This article has been updated since publication for clarity.
Texas A&M offers four classes during the Fall 2024 semester that push DEI in education. Two of these classes have a project regarding explicit books that parents have objected to in government schools.
These are all titled “Foundations of Education in a Multicultural Society.” This is an undergraduate course. It’s taught at the Texas A&M College of Education and Human Development. Four sections of this course are available this fall. It appears it’s required for all classroom teacher majors leading to certification. The syllabi for these classes are similar, with few exceptions.
According to the syllabi, one of the “Cultural Discourse Core Objectives” is to “understand [that] power or authority is distributed within organizational systems, including recognizing potential forms of privilege, oppression, and discrimination.”
Course objectives for students include similar language:
- Explore discrimination and oppression by examining the history of education in the United States.
- Explore the various views on cultural diversity in the U.S. as related to schools.
- Develop culturally responsive teaching and learning strategies.
All four sections have the same required textbook: “Diversity Consciousness: Opening Our Minds to People, Cultures, and Opportunity,” 4th ed., by Richard Bucher.
A Google Books description stated the program in this book “ignites student’s curiosity and questions about the nature and critical importance of diversity and diversity consciousness to off-set passive learning.” A review of this book on the author’s website stated the book provides “a wealth of scenarios, exercises, and practical information [that] illustrates the importance of diversity in achieving equity, intercultural understanding, and cooperative success.”
One of the classes has an additional required textbook: “Multicultural Education: Issues and Perspectives,” by James Banks and Cherry Banks.
Google Books provided sample pages from the 10th edition. “According to Maher and Tetreault (1994), feminist pedagogy enhances the learning of females and deepens the insight of males,” the authors wrote on page 10. The Bankses also use the LGBT term “Latinx” to describe Latinos.
In the third week of this particular class, they discuss “Culture, Respect, and Inclusion.” An assigned reading is titled “Diversity & Equity in the Classroom.”
This syllabus has a Banned Books Project for students. “Any work could be attacked at any time, by anybody, for any cause, anywhere,” Crawford wrote in her syllabus. “In this project, [students] will learn about censorship and book bans and their impact on teaching and learning.”
For this assignment, the syllabus points to a top-ten list of the “Most Challenged Books” from the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. Students are asked to pick a banned book from this list and present whether it should be removed or kept in schools. The list includes books parents have advocated for removing from school libraries to protect their children from explicit content.
This project is worth 150 points out of 900 points available from all assignments in the class.
Questions students may use to guide this assignment include:
What message is the author conveying in this book, and why might certain groups want it banned? What group is being silenced with the censorship of this book?
This assignment was found in the syllabus for only one other section of this course.
TAMU’s website stated that the College of Education and Human Development “is among the leading institutions in the state for producing the highest number of certified teachers in bilingual education, special education and STEM-related fields.” It is consistently ranked among the top five state educator training programs.
Texas Scorecard asked Texas A&M and the Texas A&M University System for comment on these classes. No response was received before publication.
This publication will continue to examine higher education in the state. If you or anyone you know has information regarding universities, please contact our tip line: scorecardtips@protonmail.com.
Source Documents
For this article, Texas Scorecard reviewed the following documents.
Foundations of Education – Syllabus One
Foundations of Education – Syllabus Two
Foundations of Education – Syllabus Three
Foundations of Education – Syllabus Four
This article contains highlights from these documents. Citizens wishing to conduct a deep dive should click the link above.
