Syllabus

Cultural and Social Foundations of Education

1215-FIU01-EDF-4604-SECRVAA-50611

• University policies on Academic Misconduct
• Citations & Plagiarism
• What Is Plagiarism?
• plagiarism.org
• Avoiding Plagiarism

One of the greatest barriers to taking an online course is a lack of basic computer literacy. By computer literacy we mean being able to manage and organize computer files efficiently, and learning to use your computer's operating system and software quickly and easily. Keep in mind that this is not a computer literacy course; but students enrolled in online courses are expected to have moderate proficiency using a computer. Please go to the "What's Required" webpage to find out more information on this subject.

This course utilizes the following tools:

1. Canvas & Zoom (for office hours and group meetings only-no live sessions)
2. Youtube
3. Blogs

Please visit our Technical Requirements webpage for additional information.

Students with disabilities, as defined by law, have the right to receive appropriate accommodations if their disabilities make it difficult to perform academic tasks in the usual way or in the allotted time frame. However, in order to receive accommodation, students with disabilities must register with the Disability Resource Center.

Please visit our ADA Compliance webpage for information about accessibility involving the tools used in this course.

Please visit Canvas Commitment Accessibility webpage for more information. 

For additional assistance please contact FIU's Disability Resource Center.

Florida International University is a community dedicated to generating and imparting knowledge through excellent teaching and research, the rigorous and respectful exchange of ideas and community service. All students should respect the right of others to have an equitable opportunity to learn and honestly to demonstrate the quality of their learning. Therefore, all students are expected to adhere to a standard of academic conduct, which demonstrates respect for themselves, their fellow students, and the educational mission of the University. All students are deemed by the University to understand that if they are found responsible for academic misconduct, they will be subject to the Academic Misconduct procedures and sanctions, as outlined in the Student Handbook.

Academic Misconduct includes: Cheating – The unauthorized use of books, notes, aids, electronic sources; or assistance from another person with respect to examinations, course assignments, field service reports, class recitations; or the unauthorized possession of examination papers or course materials, whether originally authorized or not. Plagiarism – The use and appropriation of another’s work without any indication of the source and the representation of such work as the student’s own. Any student who fails to give credit for ideas, expressions or materials taken from another source, including internet sources, is responsible for plagiarism.

Learn more about the academic integrity policies and procedures as well as student resources that can help you prepare for a successful semester.

This course has at least one prerequisite(s). Review the Course Catalog webpage for prerequisites information.

If you are looking for help for yourself or a fellow classmate, Panthers Care encourages you to express any concerns you may come across as it relates to any personal behavior concerns or worries you have, for the classmate’s well-being or yours; you are encouraged to share your concerns with FIU’s Panthers Care website.

Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) offers free and confidential help for anxiety, depression, stress, and other concerns that life brings. Professional counselors are available for same-day appointments. Don’t wait to call 305-348-2277 to set up a time to talk or visit the online self-help portal.

This is an online course, which means most (if not all) of the course work will be conducted online. Expectations for performance in an online course are the same for a traditional course. In fact, online courses require a degree of self-motivation, self-discipline, and technology skills which can make these courses more demanding for some students.

Students are expected to:

• Review the syllabus, welcome video and familiarize yourself with the course Canvas page located in the course content.
• Introduce yourself to the class during the first week by completing the educational autobiography discussion board assignment.
• Interact online with instructor/s and peers.
• Review and follow the course calendar.
• Log in to the course at least 5 times per week.
• Read all announcements and, when necessary/requested, respond within 24 hours.
• Submit assignments by the corresponding deadline. LATE WORK IS NOT ACCEPTED.
• All assignments will be due by 11:59PM on the Sunday Due Date (except for the final, which is due on a Friday to allow adequate turnaround time), with the explicit understanding that I am generally unavailable on weekends. You are provided with a Friday-Sunday due date time for that purpose. Please plan accordingly. I will not be addressing issues on weekends.

The instructor will:

• Log in to the course 3-5 times per week, Monday-Friday.
• Respond to emails requesting meetings within 48 hours (please see email policy).
• Grade assignments within 5-7 days of the assignment deadline.

Communication in this course will take place via Canvas EMAIL (preferably) and ANNOUNCEMENTS/VIDEOS. All office hours will be held in person in my office or via Zoom at a link you will be sent once you reserve your spot at the link at the top of the syllabus. Meetings requested outside of the scheduled office hours must be submitted via Canvas messages and will be held on Zoom unless an in-person meeting is necessary.  

The Email feature is an external communication tool that allows users to send emails to users enrolled within the course. Emails are sent to the students’ FIU email on record. The Email tool is located on the Course Menu, on the left side of the course webpage.

• I utilize announcements on Canvas and send them to your FIU email account as a means of keeping in regular contact with students, to inform about technical issues, to announce when grades have been posted, and so forth.
• For more in-depth discussions (such as guidance on assignments) please request a phone conversation (preferable) or in person in person via email.
• Technical issues should be addressed to FIU Help Desk.
• Course questions should be addressed to the syllabus first and/or recorded sessions.
• Assignments are NEVER to be emailed and are ONLY to be uploaded to Canvas (as per each assignment instruction).

