Middle School Equity & Inclusion
Course Description:
Middle School Equity & Inclusion is a hybridized capstone offered each Summer. Through text and community engagement PSU students will observe and reflect on race, language, and class privilege as they are encountered by immigrant children and their families.
Online reading and discussion will orient students to the context of language, culture, and English language learning and migrant education. The classroom discussion will explore the role of race in each of our lives along with reflections on the role of race in education. Students should expect to talk personally in class about their experiences of their own race and construct a racial autobiography by the end of the term. The PSU classroom will use the format of "Courageous Conversations about Race", the preferred cultural competency training for Portland Public Schools.
The community-based learning will be classroom assistance in Beaverton School District' s summer program for multilingual youth.
This course will provide powerful background knowledge for students majoring in the Social Sciences, Gender and Ethnic Studies, as well a pre-professional programs such as Child & Family Studies, Social Work, Speech & Hearing, Law, and Health Occupations.
To engage in this capstone students must register for the course and submit to Beaverton School District a volunteer application and background check by June 1. Students may not be able to complete the capstone without passing the background check.
Students will complete all assignments and actively engage in classroom discussions. Students must read the "Capstone Student Handbook" and abide by all of the policies noted therein. Students will abide by the volunteer policies of Beaverton School District. Since the community engagement is brief, but essential, absences from the community experience must be rescheduled during the four weeks of the Summer Program. At the end of the term PSU students will develop a powerpoint presentation of their observations, to be delivered to the coordinator of the Summer Program.
