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Final field paper options

jccohen's picture

Ed 260:  Multicultural Education

Final field paper

 

As your final paper for this class you will write an approx. 5-8 page paper in which you integrate what you have observed and learned in your Praxis setting with relevant readings and discussions of multicultural education.

 

Remember to use pseudonyms to protect confidentiality for institutions, programs, and individuals.  And select the PRIVATE option on serendip.

 

 

***Final field paper, option 1

 

Consider your key learnings and questions from the site, particularly in relation to “multicultural education.”

 

Revisit your learning by reviewing all relevant documents/traces:  Read through your field notes, posts, lesson plans, student writing, and any other relevant traces from your site visits, keeping in mind your key questions and learnings. Be open to the possibility that your experiences at the placement suggest contradictory “readings” of an issue, e.g. a teaching strategy that works in one instance doesn’t work in another.  This provides a great opportunity to reconsider your understanding of that issue. 

 

Locate sources.  Use our readings to provide an interpretive context for understanding your field experience.  You might also look to your own or others’ inquiry projects, and/or pursue outside sources that illuminate your focus. 

 

Organize your paper in terms of key learnings and questions.  You might use one or several vignettes or a closer look at participants to show how these themes play out.

 

Drafting your paper

*Introduce your site, giving relevant contextual information.   Lay out the key learnings/questions your paper will explore.

*Use relevant literature to frame and set context.

*The bulk of the paper should address the field experience itself.  Where possible, use specifics from your placement, e.g. descriptions of incidents, conversations, etc., as well as interpretive commentary keyed to your learnings/questions. 

 

 

*** Final field paper, option 2:  Request for Proposals (RFP)

As in option 1, consider first your experiences, learnings, and questions at your field site this semester. 

 

Use these as a springboard for a proposal or a recommendation for some change (or completely new programming) in your Praxis setting that addresses issues of multicultural education.  Include a rationale that draws on your experiences and our readings to explain the need or call for the change you recommend; then outline your proposal/recommendations.  Name and discuss any challenges that you foresee. 

 

 

 

NOTE:  While option 1 emphasizes your key learnings and questions with supporting description, option 2 emphasizes recommendations for programmatic change.

 

In either option, make sure to use pseudonyms!

 

Please post your paper on serendip by:

 

Seniors: Sat. May 9 @ 5 pm

Everyone else:  Fri. May 15 @ 12:30 pm