190091 SE WM-M10 Spezielle ethische Fragestellungen (2020W)

As our classrooms become more diverse, central tenets of teacher education become how to incorporate elements of multicultural education, critical pedagogy, and social justice into curriculums and conversations to best serve all student populations. This course provides a theoretical and practical introduction to affirming diversity by looking at selected research and theory from the fields of Critical Whiteness Studies, Critical Pedagogy, and Multicultural Education. The class also sets out to question and critically reflect the participants’ own identity positions and standpoints as white (or non-white) individuals and how this awareness helps to look at society in different ways. While most scholarly literature and media examples will be taken from a U.S. context, a culturally diverse society that is considered an example for how to (and how not to) navigate diversity in classrooms, we will also attempt to see how diversity needs to be seen differently in a European context, specifically in Austria and Germany. The class thereby establishes the relevance for critical awareness of privileges and for 'unpacking invisible knapsacks' (McIntosh) beyond race and ethnicity. This is particularly important in light of increasingly diversified classrooms which require teachers’ sensibility for their personal blind spots with regards to their own standpoint in society. This seminar thus seeks to blend theoretical concepts with practical applications for the students’ own teaching and learning environments, particularly by affirming diversity and a critical approach to multicultural education.

Course Objectives:
The goal of this course is to familiarize students with discourses on the social construction of whiteness, and the respective intersections with categories such as race, gender, class, and religion as well as with critical multiculturalism, diversity, and social justice pedagogy. Students will gain a contextual framework through relevant secondary literature, and acquire tools to properly analyze situations (educational and otherwise) and cultural artifacts (literature, film, etc.) from a perspective that incorporates critical pedagogy and critical media literacy. Students will be practicing the application of relevant theory and engage in critical interpretations of 'de/constructions' of systems of power, privilege, and invisibility, all related to the social construction of whiteness as an 'unmarked' norm in Western societies and the affirmation of diversity in its many different shapes and forms. Students will be exposed to different approaches towards diversity in education.

Methodology:
The methodology of this course is based on critical pedagogy. In addition to short input by the course instructor, which will explain and contextualize relevant theories and historical contexts, you are expected to actively participate in class dialogue and group activities. We will also engage in close readings of assigned texts and the analysis of relevant audio-visual material. You need to prepare the assigned readings and viewings in advance and be ready to share your thoughts in class and through assignments as specified throughout the semester. Overall, this course is designed as an interactive classroom where you will be constantly provoked to engage in critical thinking.