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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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San Jose State University

Walter R. Jacobs

2002

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Learning And Living Difference That Makes A Difference: Postmodern Theory & Multicultural Education, Walter R. Jacobs Jan 2002

Learning And Living Difference That Makes A Difference: Postmodern Theory & Multicultural Education, Walter R. Jacobs

Walter R. Jacobs

The application of postmodern theory to a transformative understanding of multiculturalism can make a difference. Multicentered culture, antiessentialist race consciousness, and political equity—aspects of a transformative multiculturalism put forward in 1996 by Newfield and Gordon—can be juxtaposed with elements of a postmodern theorization of society as a consumer-driven economy saturated with multiple mediated unstable, fragmented, and evolving discourses and cultural interaction. This theoretical construct can be illustrated with research data from college classrooms and specifically an analysis of the television show The X-Files. This analysis shows how a discussion of whiteness creates larger discussion of transformative multiculturalism in which difference …


Using Lower-Division Developmental Education Students As Teaching Assistants, Walter R. Jacobs Jan 2002

Using Lower-Division Developmental Education Students As Teaching Assistants, Walter R. Jacobs

Walter R. Jacobs

There has been little research on the experiences of undergraduate teaching assistants, and this small body of information is usually tightly focused on traditional disciplinary concerns like sociology, psychology, and communications. Additionally, undergraduate teaching assistant research tends to focus on upper-division students. This article explores the benefits and drawbacks of using lower-division developmental education students as teaching assistants in developmental social science courses. Included are comments from students enrolled in a course staffed by a sophomore as the teaching assistant. Employing developmental education students as teaching assistants can be beneficial to instructors, students, and the teaching assistants themselves.