A Truth Space for Unpacking Violence in Schooling

• In Event: Questioning and Creating "Truth Spaces" in Social Foundations Classrooms

Abstract

The course chronicled in the third presentation is offered at public, state-related land-grant institution to first- and second-year undergraduate students. The campus on which this course is taught is part of a larger university system. Although the university system is predominantly white, this campus has a majority-minority student population, with over 50% of the student body identifying as students of color and over 40% of students identifying as first-generation to earn a bachelor’s degree. These demographics are significant because to ensure state accreditation of the program, campuses must have 80% alignment in the curricula and assignments. The course objectives and description is therefore rather prescribed and does not attend to the demographics and student needs on each individual campus.

Taught by an Assistant Professor, the course attempts to unsettle students’ sociopolitical, cultural, and historical notions about education in the United States, along with many students’ long-held beliefs that systems of schooling exist to benefit all students. Following the course structure and assignments that are designed to help students develop a critical attention to how systems of schooling engender and maintain various forms of violence, this presentation will highlight the challenges and possibilities of this kind of work within a Preschool-4th grade teacher education certification program, while discussing the inherent tensions of doing this work as a pre-tenure professor.

Below is a brief course description as listed by the university system:

This course introduces students to the historical, political, philosophical, and sociological forces that have shaped the course of schooling in the United States. Through a semester-long analysis of a range of educational policies, practices, reforms, and developments, students will develop a strong knowledge of American schooling and strengthen their skills in finding, interpreting, and presenting evidence in such a way so as to inform and guide both teaching and policy making

Author

• Boni Wozolek, Pennsylvania State University - Abington
  Presenting Author