COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course is designed to help you develop an understanding of the cultural and gender differences in American society, to identify personal values and to recognize the implications of interdependence among diverse cultures. Students will develop skills in problem solving, communication strategies, and the taking of multiple perspectives.

LEARNING OUTCOMES: Students will develop and practice skills in these areas:

    1. Communication: Articulate the difference between understanding and agreement

    Communicate effectively in a multicultural setting

    Communicate multicultural concepts and issues

    2. General Intellectual Abilities: Reflect upon one’s experiences,prior beliefs,and feelings          from another’s perspective

    Identify issues and solve problems from more than one perspective.

    Learn new skills and develop new ideas related to multicultural understanding

    3. Social Functioning: Understand and respect different viewpoints and behaviors

    Demonstrate understanding of gender and cultural differences in adapting to multicultural settings

    Demonstrate cooperation and team work in relating to and working with others

    4. Knowledge: Significant multicultural issues and implications for a diverse society.

    Culture and its components

    Definition of cultural diversity

    Influence of power and privilege

    Components of personal culture in comparison with other cultures in the US.

    5. Attitudes and Values:Develop an informed view of a culturally diverse society

    Examine the validity of alternative beliefs, manners, customs and lifestyles   

    Reduce inequities caused by discrimination, and inequality of opportunity

    Demonstrate ability to resolve conflicts arising from prejudice and discrimination

TIME/ PLACE:       Section 01 8:30 Room 1303

                   Section 02 9:30 Room 1303

                                       Section 04 10:30 Room 1303

PROFESSOR:         Betsey Barnett, Ph.D. Office 2246 FOSS Building

                  Office hours: 11:30 – 12:20 Daily (or by appointment)

                  Phone: 546-4680         Email: bbarnett@ctc.edu

TEXTS:             Campbell, Bebe Moore (1994). Brothers and Sisters. Putnam.

                  Cyrus, Virginia (1993). Experiencing Race, Class, and Gender in the United States.                     Mayfield Pub.

                Takaki, Ronald (1993). A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. Little,                    Brown.

RESPONSIBILITIES: All participants will demonstrate respect, flexibility, tolerance of ambiguity, and physical/              emotional presence.

Written work must meet minimum requirements in the areas of clarity of thought and expression; grammar, spelling, and punctuation; and typing and proofreading. I reserve the privilege of rejecting any work that does not meet minimum requirements. Papers are to be typed unless otherwise specified. If you do not have access to a computer at home, be sure to check all campus computer labs for available hours.

Readings: I expect that you will have done the assigned reading for the week before coming to class on Mondays. Plan to read about 100 pages a week, the average amount of reading for a college-level course. The class activities will require that you have the background from all the readings assigned for that week. Note that you will be handing in Response Journals at the beginning of the week based on the entire week’s reading. Pay attention to when readings are due.

Classroom Behavior: You will be asked to develop and practice in class the skills necessary for functioning successfully in a world you share with many people unlike yourself. I expect you to be in class, on time, with an open mind, engaged and participating. This includes doing the required readings before class, taking part in class discussions and exercises, asking questions, commenting, enabling others to participate, and actively listening. Participation in group activities will count as 20% of your final grade.

Addressing controversial issues is a difficult and very valuable skill that you will have many opportunities to practice. Our major goal will be to create a classroom climate that encourages healthy intellectual conflict (the kind that leads to real intellectual and emotional growth) and discourages personal attack. This course focuses on dominant cultural myths (ideas, images, beliefs, and values) that shape American society. Our emphasis is on the ideologies that help shape our experiences and our knowledge. Our emphasis is not on personal opinions, ideas, and or beliefs. For example, when exploring gender roles, we will not be discussing our personal opinions of what individuals should or should not do, think, etc. We will be exploring several divergent perceptions of the dominant society's attitudes and portrayals. Therefore, whether you agree with the perspective presented will be largely irrelevant. You will be asked continuously to demonstrate your understanding of the concepts presented, and not your agreement.

 

PLAGIARISM: The college governing bodies (student, faculty, and administration) have requested that faculty indicate            the consequences of cheating and plagiarism:

Cheating: acquiring answers during examinations that are not one's own through deceit, fraud, and duress.

Plagiarism: to take and use as one's own the writings or ideas of another person.

