Course Content and Outcomes Guides (CCOG)

CCOG for ES 261 Winter 2025


Course Number:
ES 261
Course Title:
Applied Ethnic Studies I
Credit Hours:
4
Lecture Hours:
40
Lecture/Lab Hours:
0
Lab Hours:
0

Course Description

Examines the role of organizations, groups, and collectives in social justice and racial equity work. Includes weekly meetings with community organization and movement leaders, advocates, and educators. Participation in the Critical Educator of Color Pathway (CECP) required. Prerequisites: ES 260. Audit available.

Addendum to Course Description

This is a required course for the Critical Educator of Color Pathway (CECP).

Intended Outcomes for the course

Upon completion of the course students should be able to:

  1. Identify and articulate their relationship with community organizations and collectives working for a just, equitable, anti-racist, and environmentally sustainable world.
  2. Describe the complexity of community groups and organizations in relation to the non-profit industry.
  3. Connect the theories of decolonial education, away from siloed approaches to social justice praxis.
  4. Examine one's own developing role as a connector of individuals, groups, and organizations.

Social Inquiry and Analysis

Students completing an associate degree at Portland Community College will be able to apply methods of inquiry and analysis to examine social contexts and the diversity of human thought and experience.

General education philosophy statement

This course reflects the points of the General Education philosophy for PCC. Throughout the course, students will be reflecting on critical issues in our communities, meeting with leaders, and becoming more familiar with community organizations providing key services to marginalized communities. They will dialogue, reflect, and write on how they can be bridges as future teachers between schools and the community.

Aspirational Goals

This course aspires to:

  1. Help students expand their awareness of critical social issues and people locally addressing those issues

  2. Instill in students the need to maintain an engagement with groups outside of formal learning environments 

  3. Identify with the concept of “right to the city” and theories of space in relation to justice

Course Activities and Design

Class meets at PCC and visits community organizations. Class engages in full discussion, small group discussion; individual and collaborative projects, and/or flipped-classroom approaches where concepts learned outside of class are analyzed and applied when class meets. Meeting time may also include the following: writing; researching; viewing video and multimedia productions.

Outcome Assessment Strategies

Specific assessment strategies are at the discretion of the instructor but should include a variety of formative assessments to test student learning. Instructors are encouraged to integrate the following kinds of tasks that assess student achievement of course outcomes in a holistic and comprehensive manner:

  • Short synthesis or analytical papers on specific concepts, issues and themes

  • Research papers

  • Oral presentations

  • Group presentations of research or analysis projects

  • Participation in small and large group discussions

  • Admit and exit ticket assignments

  • Hosted gallery walks

  • Reflection journals

  • Portfolios

  • Digital media projects

  • Oral histories and interviews

  • Community or public history projects

Course Content (Themes, Concepts, Issues and Skills)

Themes, Concepts, and Issues:

  • Decolonizing pedagogy

  • Liberatory pedagogy / praxis

  • Non-profit industrial complex

  • Right to the city

  • Social Movements

  • Organizational structures

  • Community Organizing

  • Social services

  • Critical Geography

  • Participatory action research

  • Community cultural wealth