EDUC 500  Educational Foundations from Diverse Perspectives

This course provides a critical overview of the forces historical, legal, financial, organizational, and philosophical groundings of education. Candidates will examine, debate and speculate about a variety of issues as they  impact schools and teachers now and into the future. These basic concepts of education are examined from the diverse perspectives of race, gender, disabilities, and language learners. Aspects of education such as funding, instructional strategies, and due process procedures will be examined from a social justice perspective. Concerns such as equity and access, alternative ways of knowing, funds of knowledge, and other cultural factors will be examined. The role of the teacher as facilitator of critical thinking and as promoter of socially responsible action in the society will be considered. Ten  hours of fieldwork required.  3 credits.

EDUC 500 Fieldwork Assignment

Observation and Interview Report (4-7 pages)

Assignment Overview

In this course, you will be reading and learning a lot about the foundations of education, including theories, philosophies, and laws that have influenced how children are educated in the US.  This assignment gives you an opportunity to conduct an investigation of what really goes on in schools in New York.  You will begin by selecting a specific topic that interests you and that you can investigate by conducting observations and interviews.  For example, you might choose a topic such as:

     Technology in the Classroom

     Student-Teacher Relationships

     Parent-Teacher Relationships

     Classroom Management and Discipline

     Diversity and/or Multicultural Education

     Gender Equity in the Classroom

     Single sex schools vs coed schools

     The Role of the Arts in the School

     School Environment (physical structure, facilities, school culture, etc.)

     Special Education

     After-School Programming (arts, athletics, academic support, etc.)

     School Management (role of the administration)

Next, you will select two schools where you will conduct your fieldwork observations.  You may elect to compare two public schools, a private school and a public school, a public school and a charter school, etc.  Once you identify a topic and select the schools, you will visit the schools and conduct observations and interviews (10 hours total).  You will then analyze your observation and interview data.  You will compare and contrast the two schools and relate what you found in “the real world” to what you read about in the textbook.  You will discuss how what you leaned will inform your future work as an educator and a member of a school community.

Elements of the Assignment

Here’s what you’ll need to do to complete the assignment:

Visit two schools

• Use the Observation Permission Forms
• Conduct an observation study at each school
• Take objective field notes

Interview at least one adult at each school

• Do NOT interview a minor!
• In preparation for the interviews, you will want to write down a number of open-ended interview questions that you believe will help you get the information you need to investigate your topic.  This will also ensure that you remember to ask the interviewees at both schools the same basic questions.
  • Before conducting your interview, and after you have had a chance to observe the school for a little while, you may see things that prompt you to add a few questions to your list.
• If the person you interview is comfortable being recorded, you may want to record your interview.  This will help you remember what was said as you write your report.
• Take notes while interviewing.  Immediately after the interview write down any information you might have missed while doing the interview.

Collect “other” data to corroborate your observation and interview data.  You will need to cite this data in your report.  Depending on your topic, this data may include:

• Documents
  • School flyers
  • School newsletters
  • School newspaper
• Internet data (This counts toward the 7½ hours of online work required for all courses in Childhood and Early Childhood Education)
  • Number of students enrolled
  • Racial demographics
  • Percentage of special education students
  • Percentage of English-language learners
  • Percentage of students who get free lunch
    • This is a proxy for the Socioeconomic Status (SES) of the population
  • School mission statement
  • Etc.

Type up your field notes

Analyze your field notes and interview data

After you complete your two observations and two interviews, you must reflect upon and write about what you have seen. You must relate it to what you are reading and learning about in this class.  You will need cite your sources using APA style and include a reference list.  You must include at least one citation from the course readings and you must cite any of the documents or internet sources you used in your research.  You may also cite additional texts.  Citing appropriate texts demonstrates your understanding of the relationship between theory and practice (or how what you read about relates to what goes on in reality).

In your paper, you should compare and contrast the salient aspects of what you observed in each school.  Depending on the focus of your paper, this may include a description of the school buildings, the classrooms, what was used to decorate the school walls (school banners and emblems, slogans and mottos, multicultural images, student art, professional artwork), the demeanor of the students, student-teacher rapport, parent-teacher rapport, the kinds of books in the libraries, the teaching materials and methods used, special services or accommodations provided, etc.  Did anything surprise you?  Did anything impress you?  Did anything challenge your conception of what goes on in schools?

How did the people you interviewed add to your understanding of the schools’ pedagogy, practices, policies, or protocols?  Were they able to help you interpret the things you observed?  Were they open and willing to discuss the topics you mentioned?

In summary, you should discuss how your observations and interviews will inform your future work as an educator and a member of a school community.

Submitting the Assignment

• Submit your 4-7 page report as an Attachment in Blackboard
• Submit a Fieldwork Summary Form through TaskStream

You are responsible for documenting your fieldwork. Use the following instructions to submit the form via the ePortfolio.
 

1. At the lower right, click on Complete Form.
2. Complete all required fields. Note: If you do not have all of the required information, you can Save and Return to finish the Form at a later date; however, do not click Submit Work until the Form is completed in its entirety.
3. Once entirely complete click Save and Return.
4. Click on the Scores/Results tab, scroll down to find the completed Form, then click on Submit Work. Follow any subsequent instructions.

As you submit your work, please be cautious to avoid the following scenarios:

• Do not forget to Submit your work after you Attach it. It is a two-step process – Attach then Submit. Changes can be made before you Submit; however, after submitting, the placeholder is locked.
• Remember to Attach all files to Submit the first time. Upon submission, the placeholder is locked, and can only be unlocked by having the faculty Evaluator return the submission to you for revision and resubmission.
• If you submitted files to the wrong placeholder, or submitted the wrong file to the proper placeholder, it will still require the faculty Evaluator to return the submission.
• If there are two or more placeholders with the same name, generally one is an older requirement and one is a newer. In all cases the lower (or second, third) placeholder is the newer requirement, so please use that lower one. In many cases, the system has been altered to exclude the older requirements from your view of TaskStream; however, some exceptions may prevent this from happening. For further detail, please click on the requirement and look at the description. The effective date should be listed. For example, requirements may include “In use effective Fall 2013” or something similar.