Content/Context

At the end of the semester (and a couple of times in the middle), I ask my students to give me feedback on the way the course is designed, as well as other things. One of the most common comments in my Multicultural Studies course this year was that there was too much content - and that it moved far too quickly. Students recommended covering fewer topics and in greater depth. It's a good point, but one that I am struggling with. Do I abreviate exposure to cultural groups, multicultural themes and recent connections in world events to select fewer but deeper issues? What's really my intent in the course? Do I want to provide students with as much cultural content as possible to give them a chance to explore topics and issues not covered before in the high school curriculum or do I want to build a more significant understanding of a few special themes? An inch wide or a mile deep? My perspective is clouded, obviously, by my own personal bias concerning pedagogy. Ultimately I would expect that students filter the content they learn with other distractions in life, leaving high school topics learned sometimes near the bottom of the barrel, but maybe not. Does covering fewer topics mean that students are doing less work? I don't think so, even though, its hard to think that with some students at least, that it is not the desired goal. Students want to know more about their world and about themselves. They want to be able to form a personal relationship with the content learned: to make it memorable and something that they can use. That, I think, is the direction of my intent.