EWS 475 Community and Culture Winter, 2005
Class Location: Bldg. 66, Room 247
Instructor: Jose Calderon, E-mail: jzcalderon {at} csupomona(.)edu
Office Hours: 2-4 on MW and 1-3 on Tuesday's in Bldg. 5, Room 119
Description of Course
This course examines how multi-racial communities have become mosaics of competing land interests and demographic transformations. This will be achieved through the reading of various articles that combine community and multicultural issues with issues of global, local, and regional development and restructuring; through the study of examples of building community (particularly in Los Angeles county); through class discussions; and through participatory community service and action research. This course will provide students with the opportunity to apply social research to a specific community service site. We will apply the concepts and theories being learned in the classroom to specific sites in the region.
Readings:
John Horton With Jose Calderon, Mary Pardo, Leland Saito, Linda Shaw, and Yen Fen Tseng The Politics of Diversity
Gilda Ochoa, Becoming Neighbors
Community and Culture Reader (Available at Ask Copy and Printing, 3530 Temple Ave. #D in Pomona )
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
This class will be run in a seminar format. Assigned readings will be used as a basis for class discussion and dialogue. Class attendance and participation are expected. In cases of borderline grades, class participation and attendance will be taken into consideration. Assignments need to be turned in on time. Unless there is a crisis emergency, please do not ask for an extension or an incomplete. I will dock points for papers that are turned in late. If all the requirements have not been completed by the end of the semester, a final grade will be given based on the work completed. Papers should be typed, double-spaced, numbered, proofread, and include references.
Students, in this course, are required to be involved in a neighborhood, city, or specific community site (preferably work that involves service to the community). The final paper will allow the student to write about what has been learned in the site. It is also meant to connect what has been learned in the field to the readings and to other literature.
Materials: Purchase a three ring binder to hold your typed field notes. You may take down jottings at your site, but these should be used to produce final field notes that are placed in your binder. At mid-term and the end of the semester, you will turn in your typed filed notes.
Grades Will Be Allocated as Follows:
Participation 20%
Cultural group Presentation on Readings 20%
Field Note Journal 30%
Final Paper and presentation 30%
1.) Participation – Weekly attendance in the class and at least two hours per week of field work at a community service or research site are required for the course. 20% of your final grade will be based on your field work at the site, class attendance, completion of the readings for each class, and your participation in weekly discussions.
2. ) Learning Through Creativity, the use of Cultural Mediums, and Critical Analysis
During the semester, each student will work with a group and facilitate a class presentation and discussion on a section of the assigned readings. The presentation segment should use a creative medium or combinations of mediums (i. e. video, theater, art, music, collage, dance, rap, poetry, etc.). The presentation should include : 1. the primary connecting arguments or themes in the readings 2. the literature or data used to sustain the arguments (and particularly any problems or holes in the data) 3. your evaluation of the author's arguments 4. the meaning or usefulness that the material has for your lived experience or for the particular site that you are involved in Remember, the class presentation will be carried out collectively in a group. Data from your particular site will be welcomed for this presentation.
In your presentation, Do not merely summarize the argument of the author/s but develop your own thinking and criticality about what the author/s are saying. (20%).
4.) Fieldnote Journal and Site Visit Analyses
