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Course Description
This graduate level course provides students with a comprehensive introduction to issues and challenges facing twenty=first century American schools and teachers. Specifically, we will focus on how schools, students, parents, and their families are impacted by just and unjust educational practices and policies.
Rationale
In our course, we take the perspective that social justice and rigorous, authentic opportunities to learn are compatible and mutually reinforcing. Traditional concepts of good teaching are not enough to reach and teach all of our children. Because much of our nation’s educational policies and discourse have been shaped by race and social class inequalities, as teachers we must add a commitment to social activism to our professional perspective and pedagogy.
The discussion that surfaced after the O.J. Simpson trial and the Million Man March disturbed me. For the first time, commentators said, people are becoming aware that black and white people don't think the same way about things. What disturbed me was the idea that this state of affairs was somehow negative. What's wrong? the commentators asked.
Nothing's wrong. We come from different histories, and it's positive that we finally see and admit the differences. African-Americans know that nobody can survive in a minority position with only one point of view -- we have always had to understand the majority view as well. In the effort to understand the story of America, we're still not getting enough help from many people who share the story, because they come from a culture that says that their view is the only one. Well, I say to them: Welcome to prekindergarten! You will not die if you discover that there are more lines out there than just your own. In fact, you'll discover that you will have an advantage if you know more of them!
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