Topics In Anthropology (390-0-27)

Topic

Anthropology of Education

Instructors

Doris Stanley Warriner

Meeting Info

Parkes Hall 215: Tues, Thurs 12:30PM - 1:50PM

Overview of class

Have you ever wondered what factors influence what is taught in school and how learning is assessed? Or why certain ways of knowing (and communicating) are valued more than others - and how this changes across contexts? This discussion-based seminar is intended for students interested in the central concepts and methods used by sociocultural anthropologists to study and understand the relationship between culture, context, power, and learning. Topics we'll explore include everyday learning, cultural influences on education, the anthropology of literacy, race and inequality, immigrant education, social reproduction in schooling, and the anthropology of educational policy. Students are asked to reflect critically on what takes place in formal educational contexts and/or the everyday teaching and learning that happens outside of school. We interrogate our assumptions about what education is and could be, and we evaluate the ways that schools tend to value a narrow set of experiences, knowledges and ways of knowing. Course content and assignments also demonstrate the value of drawing on educational anthropology as a framework to address important questions about pluralism, self-determination, racial justice, agency, equity, and (in)equality around the world and in diverse sites of education. Class meetings will include mini-lectures and group discussion. Through reading, writing, and class discussion, students will be provided multiple ways to engage with the material and demonstrate their understandings. Students from all majors and schools are welcome. There are no prerequisites for the course, and no prior knowledge of anthropology or education is required.

Learning Objectives

identify the contributions of the field of Anthropology of Education to both education and anthropology;
develop cross-cultural and critical perspectives on diverse ways of doing education - that is, doing literacy, learning, language, and pedagogy;
analyze the phenomena of modern schooling in relation to diverse local, state and global interests, and how taken-for-granted assumptions about schooling are historically and culturally produced;
consider how education links to questions of pluralism, human rights, justice, and democracy in diverse societies;
explain how anthropologists of education use theory and construct conceptual frameworks to inform their research questions, methods and analysis;
identify the possibilities and challenges involved in conducting ethnographic research and representing diverse communities.

Class Materials (Required)

Demerath, P. (2009). Producing success: The culture of personal advancement in an American high school. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 224 pages

Orellana, M. F. (2015). Immigrant children in transcultural spaces: Language, Learning, and Love. New York, NY: Routledge. 166 pages

Other readings will made available via canvas.