Exploring the Class Privilege at in Curriculum at Wealthy High Schools Miriam Gross [email protected]
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The University of San Francisco USF Scholarship: a digital repository @ Gleeson Library | Geschke Center Master's Projects and Capstones Theses, Dissertations, Capstones and Projects Winter 12-14-2018 Power in Plain Sight: Exploring the Class Privilege at in Curriculum at Wealthy High Schools Miriam Gross [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.usfca.edu/capstone Part of the Curriculum and Instruction Commons, Curriculum and Social Inquiry Commons, Educational Leadership Commons, Liberal Studies Commons, Secondary Education Commons, and the Secondary Education and Teaching Commons Recommended Citation Gross, Miriam, "Power in Plain Sight: Exploring the Class Privilege at in Curriculum at Wealthy High Schools" (2018). Master's Projects and Capstones. 869. https://repository.usfca.edu/capstone/869 This Project/Capstone is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, Capstones and Projects at USF Scholarship: a digital repository @ Gleeson Library | Geschke Center. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Projects and Capstones by an authorized administrator of USF Scholarship: a digital repository @ Gleeson Library | Geschke Center. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Power in Plain Sight: Exploring the Class Privilege at in Curriculum at Wealthy High Schools In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF ARTS in INTERNATIONAL AND MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION by Miriam Romero Gross DeCember 2018 Power in Plain Sight: Exploring the Class Privilege at in Curriculum at Wealthy High Schools In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF ARTS in INTERNATIONAL AND MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION by Miriam Gross DeCember 2018 UNIVERSITY OF SAN FRANCISCO Under the guidanCe and approval of the Committee, and approval by all the members, this field projeCt (or thesis) has been aCCepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree. Approved: DeCember 9, 2018 Rosa M. Jiménez, Ph.D. Date InstruCtor/Chair CONTENTS Chapter One: Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 1 Statement of the Problem .......................................................................................................................... 1 Background and Need ................................................................................................................................ 3 Theoretical Frameworks ............................................................................................................................. 9 Relationship to the Topic .......................................................................................................................... 13 Significance of the Project ........................................................................................................................ 14 Definition of Terms ................................................................................................................................... 15 Chapter Two: Review of the Literature ........................................................................................................ 17 Privileged Student Identities ................................................................................................................... 18 Naming the Hidden Curriculum in Wealthy High Schools ....................................................................... 28 Pedagogies of Citizenship ........................................................................................................................ 39 Chapter Three: The Project and Its Development ........................................................................................ 47 Brief Description of the Project ................................................................................................................ 47 Development of the Project ..................................................................................................................... 50 The Project ................................................................................................................................................ 52 Chapter Four: Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 67 Recommendations for Further Work ....................................................................................................... 68 Next Steps ................................................................................................................................................. 71 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................ 72 Sources ......................................................................................................................................................... 74 Appendixes……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..84 “I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.” ― Angela Y. Davis ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS For my mother, who taught me compassion and perseverance, and led the way into this work. We may diverge in many ways, but my heart comes from yours, and it is why I am here. Thank you to my professors and advisors at University of San Francisco’s School of Education for guiding me along this journey. For Dr. Bajaj, who helped me find a home to learn and grow in IME, and Dr. Jimenez, who guided this final project so that I can take what I have learned forward. Dr. Jimenez, you helped me to find my voice and the best place for me to contribute to this work. Thank you to Dr. Bleasdale, Dr. Cann, and Dr. Neebe for laying foundations upon which this project is built. Thank you also to Dr. Katz & Yuni for helping me to not get lost along the way. Thank you to my family for supporting me, my sisters for inspiring me, my parents for raising me, and my aunts and grandfathers for encouraging me to follow my heart and explore deep subjects as I find my way. It is the colorfulness, diversity, passion, and curiosity of our family that makes me who I am. All I need is a miracle, all I need is you. I would not have gotten as much out of this program had it not been for my amazing and inspiring classmates. Never have I had the fortune of being in such a beautiful community, so selflessly committed to making the world a better place. The passion and care you bring to this work is beautiful, and I hope all of our visions are realized. Thank you for helping me to find my own praxis and voice, may yours guide our field forward. Thank you to the friends who forgave me for missing things, and to the ones who provided wine, couches, walks, game nights, kitty cuddles and words of encouragement to get me through these two years. Special thanks to my extended family; the Garlick, Leibowitz, McDuff & Wolf families, who always provide another home to take respite in. Thank you above all for helping me to improve myself without ever feeling I had to be anything other than who I am, and loving me as such unconditionally. Thank you to the educators who contributed to this project; for the interviews, for the meetings, for letting me into your classrooms and for sharing with me your experiences and hopes for the education of these communities; this project could not have been and will not be successful without you. I was particularly fortunate to include in this group one of my longest- standing mentors, Mrs. Franco. Finally, thank you to my students, in the Bay Area and in India, for you inspire me to push forward and assure me I am on the right path. ABSTRACT While secondary education has moderately improved in its approach of racial and gender issues in the classroom, social class remains an undiscussed topic, especially in school communities serving students of the highest social classes where financial privilege often intersects with racial privilege. The lack of discussion of social class is considered against the role schooling is meant to play in creating good citizens and the different ways that is construed. Taking into account research into the identity formation of wealthy adolescents, the hidden curriculum in secondary schools that supports the current social order, and pedagogical practices that could be used to disrupt the status quo, this project produces a curricular approach to social science that could create more justice-oriented citizens. The project proposes a curriculum for World History that confronts the historic nature of social privilege and power by naming the oppressor and their benefits, developing empathy through stories of the oppressed, and supporting students in developing a justice-oriented praxis. An outline for the unit and lesson plans are included. Keywords: Education of Wealthy Students, Social Class in Education, Critical Pedagogy in Privileged Secondary Schools, High School History Curriculum, High School Citizenship Education CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION It has been thirty years since Peggy McIntosh introduced the world to her famed “Invisible Knapsack” of white privilege. She was brought to the work by the realization that her struggle not just to make men understand their male privilege, but to get them to a place of wanting to give up some of that power, was not unlike a set of white privileges she had not recognized herself (McIntosh,