I took EDU 781 during the Summer of 2003 with Dr. John Briggs and Dr. Huei-Hsuan Lin. I really enjoyed the class as it allowed students, including myself, the opportunity to constructively debate the idea of professionalism as it relates to the field of education. The major project associated with this course was a research paper (see word document below) I completed whose topic is oriented on the standards era. Its title: Blowing in the Wind: The New Environment, The Challenges it Presents and The Uncertainty of a Profession. In this paper I examined the origins of the new standards movement, how different parties in the field of education view this new era, the challenges this new era brings to a changing society and finally, how I view this new era. Feedback from Dr. Briggs is noted below
FEEDBACK FROM DR. BRIGGS
"A most productive intellectual journey. A couple of observations.
*If one follows Lasch's account, a lot of the failure of parents is attributable to the rise of educational and helping professions "expertise." From this perspective the Darling Hammond approach is applying more of the same.
*Coleman (and the reanalysis of his data, i.e. Christopher Jenks - Inequality) indicates that it is not just family but community and culture which contribute to school achievement. Parental love is very important but I expect that it does not correlate highly with academic success. The correlation of $ with the 100 best schools masks the role of family and community (class) social capital in producing school achievement.
*Politicians focus on education and schools for an important reason. They are a way to address or appear to address public concerns without having to make politically risky actions. Bush can "Leave No Child Behind" at the same time he's dismantling the infrastructure which could make a difference and distribute the resources in tax cuts which would be necessary to finance those measures. Educational policy is the "safe harbor" for politicians."
GRADE = A
