Philosophy 115 (Spring 2020)

Philosophy of Education

Prof. Patrick Frierson

CLICK HERE FOR COVID-19 ADJUSTED SYLLABUS

COVID-19 has changed our lives in a lot of different ways, and we are all facing the challenges of coping with it in different ways. At our last class meeting before Spring Break, we shared some of our fears and hopes for the rest of the semester together. As students thinking about the philosophy of education, the new situation for learning at Whitman poses serious challenges and also opportunities. It gives us a chance to realize what was so fantastic about our in-person education when we were all on campus. It provides a context for experimenting with new pedagogical formats. In some ways, and for some of you, this will be mostly an exciting new opportunity. For others, it will be an extreme hardship. For many, it will be somewhere in between, something of a way of moving forward without the support and formats we would have chosen. The basic goals of the class have not changed. At least at first, much of the format will be preserved, as much as possible, in a new digital context. But there will obviously be new challenges. Here I’m putting a revised timeline of readings and assignments, along with a short statement of how discussions will work each class period and a brief summary of what assignments I’ll expect from you by the end of the semester.

First, our discussions are going to change since we will no longer be meeting face to face. At least for a week, and probably for the rest of the semester, I plan to use Google Meet to set up virtual discussions. These will take place at our normal class time, Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11:30. If you have hardships that make it difficult, impossible, or embarrassing to participate in these discussions, please email me to figure out appropriate accommodations. Because many of you found small group discussions to be particularly worthwhile, we are going to start each class with ½ hour of small group discussion. I will arrange small groups of 3-5 students each. You will typically not be with the same students from one class to the next. I will set up a Google Meet session for your group, and I’ll post a googledoc with a set of questions for your group discussion. You all should meet live through Google Meet and discuss the readings. You should aim to answer the questions I put in the googledoc. This small group meeting will last from 11:30-noon. At noon (but not earlier), you should copy your answers into the shared googledoc for the whole class to see. By 12:10, we will all meet together in Google Meet to discuss the material. I will aim to end by 12:40 so that you will have 10 minutes to reflect on the class discussion. In that reflection, you should think about what aspects of this online discussion worked well for you and what did not. You should think about your own participation and how you can improve your learning and that of your classmates. You should think about what I as the professor can do better in future class meetings. And you should consider what pressing questions about the material you still have that you need me to address. Then you should send me an email with suggestions for future class meetings and any questions you have. I will do my best to answer these questions, so please don’t send them just because you think I expect questions or just to boost your participation.

Second, I’m listing here our revised assignments. This is what I expect from you by the end of the semester:

1. Course journal. For readings prior to Spring Break, I expect an entry in your journal that gives the title of the reading with its author, a 2-4 sentence summary of the key claims of the reading, a 1-3 paragraph summary of the main overall arguments for those claims, and at least one important question about the reading(s). You should also include personal engagement with the reading, such as talking about how it relates to your own education or your own ideas about education, offering objections to the arguments in favor the key claims, or suggesting further implications of those claims. For readings after Spring Break, I just want you to continue to write something in your journal. I want you to be able to use this journal to continue to think about the material we are doing in class. If you find yourself doing any busy work, then step back and journal about how you can use your journal in a less busy-work-y way. At any time, feel free to submit portions of your journal to me and request comments. I will do my best to respond in a timely way. This is a good way to get feedback from me on your thoughts over the course of the semester. Some time between April 28^th and the end of the semester, you should turn in your entire journal, with all of the SSTs you wrote before Spring Break, including all of my comments on those SSTs.

2. Class presentation. I’ve set up a googledoc here and given you all editing access to it. This is where you can say what topics interest you and assemble into groups. Once you’ve done this, you should read at least three articles on your topic and then prepare a balanced but opinionated presentation on the topic that you can record and post as a YouTube video or in some other shareable format. (If it goes viral, all the better!). Presentations should be 3-8 minutes, and absolutely cannot be longer than 18 minutes.

3. Final paper: On the last day of class, you must turn in a final paper of at least 1500 words. This paper can be on the topic of your choice. Before turning in this final paper, it will go through several distinct stages. I will not grade each distinct stage, but if there is clear evidence of lack of effort on early stages (including turning them in late or not at all), this will have an effect on the grade of your final paper.

· From the start of the semester, you should, in your journal, write about issues in the philosophy of education that you come to find interesting. These can be provoked by readings, class discussions, or your own reflections. Periodically, you should flag for yourself issues that you’d like to think and write more about, and come back to these as later readings speak to them. At least once prior to Spring Break, you should flag a portion of your journal in which you do some of these reflections and inquire of me whether it would be a good final paper topic.

· On or before April 13^th (at noon), you should submit an exploratory draft of your paper. This draft should start with the question you hope to answer and should make use of at least three texts to explore possible answers to that question. It should be well organized into paragraphs, each with a clear topic sentence, but it should end, rather than begin, with a thesis. You might even work through several different theses in the course of the exploratory draft, proposing one, analyzing it in the light of arguments in various texts, rejecting or refining it, and moving on to a better one.

· On or before April 24^th (at noon), you should submit a rough draft of your paper. This should have a clear introductory paragraph that includes your thesis. Each paragraph should build towards an overall argument for your thesis. It should include at least one argument against your thesis with a response to that argument. It should make use of at least three texts. It should be at least 1500 words.

· On or before April 29^th (by noon), you should send me a short email outlining at least two goals for your revision of your paper. I will send you my own comments on your paper after receiving this email. (I will likely write these comments before receiving the email, so you should keep that in mind when you get my comments.)

· Your final papers are due at the start of the last day of class.

CLASS SCHEDULE AFTER SPRING BREAK

Date	Reading	Topics for Discussion	Assignments (On days of Special Short Assignments (SSAs), you will turn in your journals.)
March 31	Discussion of our new class format.	What is the rest of the semester going to look like?
April 2	PE 266-283 Gurin et.al., “Diversity in Higher Education” Whitman Wire, https://whitmanwire.com/news/2018/02/08/dialogue-and-difference-race-and-ethnic-studies-class-leans-into-discomfort/ And https://whitmanwire.com/opinion/2019/11/14/why-race-and-ethnicity-courses-should-be-required/	Race and Education	What value (if any) is there to racial diversity within education? What are the risks or dangers of racial diversity within education?
April 7	UNDERGRADUATE CONFERENCE – CANCELLED, PROBABLY.		Take a break. This about how the first week of online learning went. Send me suggestions for how to do better in the future.
April 9	EP 389-416	Constructivism	How “constructivist,” and in what ways, is your philosophy of education? NOTE: Exploratory drafts of final papers are due at noon on April 13^th.
April 14	EP 458-476	Punishment and Reward in Education	What role, if any, should punishment and reward (including grades, prizes, diplomas, and certificates) play in education?
April 16	Catch up, review, possible presentations.		OPTIONAL SSA: Reflect on the course so far. Choose 600-1200 words of your journal and mark them for me to read and respond to, and write an additional 300 words or so that synthesize what you have gained from the course.
April 21	Friere, pp. 35-86.
April 23	Friere, pp. 87-124.		NOTE: Rough drafts of final papers are due at noon on April 24^th.
April 28	Friere, pp. 125-183.		NOTE: Emails regarding revisions to final papers are due at noon on April 27^th.
April 30	Catch up, review, presentations.
May 5	Catch up, review, presentations.
May 7	Last Class Day		FINAL PAPERS DUE. COMPLETE JOURNALS DUE. In your final journal, include an entry on what grade your journal should receive, and why.