Anthropology 2010: Peoples of the Contemporary World
Schooling and Culture
Tech 107 9:00-10:15 TTR
Winter Semester 2008 Seminar led by:
David F. Lancy Professor of Anthropology
Office Hours, by appointment: david.lancy@usu.edu
(2-4 PM) Old Main 245D
Rhetoric Associates:
Dione Garlick ( dione.garlick@aggiemail.usu.edu),
Erica Leishman ( erica.m.leish@aggiemail.usu.edu),
Jeff Carr (whatsupcarr@gmail.com)
Course Description
This course is based on the premise that historically and cross-culturally schooling was rare to non-existent. We will look, briefly, therefore, at how children learn their culture when there are no classrooms or teachers. But for the majority of the semester, we will wrestle with this 800-pound gorilla in the world’s living room called education. Schools are now found in virtually every corner of the globe and educating the masses is seen as a panacea to all the world’s ills. But, as we will see, this isn’t happening consistently. We will view village schools where children cannot understand the language used by the teacher or in the textbook. We will see classrooms that are poorly equipped and overcrowded. Across “developing societies,” we will see evidence of both failure and success in terms of education transforming the economy and improving wellbeing. The evidence of success is not distributed evenly as we’ll note in comparing education in East Asia and Africa.
Following our world tour, we will examine the enormous inter-cultural variation in the nature of education in developed societies. This survey will be preceded by an overview of the methods employed by anthropologists in studying children and schooling.
Even in countries that provide fine facilities, schooling may not be synonymous with education. It turns out that the child’s experiences prior to the onset of schooling may be critical in governing or mediating their experience in school. In East Asia, for example, the mother may be as much on trial in the quest to survive “examination hell” as the child. We will examine socialization practices that facilitate and that impede academic success.
Ethnicity and social class are important sources for cultural factors that influence the nature of schooling. In this section, we will survey education among Native American communities, and among various immigrant populations. We will then eavesdrop on teachers who are trying to cope with this incredible diversity.
Throughout much of the semester, we have operated on the premise that getting an education is a good thing but that view is not universal. The Taliban government in Afghanistan, for example, executed school principals who permitted girls to enroll. Indeed, religious opposition to education and in favor of censorship is found throughout the US—as we will examine in this section.
Secondary schooling often looks quite different from schooling at lower (and higher) levels because of the enormous influence of adolescent culture. We will observe this culture in action through readings and film.
The last topic we will take up is the teaching of anthropology. Anthropology is one of the most diverse bodies of knowledge known to humankind and demands a correspondingly diverse arsenal of teaching tools. We will try out some of these tools.
The course website can be found on Blackboard (Bb). Students are encouraged to utilize the information and tools that are contained on the site, which includes instructions and resources for the writing assignments, quizzes, student grades and other resources.
To access the USU Blackboard system, go to http://bb.usu.edu and enter your UserID and your password. Your UserID is your Banner ID Number. Your password will default as your Banner PIN. If you wish to change your password, you must do so via Banner. Do not try to change your password in Bb. You will then be taken to a page listing all Bb courses you are enrolled in. Our course is listed as ANTH 2010: Peoples of the Contemporary World.
Course Components
Aide from the introductory lecture, this class depends on reading, viewing, discussing and testing as the prime methods for learning the material. The reading material has been meticulously selected to reflect good anthropology, vital questions and engaging writing. The material is 100% original, none of it dummied down or filtered through the lens of a textbook author.
You will read the material assigned before it is to be discussed. Your notes on the main points in the reading will be typed up and brought to class. These “5 Main Points” will be your cue cards to use when you volunteer or are called upon to contribute to the discussion. (See Discussion section below.) These discussions are meant to review and analyze the material as well as to provoke a lively debate and critique of prevailing policy. Your instructor will be the ringleader in this effort but appreciates active, informed participation. Discussion is, therefore, rewarded. In addition to the readings, the instructor has Googled for hours on end to find relevant films. His contacts with the BBC and Open University have opened a cornucopia of material on India and Africa not otherwise available in the US.
There are periodic multiple-choice quizzes and a short and longer writing assignment. There will be an open-book Final Exam.
