1. Critical Course Design
6/14/2018
Critical Course Design
CLASP Module #4
Anna Plemons and Jordan Engelke
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2. CLASP Project Outcomes
1. Method for self-reflection 2. Collection of best practices for classrooms

3. Review of Modules 1 and 2
Conversation about:
The context-specific nature of markers of difference, e.g.: deafness is only a marker of difference around hearing people
Intended, Learned, and Taught curriculum (Cuban)

4. Critical Pedagogy Teaching is inherently political
Knowledge is not neutral
Social justice and democracy are not distinct from teaching and learning
Encourages students to perform social critique and political action
Readings, assignments, and feedback structures that reject the deficit model, focus on student strengths, set high standards, and encourage multicultural perspectives

5. Haas (2015) Decolonial Pedagogy
Decolonial theory allows scholars to consider how the “effects and complicities of historical and contemporary colonialism” influence:
Research and educational institutions
Theories
Methodologies
Methods
Scholarship
Everyday embodied practices
Haas (2015)

6. A Guide: Talk about stereotype threat on the first day
6/14/2018
A Guide:
Talk about stereotype threat on the first day
Values writing activity
Accessible syllabus design
Rejecting the deficit model
Values writing activity:
(said to reduce stereotype threat in the classroom – not sure if that’s quantifiable but it is absolutely worth a shot!)
Think about the things that are important to you. Perhaps you care about creativity, family, your career, or having a sense of humor. Pick two or three of these values and write a few sentences about why they are important to you. You have fifteen minutes. (do this with them)
Then model for them: My career/education is my most important core value bc I’m a first gen college student, only person in my family to go to college
Want a better life than what my parents had and I want the freedom to travel and the one thing that will always sticks with me, beyond any relationship, friendship, is my degree—I’ll always have that to fall back on
Then ask for about five volunteers to share theirs.
Students keep their writing and are not required to share with the class, but encouraged to share with the professor privately if they wish. Do this activity around week two and again just before the end of the semester – then ask students to share if their values have changed in any way and why
Deficit Model
Strengths-Based Model
“Does this make sense?”
“What questions do you have?”
Relies on outside, expert knowledge
Relies on personal strengths
The teacher is all-knowing
Teachers and students learn from each other
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7. 6/14/2018
Readings
What kinds of readings would help a class become more decolonial, intersectional, or more critical?
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8. Assignments
How can you change or add to your current assignment sequence to make them meet the goals of critical course design?

9. Feedback Structures What kind of feedback sustains the deficit model?
How can we provide feedback on student work that helps them improve while still being attendant to critical pedagogy?

10. Questions for Small Groups
What examples have we seen of course design (readings, assignment sequences, feedback practices, etc.) that meets these standards?
How can we adopt or adapt those examples into our own work?

11. A host of scholars study Indigenous and decolonial options in academic design:
Maracle (1990)
Hampton (1995)
Atkinson (2001)
Weber-Pillwax (1999)
Mihesuah and Wilson (2004)
Wilson (2008)
Tuhiwai Smith (2012)
Haas (2007, 2012)
Arola (2013)

12. In the Next CLASP Module:
Toward a CLASP Pedagogy: Module Review and Looking Ahead

13. References and Further Reading
Larry Cuban, “Curriculum Stability and Change” (1992) Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s Stealth Revolution Shawn Wilson, Research as Ceremony (2008) Adrienne Rich, Contradictions Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed Frantz Fanon, Wretched of the Earth Kim Case, et al. Intersectional Pedagogy