Event Title
Curricular Transformation: How to Incorporate Cultural Competence in Course Content and Pedagogy
Location
Multicultural Center, Hardge Forum (Rm. 101)
Start Date
30-9-2014 9:30 AM
End Date
30-9-2014 10:45 AM
Description
Laura Beauvais, Vice Provost, Faculty Affairs; and Dr. Lynne Derbyshire, Associate Professor, Communication Studies, and Director, Honors Program. Traditionalists refer to the canon of Western civilization as the proven standard for defining, producing, and legitimating the formal knowledge in the higher education curriculum. In the West, the highest forms of knowledge are universal truths that can be discovered through objective and empirical procedures. The scholar’s highest task is to act as the detached observer managing the pursuit of objective knowledge – knowledge which is independent of the knower. Over the last half‐ century, changing demographics have amplified the voices of feminism, multiculturalism, and internationalism, and brought heightened attention to constructivist perspectives. To the constructivist, the interaction between the scholar and the cultural context is critical to how knowledge is constructed, what is taught, how it is taught, and how learning is to be evaluated. Knowledge is viewed as fundamentally subjective because of the filtering perspectives of the scholar and the culture. The contesting views of traditionalism and constructivism have brought to the forefront the need to continually review the formal and informal procedures as well as the power relations through which stakeholders institutionalize knowledge within the curriculum.
Curricular Transformation: How to Incorporate Cultural Competence in Course Content and Pedagogy
Multicultural Center, Hardge Forum (Rm. 101)
Laura Beauvais, Vice Provost, Faculty Affairs; and Dr. Lynne Derbyshire, Associate Professor, Communication Studies, and Director, Honors Program. Traditionalists refer to the canon of Western civilization as the proven standard for defining, producing, and legitimating the formal knowledge in the higher education curriculum. In the West, the highest forms of knowledge are universal truths that can be discovered through objective and empirical procedures. The scholar’s highest task is to act as the detached observer managing the pursuit of objective knowledge – knowledge which is independent of the knower. Over the last half‐ century, changing demographics have amplified the voices of feminism, multiculturalism, and internationalism, and brought heightened attention to constructivist perspectives. To the constructivist, the interaction between the scholar and the cultural context is critical to how knowledge is constructed, what is taught, how it is taught, and how learning is to be evaluated. Knowledge is viewed as fundamentally subjective because of the filtering perspectives of the scholar and the culture. The contesting views of traditionalism and constructivism have brought to the forefront the need to continually review the formal and informal procedures as well as the power relations through which stakeholders institutionalize knowledge within the curriculum.