You will need to purchase the following texts (complete listing of specific readings and films are found on the class website):
Benjamin, Gail R. (1997) Japanese Lessons: A Year in a Japanese School Through the Eyes of an American Anthropologist and Her Children. New York: New York University Press.
Philips, Susan Urmston (1983) Invisible Culture: Communication in Classroom and Community on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press.
Peshkin, Alan (1988) God's Choice: The Total World of a Fundamentalist Christian School . Chicago, IL: University of Chicago.
Lancy, David (2001) Studying Children and Schools: Qualitative Research Traditions. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press. (Can be purchased from instructor for $10 by cash or check payable to USU. He will buy them back for $5 at the end of the semester. )
Textbooks are available through the USU bookstore, and, alternatively, through Amazon.com as a fundraiser for the USU Museum of Anthropology (Old Main 252). Ordering through Amazon.com often nets students a better price on both new and used texts, and, if the link is made through the museum’s website, your books will be cheaper AND the Museum benefits as well, receiving a percentage of the price of everything purchased.
http://www.usu.edu/anthro/museum/catalog/amafundmus.html
To facilitate buying books through Amazon.com, museum personnel have created links for all SSWA courses. Simply go to the website listed above, look up your course, click on the textbook(s) featured for your class, place them in your Amazon.com shopping cart, make your purchase, and voila—your textbooks are shipped to you and the museum automatically receives a commission on the sale. Shipping is free for orders of $25 or more.
Keep in mind, as well, that any time you plan to make a purchase from Amazon.com, if you go to their website via a Museum of Anthropology link (by clicking, for example, on any featured book, whether or not you plan to buy it), the museum will then receive a small commission on everything you buy—not just books related to your courses. It’s a nice way for the museum to fund outreach events here at USU, programs for Cache Valley families, and even undergraduate internships in the museum.
Additional Readings are available through the class website. You can access them on the “Additional Readings” link on our Blackboard homepage. They are organized according to topic.
Quizzes and Final
There will be 7 multiple choice quizzes over the course of the semester, worth 15 points each. Your lowest score will be dropped, for a total point value of 90 points for quizzes. Quizzes are taken online and will be available from 7 am to 11 pm for one day only. If you miss a quiz, there will be no make-up, instead, that will be your dropped quiz. Dates for quizzes are given on the Anth 2010 website Calendar.
The Final (open book, essay style) will be taken on the class website. It will be available during the first two days of Finals Week.
Discussion
This is a seminar, which means that, in lieu of lectures, members will collaborate in the creation of knowledge. The Instructor has laid the groundwork, in selecting reading material and in designing the class, but the area we'll cover is so vast, no single scholar can claim expertise.
To facilitate discussion and inquiry, 100% attendance and completion of reading assignments is expected. Any absence must be accounted for in writing. Further, each member is expected to bring insights to the discussion—there will be no on-lookers.
As a way of structuring this activity, each student must complete ten 5MPs. These are brief written (typed) assignments that list the five main points in the particular reading assigned for a particular class. These will also serve as "sound bites" for you to refer to when called upon to contribute to discussion. Hence, although the 5MPs are designed to be brief, you must be prepared to defend your choices and elaborate on the points in discussion.
You will be randomly assigned to a group of readings you will do for your 5MPs. You will get 12 readings (spread out over the course of the semester) and only need complete 10, so you may skip or drop two. If you're absent on the day your reading is discussed, you may not hand in a 5MP. The 5MPs will receive 10 points each, if satisfactory, for a total of 100 points. The 5MP lists can be found on Blackboard under the “Writing Assignments” link.
Critical Summary Paper (CritSum)
In the expanded instructions on the class website, you will find several article-length studies that offer a cross-section of the anthropological literature on education. In addition, the assigned readings will be divided into CritSum-sized pieces, so you may choose to review a part of a text. You are to write a 1-page typed review of the article or chapters you’ve selected. Your CritSum should include bibliographic info (use recent articles from the Anthropology and Education Quarterly as your style guide), a summary of the article, as well as critical commentary re methodology and conclusions.
