230581 Literature, Culture, and the Learning Paradigm (S) (SoSe 2009)

Is the purpose of colleges to provide instruction? Or is that like saying that the purpose of medical care is to fill hospital beds, as John Barr and Robert Tagg (1995) have argued more than a decade ago?
This course will explore issues around teaching and learning in higher education, using the field of American Studies as case. We will analyze key disciplinary texts (from early American Civilization programs to international American culture studies), paying particular attention to how approaches to American literatures and cultures inform theory and practice of learning. Does American studies have "signature pedagogies" (Lee Shulman), what impact might new media pedagogies have on teaching, and how has critical theory informed the way literary and cultural fields get reproduced in the classroom? In addition to readings and discussion, this course will also examine real world teaching and learning contexts. Students will have the opportunity to develop projects in line with their interests, including teaching in higher education, secondary education, community-based teaching, and digital and multimedia pedagogies.
(nb: This is not a didactics course.)