English Developing Ethnic Studies Curriculum
Department hopes new course will diversify the sophomore year and better represent authors of color.
By Tyler Lilly
Department hopes new course will diversify the sophomore year and better represent authors of color.
By Tyler Lilly
On Oct. 11 Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 101. This bill makes California the first state to require an ethnic studies class to graduate. The bill states that “completion of a one-semester course in ethnic studies, meeting specified requirements, to the graduation requirements commencing with pupils graduating in the 2029–30 school year, including for pupils enrolled in a charter school.”
The new bill will require an ethnic studies class to be available in all high schools by the 2025-2026 school year and will make the class a graduation requirement for all students by the year 2030. Pioneer High School, which already offers an additional ethnic studies class in the social studies department, plans to implement this new class in the 2022-2023 school year.
This new class is going to be a part of the English department and will serve as an alternative to sophomore English. Pioneer is attempting to make this new ethnic studies an honors class, that will potentially replace the standard honors-level course.
“A law has been put in place that schools need to offer an ethnic studies curriculum so I think that is part of the big push for the law that is coming in the next few years which will mandate that we will legally have to have the course,“ said Stafford.
Stafford said that the overall goal for the new class was to provide an ethnic studies course for higher grade levels.
“We have an ethnic studies class in ninth grade that is run though the history department so the rational is to add a second course that would be at the 10th grade level, and to house that here in the English department,” said Stafford. “I think the goal is to eventually have a course at the 11th and 12th grade level as well.”
English teacher Stephanie Harvey is one of three department members who have been attending trainings for the upcoming program.
“About once a month we meet for about two hours and we talk with a professor of ethnic studies at UC Berkeley and he helps us understand ethnic studies and the pedagogy of it and how long it has been around,” said Harvey. “I think the whole reason why I am going to be going to this training is because people who have been along for this journey, ideally, at the end get to teach this class. We are there because we care. We are there because we want to see a change.”
Although the training has been helping prepare the teachers for this new course, the actual curriculum for the class has not been finalized yet.
Harvey said she is excited about the new curriculum.
“I think it’s going to be a whole revamp which I think is awesome because a lot of the books we teach now are canonical or written by white authors, so we need BIPOC books, we need more BIPOC authors,” said Harvey.
The new bill will require an ethnic studies class to be available in all high schools by the 2025-2026 school year and will make the class a graduation requirement for all students by the year 2030. Pioneer High School, which already offers an additional ethnic studies class in the social studies department, plans to implement this new class in the 2022-2023 school year.
This new class is going to be a part of the English department and will serve as an alternative to sophomore English. Pioneer is attempting to make this new ethnic studies an honors class, that will potentially replace the standard honors-level course.
“A law has been put in place that schools need to offer an ethnic studies curriculum so I think that is part of the big push for the law that is coming in the next few years which will mandate that we will legally have to have the course,“ said Stafford.
Stafford said that the overall goal for the new class was to provide an ethnic studies course for higher grade levels.
“We have an ethnic studies class in ninth grade that is run though the history department so the rational is to add a second course that would be at the 10th grade level, and to house that here in the English department,” said Stafford. “I think the goal is to eventually have a course at the 11th and 12th grade level as well.”
English teacher Stephanie Harvey is one of three department members who have been attending trainings for the upcoming program.
“About once a month we meet for about two hours and we talk with a professor of ethnic studies at UC Berkeley and he helps us understand ethnic studies and the pedagogy of it and how long it has been around,” said Harvey. “I think the whole reason why I am going to be going to this training is because people who have been along for this journey, ideally, at the end get to teach this class. We are there because we care. We are there because we want to see a change.”
Although the training has been helping prepare the teachers for this new course, the actual curriculum for the class has not been finalized yet.
Harvey said she is excited about the new curriculum.
“I think it’s going to be a whole revamp which I think is awesome because a lot of the books we teach now are canonical or written by white authors, so we need BIPOC books, we need more BIPOC authors,” said Harvey.