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Final Paper Proposal--Race in Curriculum

The educational system occurs within neighborhoods and societies and tends to adopt and instruct the beliefs, customs, and values of the dominant culture. James Baldwin stated that, “The crucial paradox which confronts us here is that the whole process of education occurs within a social framework and is designed to perpetuate the aims of society" (Talk to Teachers, 1.).  Therefore, as long as the educational system reinforces the social inequities of Western society, students of various races, classes, genders, and dis/abilities will continue to be marginalized and be denied access to an educational system that is inclusive, engaging, and inspiring.  

The proposed paper will examine how the concept of  race is presented in a first grade Language Arts curriculum.  Fiction and non-fiction texts used throughout the curriculum will be analyzed.  Resources that will be used to guide and possibly support my research include, but are not limited to: 


The proposed paper will outline how social constructs such as race are present in a language arts curriculum, discuss the negative impacts of such, and will attempt to provide suggestions on ways to improve the curriculum.  Some possible pitfalls of the research are: (1) the characters in fiction texts in grade K-2 often include animals rather than people and (2) grades K-2 non-fiction texts often provide surface information about people, places, and events; failing to fully explore historical context.


Comments

  1. AndrianaDecember 2, 2020 at 3:06 PM

    Hi Shannon. I like your paper proposal and how you will address race within the curriculum. I am curious to see the impact it has on student learning. Will you be sharing some data on this? I like how you will provide suggestions to improve the curriculum. How can you integrate an inclusive art curriculum? How can you provide a culture of acceptance within an art curriculum? I see your "pitfalls" and I wonder if you could select texts that may infer racial issues even through objects or animals.

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    Replies
    1. Shannon BDecember 3, 2020 at 8:58 AM

      Andriana-

      Thank you for your questions! I had not thought to include data on how this type of curriculum impacts students learning but, I will most certainly look into it.

      I do believe that a culture of acceptance is created in the classroom through modeling and discussion (i.e. taking turns, sharing, apologizing, etc.). If these skills are taught early, I do believe they affect student relationships as they get older, especially when conversations become more personal or difficult.

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