In this course students will engage with a spectrum of historic and contemporary school reform efforts across different contexts in the United States. Making use of a diverse array of texts from articles to podcasts and videos, students will struggle with both the promise of education as a tool for remedying race- and class-based inequalities and the stubborn reality that too often schools reflect and reproduce injustice. The structure of the course session and activities prompts students to learn about and experience alternative educational possibilities. Working in groups, pairs, and as individuals, students will explore scholarship and cases in educational anthropology, sociology, history, and critical theory, while questioning the purposes, processes, and products of schooling. Central to the course is the community students create with the instructor for mutual learning support and debate. All members of the course are engaged in a learning stance that centers a discipline of hope and engages with the proposition that communities can organize their own struggle to define and demand a humanizing and liberatory education. Students also have multiple opportunities to explore their own educational experiences and design their own research or educational initiatives to act on their learning.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 20

Crosslisted Courses:

Prerequisites: Open to First-Years, Sophomores and Juniors. Seniors by permission of the instructor.

Instructor: D'Andrea Martinez

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes: