"Let Us Leave Changed": Education for Personal and Social Change Through an Undergraduate Course on Democracy and Education

Abstract/n“Let Us Leave Changed”: Education for Personal and Social Change Through an Undergraduate Course on Democracy and Education/nby/nPaula Lynne Argentieri/nDoctor of Philosophy in Education/nand the Designated Emphasis/nin/nGender and Women's Studies/nUniversity of California, Berkeley/nProfessor John Hurst, Chair/nThis dissertation responds to a call for a model of education in the 21st century that allows students to become the globally responsible, critically engaged, and caring citizens our world needs now. The question remains, how do we move beyond good ideas, strong philosophies, and powerful messages to answer this call in practice? That question is of great concern now and thus is central to my motivation for conducting research on an existing pedagogical model in higher education--one that might convert these sound ideas into a lived reality for our future./nAt theUniversity of California, Berkeley, Education 190: Current Issues in Education has fostered a rigorous experiential inquiry into our nation's education system. One former student reflected, “In our desire to change society, we began by changing ourselves: WE deconstructed our own educational experiences and reconstructed them in the context of one another's, creating a community whose stories brought to life the abstract theories in the literature.” The emerging pedagogy of this course, founded on theories of more popular and democratic education, eventually spawned a transformative educational program at Berkeley and a non-profit organization in the state of California./nThe pedagogy in motion is a focus of this study, along with the students' conceptualizations of the learning experience, as many said it represented a “visceral change” in their lives, and a “monolithic milestone” in their education and careers. Over the course of a decade, I conducted an ethnographic and participatory longitudinal research project on this democratic pedagogy that I engaged in as educator from 2002-2010. I catalogued student written reflections (journal entries, papers, portfolios) for 18 semesters. During Spring 2007, I engaged in the course as participant-observer and captured field notes and in-class interviews. I continued research from 2010-2014 by conducting post-class interviews with the students. My findings are based on their voices and take-aways 5 to 7 years after the experience, as well as my own reflection./nMy conclusion after researching this pedagogical phenomena in practice is, in the 21st century, we must provide a practice in the higher education classroom that matches the moral and biological imperatives of humanity and of the planet we co-inhabit. We must problematize antiquated ideas and practices regarding epistemology and pedagogy and move beyond an over-emphasis on evaluative grading, competition, sorting, comparing, and regurgitating. We need new forms of knowledge production and new teaching practices in higher education that meet the demands of human development toward an emerging global awareness, with interdependence and cooperation as central principles. The findings of this study demonstrate that this type of education- the type practiced in Ed 190- fosters leaders who have the skills and motivation needed to make the types of changes we envision for our shared humanity.

Advisor: Hurst, John
Ammon, Paul