S ED 690CI: The Multiple Roles of the Secondary Educator

Dr. Tae Chang: Professor in Secondary Education

Office Hours: TBA

Contact Information: 818.677.6491, 818.677.2580, or taechang@csun.edu

College of Education Conceptual Framework

The faculty of the Michael D. Eisner College of Education, regionally focused and nationally recognized, is committed to Excellence through Innovation. We believe excellence includes the acquisition of professional knowledge, skills, and dispositions and is demonstrated by the growth and renewal of ethical and caring professionals—faculty, staff, candidates—and those they serve. Innovation occurs through collaborative partnerships among communities of diverse learners who engage in creative and reflective thinking. To this end we continually strive to achieve the following competencies and values that form the foundation of the Conceptual Framework.

• We value academic excellence in the acquisition of professional knowledge and skills.
• We value the use of evidence for the purposes of monitoring candidate growth, determining the impact of our programs, and informing ongoing program and unit renewal. To this end we foster a culture of evidence.
• We value ethical practice and what it means to become ethical and caring professionals.
• We value collaborative partnerships within the College of Education as well as across disciplines with other CSUN faculty, P-12 faculty, and other members of regional and national educational and service communities.
• We value diversity in styles of practice and are united in a dedication to acknowledging, learning about, and addressing the varied strengths, interests, and needs of communities of diverse learners.
• We value creative and reflective thinking and practice.

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Course Description

This course fosters critical inquiry into historical and current educational issues that affect and shape the roles of the secondary school educator. Through reading, discussion and debate, reflection, and writing, students develop a thorough and nuanced understanding of these issues and their implications for their own communities, schools, and classrooms. Candidates examine research on social reproduction, special education constructs, school culture, action research, outreach, classroom power, and discourse, and consider ways to apply this learning to their own communities, schools, and classrooms. A required course for M.A. degree candidates in Secondary Curriculum and Instruction. Enrollment restricted to students in the Master of Arts in Secondary Curriculum and Instruction program or with department permission.

Course Learning Objectives

This course addresses four of the five program Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs). Students are expected to develop as professional educators who demonstrate…

• SLO #1 Reflective Practice by critically examining their subject knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and pedagogical skills to improve their diverse students’ learning;
• SLO #2 Theoretical Understanding by reading, synthesizing, and evaluating educational theory and research in their field and applying research findings to their practice in diverse classroom settings;
• SLO #4 Educational Awareness by knowing current discipline-based and general educational issues and how those impact schools; and
• SLO #5 Leadership by influencing policy and practice in educational communities through advocacy and example.

This course focuses most strongly on SLOs #2 and 4.