Welcome to SocEDS 117: Language Culture

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Welcome to Soc/EDS 117 Language Culture
Education

• Hugh (Bud) Mehan
• Topics Today
• Organizational Matters
• Placing Students into 4-person Reflection Groups
• The Crisis Facing the University and the State

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Organizational Matters

• Add/Drop The Computer Rules!
• Office Hours Tu Th 330-430, CREATE (SSRB
  150) 100-150 Tu Th periodically, and by
  appointment only
• Readings Packet on sale at Cal Copy, Holiday
  Court

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Organizational Matters

• Sections Voluntary but highly recommended
• Th 100-150 Pepper Canyon 340 (Raquel
  Jacob-Almeida
• Th 330-430 pepper Canyon 304 (Andrea Barraugh)
• Intended for students who are not familiar with
  the sociological idiom and modes of explanation
  offers assistance with readings, writing essays
  that emphasize sociological explanations

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Lectures on CREATE Website
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Organizational Matters

• Student Work
• Take Home Midterm (25 of grade)-interpretive
  essay
• Take Home Final (50 of grade)--interpretive
  essays
• 8 Weekly Reflections on Lectures/Readings (25 of
  grade)

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Features of Good Arguments

• Level 1 The argument consists of a simple claim
  without discussing a counterclaim or one claim
  against any other claim presents some evidence
  does not contain rebuttals.
• Level 2 The argument consists of claims with
  discussing a counterclaim or one claim against
  any other claim presents some data or warrants,
  but no rebuttals.
• Level 3 The argument contains a claim or a series
  of claims or counterclaims and presents either
  data or warrants but presents weak rebuttals.
• Level 4 The argument has a claim with data or
  warrant with a clearly defined rebuttal.

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Examples

• Claim There is educational equality in US
  education because every student can go to public
  school from kindergarten to 12th grade
• Evidence Citations to federal and state law
  about mandatory attendance laws, enrollment
  statistics

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Example cont

• Counterclaim Educational equality in the US is
  compromised by students unequal access to
  educational resources.
• Evidence Statistics on
• distribution of teachers quality,
• educational equipment,
• students in different educational programs.
  Ethnographies of these disparities

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Course Topic (Problematic) Educational
Inequality

• By any measure (test scores, high school
  completion, college enrollment, etc.), gaps in
  achievement break out along racial/ethnic,
  gender, and social class lines.
• We will examine 4 theories (accounts) of
  educational inequality
• Cultural deprivation (Bereiter Englemann
  Payne)
• Cultural discontinuity (Heath, AuJordan,
  McCarthy)
• Ecological (minority status) Ogbu
• Sociological (culture, structure, agency)
  MacLeod, Lareau, Oakes, Mehan

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When I Consider Each Topic . . .

• (1) I will present the basic argument in its own
  terms--its logic, evidence, its historical
  context
• (2) I will draw out the educational implications
  of the position
• (3) I will provide critiqueincluding examining
  fallacies
• Ill discuss the current status of that thinking

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Fallacies to Avoid

• Determinism/Reductionismthe fallacy that events
  or facts at one level or in one domain can be
  explained or accounted for by shifting levels, e.
  g., from the social to the psychological, or
  biological). The fallacy that complex human
  actions can be explained by any single factor
  Examples
• Biological reductionism/determinism human
  behavior
• is determined primarily by biological factors
• (Freud, Jensen, Herrnstein Murray The Bell
  Curve, Kinsey)
• Structural reductionism/determinism human
  behavior is
• determined primarily by structural factors
  (thereby
• minimizing the role of cultural factors and the
  choices that
• actors make that contribute to their own
  circumstances)

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Fallacies to Avoid

• Acontextualismthe fallacy of not placing the
• phenomenon to be explained in its broader
• social and historical context
• Elements of social context include the immediate
  
• setting, the institution in which the event or
  action takes
• place, the community, the state
• Ethnocentrismthe fallacy of mis-applying the
  rules, norms, values of one social or cultural
  system to another social or cultural systemwhich
  often results in a ranking of systems with the
  compared system at the bottom

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Assign Students to 4-person Reflection Groups
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The California Budget Crisis

• Massive Budget Shortfall
• Two Ways to Balance a Budget Increase revenue
  (taxes) decrease spending
• CA Legislature/Governorcut spending
  (programs)for the poor, disabled

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Implications for UC

• Furloughs and Salary Cuts
• Raise Student Fees
• Freeze Faculty and Staff Hiring
• Consequences
• Fewer classes
• Larger classes
• Less student diversity

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How Did We Get Here?

• Prop 13limited taxes on personal and business
  property
• shrinks State budget
• 67 majority needed to pass budget each year
• Term limits on elected officialsreduces
  institutional memory and promotes quick solutions
• Gerrymandering safe districtskeeps both parties
  entrenched

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What To Do About it?

• Determine Goals is it
• Complain about higher fees?
• Ask Leg/Gov for more State funding?
• Call for Constitutional Convention to change
  super majority rule on budget?

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What to Do About it?

• Determine Means to Achieve Goals
• Strike? Sit ins?
• Teach Ins?
• Letter Writing campaigns?
• Always Consider Public/Press Reaction
• Sympathy?
• Antagonism? (Selfish faculty/ spoiled
  studentscompared to unemployed, lost homes, etc