Inquiry area: Sex education

Approach: Research different types of sex education (or lack thereof), and form a paper / curriculum / to be determined final project summarizing findings and potential improvements thereupon. Potentially interview people of varying sexual / romantic identifications on their experiences in various sex ed curriculums. General idea is to get a feeling of how various current sexual education practices affect students on a personal and educational level, and see what improvements (if any) can be made that benefit students without further victimizing or miseducating them. 

I have been wrestling with questions of identity and the role it has in education. I am particularly interested in the development of identity in children as they maneuver their way through the education system. In my placement in a pre-school with a majority of Latin@ students, many of whom come into the pre-school only knowing Spanish, I find something problematic in the fact that the school district demands students to learn English only and asks parents to speak only English at home. Volunteering at another school with a similar demographic but an older age group, I have seen that in only 3 years identity becomes problematized among students.

I feel like we have talked a bit in Multicultural Ed about immigrant students in the classroom, but I don't think we have talked about refugee students.  I think this is a very important distinction to make, given political, social, racial, and socioeconomic contexts.  I think immigrating to another country as a child and having to take part in a totally foreign system of education is traumatizing enough; but having to leave politically/socially unstable countries and arriving to America, sometimes without parts of families or their friends is even more damaging and traumatizing.

I want to explore how learning differences and people on the autism spectrum who struggle to read and make sense of body language in particular, but other social cues as well, can learn about racial/class/ inequality issues given their difficulty in interpreting social norms. People’s understanding of feelings and actions are obviously cultured and influenced by the dominant power, but their ideas are also affected by their ability to even see or perceive those dominant notions of how they should act. I would be curious to see if there is more potential, in some ways, to educate these children on emotional literacy, because they start with less knowledge and awareness about how they should behave and express their emotions. How can they be taught about emotional literacy?

I recently listened to an NPR story on the program This American Life called "550: Three Miles" (you can find it here: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/550/three-miles). The story discusses a program of school 'exposure' in the Bronx, between a public school (majority students of color, from low-income families) and a private school (70% white, and $43,000/year - 1/5 students receive financial aid). Even though the schools were physically three miles apart, the students "needed a foreign exchange program to meet each other".

Hey, all--
I've just realized that the reading I'd assigned for both Tuesday and Thursday this week is no longer available electronically  (a mystery to me, since it was when I taught it two years ago....this world is just so unstable! The ecological lesson keeps teaching itself!)

Anyhow, I've now reordered the syllabus. So for Tuesday please read, instead,

I want to look into the way that schooling plays a role in the development of gender ideas.  Because we have not focused on gender so far in this course,  I am not completely sure how I want to focus my research.  My praxis placement in a preschool has peaked my interest in this area because at such a young age, there is already a distinct difference in the way the girls play, participate in class, and what they are interested in as compared to the boys.  In addition, the teacher uses gender as an easy divider, further creating separation between the two groups, and also assuming that there are only two groups.

For my inquiry project, I hope to explore pedagogical practices that support and empower adult learners. Additionally, I wish to learn about strategies that can help adult learners make the biggest strides academically. If research exists on the topic, I would like to specifically examine teaching and working with adult learners in the context of relatively informal reading and writing classes, and if possible in instances where the educator is younger than the students. This area directly relates to my placement at a women’s prison, and I would be keeping that in mind throughout my inquiry.

            I had not considered how teaching emotional literacy maintains social hierarchies. I appreciated how Boler connected emotional literacy to vocabulary and that it is important that children are given words to describe their complex and conflicting feelings. Yet, at the same time, what words should be taught? How can children creatively and accurately express their emotions without preserving social institutions by using existing words that reinforce individualism?

I went back to my site this evening around sunset, but this time I was not alone - I decided to have my partner come with me to do my site sit and explore the Batten jungle. It was different having someone else there with me, because I've always done my site sits alone. But it was amazing how just having a different set of eyes, she was able to point out things that I've never even noticed or look at the same things I've seen in a different light. She pointed out the color of the bark on the fallen down tree (I have a picture here) - deep red and orange, looking like rich earth or fire. At one point she stopped me and had me come back to look at my footprint in the snow - my footprint had revealed some small budding crocuses, the first signs of spring.