinking Reform in Higher Education by Ziauddin Sardar and Jeremy Henzell-Thomas
Under Western Eyes by Chandra Mohanty
Methodology of the Oppressed by Chela Sandoval
The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon
Paolo Freire: The Global Legacy edited by Michael Peters and Tina Besley
Decolonization is Not A Metaphor by Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang
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Examinations and Assignments:
2. Course Requirements and Grading:
Attendance and class participation (35%)
Dialogue will be an essential component to the learning objectives of the course.
Homework assignments (35%)
There will be response/reflection papers due every other week in addition to in-class and out of class activities that will further students' content mastery
Final project (30%)
The final project will be a scholarly personal narrative that will enable participants to synthesize the course content with their own lived experiences
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Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
3. Course Topics:
Week 1: Course Overview/What is Education?
Week 2: What is modernity, colonialism, and liberalism?
Week 3: How does modernity, colonialism, and liberalism impact our understanding of education and knowledge?
Week 4: What is postmodernity, neocolonialism, and neoliberalism?
Week 5: How does postmodernity, neocolonialism, and neoliberalism impact our understanding of education and knowledge?
Week 6: How has (post)modernity, (neo)colonialism, and (neo)liberalism impacted your own worldview and goals?
Week 7: What is decolonization and postcolonial theory?
Week 8: How has decolonization and postcolonial theory impacted our understanding of education and knowledge?
Week 9: What is liberation?
Week 10: How has liberation impacted our understanding of education and knowledge?
Week 11: What do the course concepts that we have learned reveal/obscure about your own educational experience?
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| Instructor(s): Colvin,Demetrius James Times: ..T.R.. 05:10PM-06:30PM; Location: RINGHALL; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 30 | | SR major: 0 | JR major: 0 | | |
| Seats Available: 1 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 10 | JR non-major: 10 | SO: 5 | FR: 5 |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 7 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 7 |
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