ࡱ> +-*? jbjb j"}}l$ *f"""""""",  """""r"""rrr".""r""rr eP"**,8 r8 r2004-2006 Program Focus Multiple Voices in Democratic Education:Language, Literacy, and Social Transformation Each of us has a picture of what it means to be a teacher and a student. Weve created these pictures based on our own experiences as learners in and out of public schools. What we experienced as students, however, increasingly does not represent the daily lives or school experiences of many children. Approximately 20% of people in the United States under the age of 18 live in poverty. The National Coalition of Advocates for Students report estimated that in 2001 between 70-96% of students enrolled in the fifteen largest school systems in the US will belong to minority groups; in many of these schools the English-as-a-second-language (ESL) student will be the norm, not the exception. According to Jim Cummins, bilingual expert, children and youth who live in poverty, who speak languages other than English, who come from diverse cultural backgrounds should be able to expect that their teachers will ensure that schooling amplifies rather than silences their power of self expression. Few public schools, however, provide training for their staff about the culture of poverty. Bilingual education and ESL training for teachers is rare, despite recent studies that show children are much more likely to succeed in school in English, if they first become literate in their primary language. The other most important variable for minority language students success is the application of appropriate teaching and learning strategies in the classroom. Children and youth who are mono-lingual should also be able to expect that their teachers and schools will support them in learning another language, for personal enrichment and preparation for todays world. But our public school system continues to reflect an historical bias in this country toward a monolingual and mono-cultural society. Regardless of their ethnicity, students in public schools today can expect to live in a society that reflects a diversity of languages and cultures and that requires people to engage in creative problem-solving, utilize technological skills, collaborate effectively with co-workers, and actively seek information and resources. Given these emerging realities, we invite people into this program who are eager to participate in a social transformation that can empower their students to create and prosper in a multi-lingual, multi-cultural society. We want prospective teachers who are willing to challenge and question the existing structures of schooling in order to create learning environments based on the needs of all students. As a vehicle to explore who our future students will be, what they will need to learn, and what we as teachers will need to be able to do, this program will investigate education from the perspective of (a) social transformation that can lead to social justice in K-12 classrooms; (b) the value of language and culture; and (c) empowerment as, in the words of Cummins, a collaborative creation of power. Questions that we will examine include: What are the implications of the State of Washingtons Educational Reform and the federal legislation " No Child Left Behind" for our students and for us? How will performance-based education affect what and how we teach? How can understanding social justice help us to help our students? How are bilingualism and the traditional literacies of reading, writing, and quantitative reasoning related to personal, economic, and political oppression and power? How are questions of democracy and social transformation that lead to social justice related to our work as teachers and learners in an increasingly diverse context? How can teachers respond to and work with family and cultural belief systems that shape childrens lives when those belief systems may or may not be the same as our own? In other words, how can teachers who are socialized to accept the values of the dominant culture learn to educate children and youth without ignoring, denying, or rejecting their cultural and language heritages? How can we as teachers find the courage to address our own biases to better serve the diverse students with whom we will work? o$'Y\*6CJCJ 5>*CJ5CJ nop) * \ ] - . hi)*$a$nop) * \ ] - . hi)*-/ =!"#$%0x9 0/ =!"#$% P0xx i4@4NormalCJOJPJQJmH <A@<Default Paragraph Fontp"/"#zp 6Hv ?HIU:: Maggie Foran;Macintosh HD:Temporary Items:AutoRecovery save of Document1 Maggie Foran3GraduateStudies:MIT catalog:2004-2006 Program Focus Maggie Foran3GraduateStudies:MIT catalog:2004-2006 Program Focus~JEh ^`OJQJo(h ^`OJQJo(oh pp^p`OJQJo(h @ @ ^@ `OJQJo(h ^`OJQJo(oh ^`OJQJo(h ^`OJQJo(h ^`OJQJo(oh PP^P`OJQJo(~        @ @ E# 7@ @GTimes New Roman5Symbol3 Arial3Times? Courier New;Wingdings"qhj2v2v2vug >0d@2004-2006 Program Focus Maggie Foran Maggie Foran Oh+'0  8 D P \hpx'2004-2006 Program Focus004 Maggie ForangraaggNormalF Maggie Forangra2ggMicrosoft Word 9.0o@>X@R8t[,@