In this course, both of these actions will be viewed as not completing the assignment and no grade will be entered. A zero will be used to compute that portion of a student's grade. Having complied with the college policy, I must add that concepts of cheating and plagiarism are inextricably bound to culture and worldview. This course is designed so that these concepts (as they are traditionally understood) do not normally apply.

 

ASSIGNMENTS/GRADES:           1. Attendance/Group Participation         20%

                                              2. Response Journals                         20%

                                              3. Two Multicultural Activities            20%

                                              4. Midterm                                         20%

                                              5. Final Exam                                      20%

Assignments are considered on time if they are turned in at the beginning of the class period on the due date. Late papers forfeit 1.0 or one letter grade. I will accept papers up to four (4) days late, providing they have the appropriate identifying information (name, class time, assignment name/number, date due, and date turned in). Since late papers lose one letter grade per day late, after four days the grade is zero.

 

Attendance/Participation

Participation grades will be determined by participation in collaborative groups to complete a specific task. For each group that you attend you will receive a 4.0. You will have about 10 opportunities to play a role in collaborative group activities. You will find it difficult to pass this course if you do not attend class.

Response Journals

Weekly response journals require that you read the assigned texts, that you clearly understand points of view which may be different from your own, and that you think critically about what you have read. I will read and respond to your writing and you will share your writing with your colleagues, so keep that in mind as you write. RJs are due on Mondays and should be no more than two typewritten pages. RJs will be evaluated based on RJ Standards (see page 6). Please format your papers as shown.

Name

Class Time

RJ #:

Date Due:

Page 1: The Main Ideas

3 main ideas from the assigned reading in Takaki

3 main ideas from the assigned reading in Cyrus

3 main ideas from the assigned reading in Campbell

You may use quotes, questions, a summary sentence, new understandings, your reading notes, etc. I will be looking for evidence that you understood the perspective presented.

Page 2: What does this mean to you?

What are some ways the readings for this week relate to your own thoughts or experiences? What are some connections among the readings? I will be looking for evidence that you can consider perspectives in addition to your own.

As the quarter progresses, consider some of these issues:

Look back over earlier journals to see if you can answer your own questions.

Write about conversations you with family members and friends about your learning.

Write about something that has been bothering you about the course content.

Write about some connections you see now that you did not see before.

 

Two Short Autobiographical Papers

This assignment asks that, twice during the quarter, you use race, gender, and class as the prisms through which you view your own life up to this point. In other words, be specific about your race, your social class, and your gender. I know this will be difficult for you if you have never been asked to see yourself in this way. Your paper should be about 2-3 type written pages. You can include reasons and goals for taking this class, previous multicultural experiences, and anything that will help me to know you better. I really want to know something about you and what you think is important for me to know. For your second autobiography, due the last week of the quarter, please reread your first autobiography, your reading /response journals, etc., and rewrite your autobiography based on what you know now. I will not be grading you on your life; I will record your autobiographies with your response journals and evaluate them based on autobiography standard (see page 5).

Two Multicultural Activities

You must attend TWO multicultural events that deal with African American, Asian American, Latino/a, Native American, Women, or Lesbians/Gay men within the United States. Then you must write 3-5 pages about your experiences. Events may include plays, lectures, reading by authors, exhibits, etc. Activities such as renting a video, going to a movie, eating at a restaurant, reading a book, do not count as multicultural activities. Be careful to choose activities that are multicultural, as opposed to simply cultural. Be sure you ask about this enough in class so that you understand your assignment. Your choice of activities will demonstrate whether you understand the meaning of the term multicultural as we are using it in this course. I will evaluate your multicultural activity papers based on the multicultural activity standard (see page 5).

Midterm and Final Exam

Your exams will be short answer and essay. We will take time in class to review for each exam, and you will receive a list of study questions from which I will choose the exam questions. Your exams will be primarily short answer and essay, and they will be designed so that you can answer the questions in the time allowed, IF you had the study questions and practiced the answers ahead of time. Plan to take exams when they are scheduled. Make-up exams will be available only by prior arrangement.

Mean of Response Journals (Number of journals X grade/number of journals)

+ Mean of Attendance/Participation (Number of groups X grade/number of groups)

+ Mean of Multicultural Activities (2 activities X grade/2)

+ Midterm (grade)

+ Final (grade)

Mean of 5 grades Total divided by 5 = Final Grade