School Discourse Analysis
School Discourse Analysis (20%) Educational scholars have analyzed and written at length about the historical context of culture, power, and discipline/control that has created our contemporary educational climate. None of these scholars, however, works in your school and with your students, colleagues, and administration. This assignment asks you to notice and note the discourse around goodness and badness (in particular as it is related to difference e.g. race, socioeconomic status, language, ability, gender identity, and sexual orientation) in your school. Over the first few weeks of the semester, using a T-chart format, note down any moment where you notice moments of goodness or badness as related to student behavior. Note down any dialogue and action you can from the moment on the left side of the T-chart. On the right side, consider what you might be seeing given the historical and contemporary framework of discipline and punishment provided by our readings. Using your observations, write a brief analysis of discipline and punishment in your school context. What counts as good? What counts as bad? Who decides? What are the outcomes that impact students? How do you make sense of all of this? How do you position your intersectional self within all of this? To turn in: Your observational notes A 3-5 page analytic paper (Double- spaced; 12pt font, Times New Roman, 1-inch margins, APA style in text citations/quotations, APA style reference page).
