MIT Year 1,

Winter, 2004

HISTORY PROJECT

POLITICS OF KNOWLEDGE

AND

EDUCATION AND NATIONAL POLICY

 

GUIDING QUESTION: How did ethno-centrisim, racism, sexism, class and religious values, democracy, and a developing capitalistic economy affect the evolution of public schools in America?

 

Your task is to research the current politics of knowledge and the relationship of education and national policy in the mid to late 20th century.

 

  1. Each of vou will need to seek information from at least 3 sources, BEGINNING with Chapters 14, 15, & 17 of The American School by Joel Spring. Take thorough notes about the issues that affected the development and content of schools during this period.
  2. After gaining an overview of the issues from Spring, meet as a group and decide on , particular issues to focus on as each of you pursues your next two sources (see linked websites for possible source material. For example, someone might want to learn more about the origins of ESEA, others might be interested in the National Defense Education Act, some might want to investigate the War on Poverty, some folks might be interested in the reasons and uses of Sesame Street, some might research the affect of the religious right on public education, still others might want to explore the history of special education, etc.
  3. Each person will hand in an individual annotated bibliography of her/his sources.
  4. Next, your group needs to meet and decide how to create a time-Iine of the time period covered by your research. Include the events pertaining to education, politics, the economy, and society that you discovered in your individual research.
  5. Next, as a group, design and create a poster that provides a visual representation of .key issues covered in Spring's text, and, .the particular topics each of you investigated. You could use H-maps, Venn diagrams, concept maps, etc.
  6. Then, decide together how you will present your findings to the program. You will have 40 minutes to teach your peers about the issues you researched. Review the models of teaching, select an approach, and write your lesson plan. Be sure to connect the information you researched to the functions of schooling that education in this time period served and to the guiding question.
  7. Finally, write three assessment questions (and their answers) that could be used to assess your peers' understanding of the information you will be presenting. Before writing your questions, revisit Arends' section on Bloom's taxonomy. Only one question can be at the knowledge or comprehension level.
  8. On Tuesday, Feb. 3 you will teach your section and hand in