Week 1
Students will be introduced to the practice of Socratic seminar as the method by which class discussion will be held. Students will be given a copy of the Democratic Theory and Practice Reading List and will be responsible for completing the assignments before the next class session. Using critical summa-flection, students will bring their notes and questions to class to guide their participation.
The historical narratives of American Indians and African-Americans will be used to set the context for our discussion of democracy in America. Students will explore excerpts from: Bruce Johansen's, Debating Democracy, Jack Weatherford's, Indian Givers, Peter Nabakov's, Native Amerrican Testimony.
Students will be tasked to scan school textbook to search for the contributions of non-European peoples to American democracy. In doing so we will collectively uncover the meta-narrative from the text. We will answer the question, "What is the story behind the story?" Through this exercise, students will identify and critically discuss the unspoken class, race, gender messages from the "master's" narrative.
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