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From: Donna JG Brian <djgbrian@cls.coe.utk.edu>
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Subject: [NIFL-POVRACELIT:138] Re: Moving on to Curriculum Design
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I would like to highly recommend some materials specifically developed for
adult learners which would be useful in any of these four approaches, but
particularly for approaches 3 and 4. The materials are "Lessons from the
Holocaust: An Adult Educator's Resource Toolkit" and are available full
text online in PDF format at
http://cls.coe.utk.edu/pdf/Holocaust_Lessons_for_web.pdf In the rationale
for teaching about the Holocaust, the author says, "Prejudice and
discrimination continue on their course through time. The people and
circumstances change, but the destructive nature of hatred and
intollerance is infallible. . . . Teaching and learning about the
Holocaust, and about the society that allowed these crimes to occur, is
crucial to build awareness about current episodes of hatred in our own
communities."
Donna Brian, Program Coordinator
SLINCS--The southern Hub of the National Institute for Literacy's
comprehensive communication and information system
<http://slincs.coe.utk.edu/>
Center for Literacy Studies at The University of Tennessee
600 Henley Street, Suite 312, Knoxville, TN 37996-4135
865/974-4109 FAX 865/974-3857
djgbrian@cls.coe.utk.edu
On Wed, 4 Oct 2000, Mary Ann Corley wrote:
> This discussion related to the roots of racism, white privilege, and
> internalized oppression has been interesting, and I believe that such a
> discussion must occur before we can begin to make changes in our delivery of
> program
> services. We have to look inward before we can know what to target for the
> change process. I'm not suggesting that we abandon this discussion because
> it is central to our next steps. Undoubtedly, we will continue to discuss
> our own attitudes, beliefs, prejudices, and even anger about racial
> relations because it is healthy for us to do so. But, because we care
> deeply about our adult learners/clients, we need also to consider one of the
> fundamental purposes of this listserv: to improve services to adult
> learners. So, I will attempt to move this discussion to a new
> consideration: curriculum design.
>
> A great deal of work has been done in the area of multicultural education,
> albeit most of it relates to K-12 instruction. Some of it, however, is
> extremely applicable to adult literacy. James Banks (1993) has a chapter
> entitled Integrating the Curriculum with Ethnic Content: Approaches and
> Guidelines. It appears in J.A. Banks & C.A.M. Banks (Eds.), Multicultural
> Education: Issues and Perspectives (pp. 3-28), Boston: Allyn & Bacon. In
> his chapter, Banks discusses four levels of integration of ethnic content
> into the course curriculum.
>
> The first level is The Contributions Approach, in which instruction focuses
> on heroes, holidays, and discrete cultural elements. In this approach, we
> simply discuss the contributions of a target group to our multicultural
> society. We may tell success stories of heroes such as Booker T.
> Washington, George Washington Carver, etc. This approach may provide
> learners with a "memorable one-time experience with an ethnic hero," but it
> may fail to "help them understand the role and influence of the hero in the
> total context of U.S. history and society."
>
> The second level is The Additive Approach, in which themes and perspectives
>
>
> are added to the course curriculum, for example, we might add specific
> readings, or a specific unit, to the curriculum during Black History month.
> This approach, according to Banks, allows the teacher to put ethnic content
> into the curriculum without tackling the more difficult task of
> restructuring the curriculum. But this approach also can be the "first
> phase in a more radical curriculum reform effort." The criticism of both
> Level 1 and Level 2 approaches are that they typically result in the viewing
> of ethnic content from the perspectives of the mainstream culture.
>
> The third level is The Transformation Approach, in which the goals,
> structure, and perspectives of the curriculum are all changed. This
> approach infuses various frames of reference into the content to be learner,
> thereby allowing learners to view concepts, issues, and problems from
> multiple ethnic perspectives.
>
> The fourth level is The Social Action Approach, which is based on The
> Transformation Approach, but which requires learners to make decisions or
> take actions related to the concept, issue, or problem. A major objective
> of this approach is to educate learners for social change and to encourage
> the development of decision-making skills. This approach is diametrically
> opposed to traditional schooling in which learners are socialized to "accept
> unquestioningly the existing ideologies, institutions, and practices within
> society."
>
> O.K. Given the above, if you accept the construct of the four levels, tell
> us how you have or how you might teach a concept or skill to an adult
> literacy learner using one of the above approaches. If we can get some
> creative ideas flowing here, we can begin the process of reconstructing
> curriculum. Do we need to do this? Take a look at the most common adult
> literacy texts and see what you think (keeping in mind that we often allow
> the textbooks we use to guide instruction). Please share your thoughts.
> The
> National Center for Literacy and Social Justice will compile the best ideas
> into a handy Ideas Packet and disseminate it.
>
> Thank you.
>
> *********************************
> Mary Ann Corley
> Director, National Center for
> Literacy and Social Justice
> macorley1@earthlink.net
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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