Contact Information

    University of Delaware
    212 Gore Hall
    Newark, DE 19716
    kevincurrieknight[at]
       gmail[dot]com
    Curriculum Vita

    Classes Taught

    EDUC240: Law and Ethics in Education
    Overview from the syllabus:

    "This course approaches a broad range of issues through the lenses of law and ethics. But it is not a “how-to” course where the goal is simply to learn to follow the rules. It is a “why” course that attempts to get underneath those rules (or guidelines—there is a difference!) to unearth basic philosophic questions about educators’ aims and obligations.

    We wouldn't need ethics or law at all if there were not legitimate and compelling disagreements on what educators’ aims and obligations should be. So this course will focus on several areas where educators have disagreed on these things so that we can think about how you might resolve similar conflicts when they arise in your professional life. Is your primary duty to do right by the child in front of you, to support the school’s ability to function, or to follow parental demands? How much autonomy should children have in schools, and how much autonomy should teachers have in schools? This course will not give you final answers on any of these, or other, questions. But it will give you time and some possible ways to think about these questions."

    Here is the Trialogue assignment that served as the final project from the above syllabus (Spring '12). The idea is for students to construct a fictitious dialogue between thinkers we've discussed in class.  A nice and creative alternative to "traditional" final papers.  (Several students have told me that they enjoyed this project much more than regular final papers. One even told me that (s)he had a hard time stopping at the maximum page limit.)

    Here are sample journal entries (per EDUC240's Interactive Journal Assignment) from two students (anonymous, but used with permission) with my response. Here, the idea is for students to write about things they've thought involving class related topics. Once I respond, students can respond to my response, or move forward to another thought.

    EDUC247: History of Education in America

    Overview from the syllabus:

    "Since (and even before) its founding, education has played a most important role in America. In this course, we will examine the many forms that education has taken in the United States, starting from the local, small, and mostly private schools of the Founding generation to the more intricate, centralized, schools of today. We will look at the 
    changing nature of schooling primarily by viewing schools as social institutions that change in accord with the ideals and values of the society they are in. For instance, as society has become more inclusive, so have the schools, and as the economy and its demands have changed, so have the schools been forced to re-evaluate how (and why) it educates. Starting from the American Revolution and ending with No Child Left Behind, we will trace the social evolution of formal schooling in the United States of America."

    Here is the rubric for EDUC247's final paper project. It is designed so that students have a choice of what kind of project to do based on their interests and strengths.

    This is a sample presentation I gave to accompany the lesson on Native American boarding schools. As you can see, I often use presentations as a way to provide visual accompaniment to oral presentation. In this lesson, I also use clips from the documentary Our Spirits Don't Speak English.