SOCS607

Culture and Learning: Applying Social Sciences Within Education

Jason Simms

Note: This class will run on a special immersion schedule.

Schedule:
Tuesdays, online: 9/13, 10/4, 10/18, 11/8, 11/29, 6:30-8:00pm
Saturdays, on campus: 9/24, 10/29, 12/10, 9am-4:30pm

Location: (for on-campus dates) Exley Science Center 113

Information subject to change; syllabi and book lists are provided for general reference only. This seminar offers 3 credits, and enrollment is limited to 18 students.

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Course Overview

In recent years, education at all levels globally has been experiencing several paradigm shifts. Increasingly, educational institutions and policies reflect a Western approach, representing a "sea change" in both the way students learn and educators teach. Closer to home, programs such as No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, and "common core" have engendered heated debate about their efficacy and consequences as policymakers and administrators demand performance-related data in a time of dramatic budget challenges. In addition, school districts and communities often struggle to address rising levels of ethnic, economic, social, religious, and linguistic diversity. In short - as this course explores - the fundamental culture of education is shifting at a pace and in ways not seen before, presenting challenges and opportunities for educational professionals and students. At its heart, we will consider applied applications of these elements that might influence practice and policy at several levels, including the classroom, school, district, community, state, and nation. 

This course will employ anthropology as the primary lens through which to examine these topics, though other social science perspectives, including sociology, geography, economics, and related disciplines, will be introduced and are welcome. No prior experience in anthropology or other fields is required or assumed. In fact, this course benefits from having students with a rich array of backgrounds participate.

  • Faculty Bio
    Jason Simms (B.A., M.A. University of Tennessee; M.P.H., Ph.D. University of South Florida) is Academic Computing Manager for the Social Sciences and a Research Affiliate with the Department of Anthropology. He has conducted public health and environmental research in the Dominican Republic and California. Specializing in political economy of the environment, social and environmental justice, human rights, geographical information systems (GIS), and natural and technical hazards, he has published on social aspects of hurricane vulnerability and political-economic facets of scarce natural resource allocation in agricultural contexts.