Visit our Writing Resources webpage for more information on professional writing and technical communication skills.

Critical Autobiography (20 points)

·       Critical Autobiography Due by Sunday, May 16 by 11:59PM

Group Reflection/Discussion Boards (20 Points)

A major component of this class is having dialogue with your classmates. In face-to-face/in-person sections of the course, a lot of the time is spent in small group discussions. To recreate this component of the course, you will have weekly group discussion boards in which you will engage in dialogue with your pre-assigned discussion group. The aim of these discussion boards is to promote collaborative conversations so that you can begin to dig into the readings more deeply, dig into your own personal experiences more deeply, and gain some new understandings/deeper understandings and perspectives, and maybe even begin to see some of your own past educational experiences differently/more clearly. Each week there will be some discussion/reflection questions for you to think about as you read. You should post your responses to these questions and any other thoughts/questions/personal connections hat you had while engaging with the readings and videos in each module. Then, you should respond to AT LEAST one of your group members' posts. Each discussion board is worth 4 points: 2 points for your post and 2 points for your response to someone else's post. You are not limited to only one post and should feel free to share other resources, images, videos and other helpful material that might promote some deep collective reflection and dialogue and also to expand your and your group members' perspectives and understandings. NOTE: IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO BE MINDFUL & RESPECTFUL ABOUT WHAT YOU ARE POSTING IN THESE DISCUSSION BOARDS. EVERYONE HAS HAD DIFFERENT EXPERIENCES AND UNDERSTANDINGS AND WHILE IT IS IMPORTANT TO PUSH EACH OTHER'S THINKING, BLATANT DISRESPECT WILL NOT BE TOLERATED. 

Critical & Creative Reflections (60 Points)

There are a variety of critical & creative reflections due throughout the course. They are connected to course readings and videos. The nature of this course is about exploring education, equity, justice, and voice. To that end, you are able to choose the method of delivery for your reflection. It may be of a written response, a creative work, a spoken response (video), or another choice. You should make sure that if you choose a more creative option, there may need to be some written explanation necessary make sure I understand your reflection. For the readings/assignments from the Wynne and Gonzalez text, Who Speaks for Justice(WSfJ) and any additional PDF/Weblinks, you are required to complete a personal reflection. A personal reflection is NOT a summary, but addresses compelling ideas that you discovered and your reactions to the content. The idea is to engage in thoughtful internal dialogue about the idea of global issues and education. You should attempt, in your understanding of the readings to get “underneath” what you read in order to understand the social, political, and cultural underpinnings of the issues. Reading critically involves more than understanding the words or liking or disliking the texts; critical reading requires reflection.

Each assignment is worth 20 points. Feedback and grades will be provided within 5-7 days of the due date.

• Critical Response 1: due by Sunday, May 23, by 11:59 PM
• Critical Response 2: due by Sunday, June 6, by 11:59 PM
• Critical Response 3: due by Sunday, June 13, by 11:59 PM

Final project: Critical Reflection and Action EMAIL (50)

PLEASE WATCH THE VIDEO AND READ THE ASSIGNMENT DESCRIPTION CAREFULLY. 

Final project will have 2 parts addressing the following question(s):

1. How do you take what you’ve considered, and work it into your life’s work? What now?

2.    Who is doing work that is connected to this issue(s) you discussed in question 1?

Part 1: (25 points) Record a video (2-3 minutes) with the answers to the questions above in the context of the critical/creative reflection you chose to reflect and expand on. Be sure to connect this expanded reflection to some of the ideas and experiences shared in the critical autobiography submitted in Module 2…for example, if you chose critical/creative reflection 5 on defining culture…how do you incorporate your understanding of culture and what that means into what you’ll be doing in the future? What kind of action are you going to take on the understanding of culture?  How have your new understandings or perceptions of culture and education been impacted by or shifted from those expressed in your critical autobiography? What now? What are you going to do with this knowledge/understanding/questions? Who is addressing this issue locally or nationally or globally? What are they doing? Why are they doing it? How are they addressing it? What would it mean to be involved?

Part 2: (25 points) Draft and email to an organization/individual within an organization who is doing the work. In addition to the video, you will draft an email to an organization finding out how you and others can get involved.  In your email you should include WHY you are writing them, WHAT you want to do and HOW can you and/or others get involved.  You will submit a screen shot of the email, with a screen shot of the organization and a screenshot of the person you are contacting at the organization. You’ll get extra points if you get a response.

Please see the Final Project Scoring Rubric for the details of the grading.

• Part 1 (Video upload) and Part 2 (Email draft) due by Friday, June 18 by 11:59 PM

Keep in mind that your discussion forum postings will likely be seen by other members of the course. Care should be taken when determining what to post.