The Whitworthian

Issue date: 10/9/07

After incorporating suggestions brought up by ASWC in a resolution last spring, the Core 250 teaching team made changes to the course curriculum this semester with plans for future modifications.

The curriculum of past years focused on modes of knowing in Western civilization, according to the fall 2007 syllabus.

This year, the curriculum was condensed and revised to allow for a new two-week unit devoted to the study of the immigrant tradition.

"We will take a look at our own intellectual traditions through the lens of another worldview," said Kathy Storm, vice president for Student Life and member of the Core 250 teaching team.

The other two members of the Core 250 teaching team are professor of English Leonard Oakland and professor of philosophy Forrest Baird.

Baird said the focus on China and the immigrant experience is to serve as a way students can examine similarities and differences between epistemologies in other cultures.

"The overall goals of the course are really not that different," Baird said.

Baird said studying another culture can allow students to approach the same Core 250 issues from a different angle.

Baird said the push from students in last year's ASWC resolution helped realize changes the team had been discussing.

Junior Corey Fereday, who took Core 250 in spring 2007 and is currently a teacher's assistant for the class, said he is impressed with the amendments to the curriculum.

"They were in response to the recommendations the students made," Fereday said. "It shows the level of respect and integrity that the faculty holds for students."

The choice to use China as an example of non-Western culture was made in part because of Baird's expertise in the region.

Baird teaches Asian Philosophy and has been to China six times.

In the future, there could be three separate focuses of study related to three distinct regions, Storm said.

The teaching team has tentatively mapped out a plan where students would have the opportunity to sign up for one of three groups -- one group on African traditions, one on Asian and one on Latin American, Storm said.

The large lecture would split into the three groups and focus on cultural background, epistemology and the immigrant experience through the example of another culture, Baird said.

"It doesn't hurt to focus only on Western culture, since we do live in a Western society," junior Abby Horner said, who is currently enrolled in Core 250. "But whatever knowledge we get on other cultures will be valuable to learn."

Storm expects to try other pilot programs and get feedback from students before possibly further changing the structure of Core 250.

"Our hope is that it's a very direct reminder that our own perspectives are not the only way to see things in this global intellectual tradition," Storm said.

ASWU Financial Vice President Luis Lopez was involved in drafting the resolution last year when he was Boppell senator.

"I'm very glad the entire Core 250 team was so receptive to the whole resolution," Lopez said.

Contact Katie Goodell at katie.goodell@whitworthian.com.

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