Public Work, WPA, Civic Works, community change; poverty, race, and gender; service-learning
Bio
I have been a professor in the Department of Sociology at San José State University since 1999. I received an undergraduate degree in Political Science at the University of San Diego, a teaching credential from Mills College, a masters degree in the Humanities from San Francisco State University, and a doctorate in Sociology from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
I have authored numerous scholarly articles on service-learning and its impact on civic engagement, racism, and international concern. My first book, which is entitled
Social Solutions to Poverty: America’s Struggle to Build a Just Society, has been published by Paradigm Publishers in July of 2006. I have also started three comprehensive service-learning leadership programs.
At San José State, I teach Soci. 80: Social Problems, Soci 162: Race and Ethnic Relations, Soci. 164: Social Action, Soci. 165: Wealth, Poverty, and Privilege, and the capstone senior experience, Soci. 181: Internship. Many of these courses are a part of the Community Change Concentration (CCC) in the Sociology Department. There are currently 20-25 students involved in the concentration. The CCC students have developed a variety of community change activities, including Students Advancing Global Awareness (SAGE), Students Against Intimate Violence (SAIV), and Student Homeless Alliance (SHA).
I am also the internship coordinator. In this role, I help senior sociology students find interesting and engaging service-learning internship sites.
Teaching Philosophy:
My educational philosophy is student-centered and is based on the interactive process of action and reflection. In the classroom, I see my role as a guide who facilitates the learning process. Thus, while I do give some short lectures in class, I generally use a variety of student-centered strategies. Some of these strategies include simulations, small group discussions, role-playing, fishbowl activities, use of media, the Socratic method, and student-led discussions.
I reject the banking system of education, which is the dominant teaching strategy in the United States. This system of education presents knowledge in lecture format, with the teacher at the front of the class and the students as audience. I have concluded that this form of education produces people who do not question and who are alienated from the knowledge they have deposited in their "knowledge bank," since they have not been part of the process that created it. Because of this alienation, many students are not empowered to use the knowledge, and they become dependent on experts to solve problems. Student-centered learning, on the other hand, encourages students to be connected to knowledge and empowers them to use it in their own lives and in the larger society.
Update: My wife, Diane, and I recently purchased The Sequoia Retreat Center just 45 minutes from SJSU. Come up for a visit.
print
email
