Teaching in a Diverse Society - EDU 204 at Virginia Highlands Community College
https://courses.vccs.edu./colleges/vhcc/courses/EDU204-TeachinginaDiverseSociety
Effective: 2022-05-01
Course Description
Examines how personal and professional identities, positioning, and intersectional positionalities, values, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors impact teaching and learning. Develops an understanding of similar and unique characteristics of PreK-12 students and their families, including culture, race, ethnicity, religion, language and learning abilities, gender socializations and sexual orientation. This course requires a practicum with a minimum of 20 hours of observation in a K-12 setting.
Lecture 3 hours. Total 3 hours per week.
3 credits
The course outline below was developed as part of a statewide standardization process.
General Course Purpose
EDU 204 broadens prospective teachers' exposure to ways of thinking, understanding, and interacting with students and families from diverse cultures and backgrounds.
Course Prerequisites/Corequisites
Prerequisite: EDU 200.
Course Objectives
- Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning
- Explore and reflect one's personal and student social/cultural identities and positionalities.
- Describe racial identity development.
- Describe concepts of privilege and oppression.
- Describe ways in which teaching can be culturally and linguistically responsive. throughout the learning process and environment.
- Identify specific strategies to intentionally create an inclusive classroom environment and culturally responsive instruction that creates a sense of community and belonging in which every student sees themselves as a learner.
- Describe how U.S. demographics are changing and how this will impact education in the 21st century.
- Analyze how socialization influences beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors.
- Access, Equity, and Inclusion
- Describe the laws, regulations, and court cases that govern diverse populations historically and currently.
- Analyze differences in equity in relation to diverse populations.
- Apply pedagogical practices that provide equitable opportunities to meet the needs of the learners in PreK-12 educational contexts for all learners and families.
- Community and Relations
- Reflect on personal and community dispositions on diversity.
- Plan multiple means of developing relationships with the community and families of diverse populations to include but not limited to socioeconomic status, culture, religion, gender, immigration status, etc.
- Advocacy
- Define the effective advocacy skills, based on the current teacher education research and practice, needed to become a culturally responsive educator.
- Analyze personal dispositions and skills for becoming an innovative educator in PreK-12 classrooms with the goal of equity and advocacy for all students and families.
- Practicum
- Complete a minimum of 20 hours of observation and practical experience in a PreK-12 setting.
- Describe the teacher's classroom climate and analyze it for culturally-responsive strategies employed.
- Describe and reflect on culturally-responsive guidance practices and strategies.
- Analyze classroom procedures for differentiation, grouping, language scaffolding, assistive technology, active learning strategies, and inclusion.
- Analyze materials, resources and assessments for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
- Identify intentional strategies the teacher employs for inclusion of diverse populations in classroom climate, management, materials, instructional strategies, and assessments.
- Provide direct instructional assistance to students either individually or in small groups.
Major Topics to be Included
- Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning
- Access, Equity, and Inclusion
- Community and Relations
- Advocacy
- Practicum