The articles for the Critical Summaries assignment will be found on the “Writing Assignments/Critical Summary” page. Click on the link for “Article List.” When you have chosen an article to use for your CritSum, you must “claim” it on the class website. To do this, go to the “Writing Assignments” icon, and select the link to “Critical Summary”, then click on the “Article Selection” link. If you feel strongly about your choice, be sure to claim it early—each article may only be selected by one student (unless class size requires otherwise). Here you will find the sign-up sheet for articles. A sample CritSum can also be found on the “Writing Assignments/Critical Summary” page.
Run a draft of your CritSum by one of your classmates, revise and then email a draft to your Rhetoric Associate ( http://www.usu.edu/raprogram) by January 15th. She will read it and then meet, individually, with you to provide guidance as to how your CritSum can be improved.
Revise the (ungraded draft) paper and submit the final draft to me through the class website. I will grade (up to 20 points) them on technical proficiency, including spelling and grammar, thoroughness (evidence that you read the article and can summarize it) and analytical insight (evidence that you understood the article and can relate it to issues raised in the course). CritSums that meet these criteria will be posted to the Anthropology 2010 website where other students can gain access to them and use them for review. Failure to meet deadlines, including your RA meeting, will have a severe, negative effect on your grade.
You will be called upon to present your CritSum in class (see schedule on class website, under the Syllabus link) and we will take them apart in class to highlight the questions being posed/answered as well as the research techniques used.
Nailing the Issue
For the second writing assignment, students will act like good investigative reporters (anthropologists in disguise). In the second half of 2007, Utah witnessed the unprecedented expenditure of nearly 8 MILLION dollars on advertising to promote or defeat the implementation of a school voucher program. This doesn’t include 1000s of volunteered salvos to the editor of virtually every newspaper, blog and call-in show in the state. The issue(s) was buried under an avalanche of hype.
In this assignment, you will take on such an important but potentially divisive or controversial issue and, using the kind of analysis and critical thinking employed in this class, nail it! You will cut away the hyperbole and present, succinctly, what the issue is and what is driving or causing it. School vouchers are a complex weave of racism, fundamentalist religion, hyper-parenting, unionism and the notion of triage—to name a few.
You will prepare an abstract of your paper, including title, and post it on the class website to claim your topic. In the “Nail It!” link under the “Writing Assignment” icon, you will find a link to “Post your Topic.” Take care to describe your topic in sufficient detail so that other students, interested in the same general topic, can take a crack at it without invading your territory. Vouchers are a good example of a topic where as many as 4 different essays might be written that wouldn’t completely replicate each other.
You will bring your abstract to class on March 28 th where we will discuss them and provide feedback that should be helpful. Regarding sources, you will need to use a mix of scholarly articles (similar to those assigned in class), websites and articles from the news. What the assignment is designed to test is your ability to evaluate “hot” topics through the application of research evidence, an understanding of the way culture works and your own common sense. Bringing in to the paper issues raised in class and/or assigned readings is a good thing to consider.
Submit a polished draft (approximately 3 pages, including references) of your Nail it! paper to your Rhetoric Associate as an email attachment by April 9th. She will read it and then meet, individually, with you to provide guidance as to how your paper can be improved. Revise the (ungraded draft) paper and submit the final draft to the class website on April 24th. Submission instructions can be found under the “Writing Assignment” icon.
I will grade them (up to 60 points) on technical proficiency, including spelling and grammar, completeness of the literature search and review, research design, adequacy of effort, clarity of writing, and originality of thought. The highest accolade will be to publish the best papers on the class website. A list of potential topics can found on the class website. On the “Nail It!” page, under the (you guessed it) “Writing Assignment” icon.
Attendance is recorded and, in view of the seminar-nature of the class, skipping more than a couple classes would signify that you have missed significant content and your grade will be lowered accordingly.
Grades
CritSum = up to 20 points
5MPs = up to 100 points
Nail it! Assignment = up to 60 points
Quizzes = up to 90 points
Final Exam = up to 40 points
If your total score=
300+=A
279-299=A-
270-278=B+
260-269=B
248-259=B-; etc.
Accommodating Disabilities
If a student has a disability that will likely require some accommodation, the student must inform the instructor and provide documentation through the Disability Resource Center. Any requests for special consideration must be discussed with and approved by the instructor during the first week of class. In cooperation with the DRC, course materials can be provided in alternative formats.