ED FND 6202: Race and Culture in Educational Reform and Policy

Course Description

Schools have played a pivotal role in mediating social tensions in the broader society over race and culture. However, many of the discussions in educational reform and policy fail to acknowledge how deeply that race and culture shape our thinking and influence our actions with regard to educational policy and reform. This course highlights how these factors have historically shaped and continue to shape the rhetoric and the reality of school reform and educational policies. In this course, students are encouraged to explore and examine the underlying assumptions about the purposes of schooling, the beliefs that underpin educational reform historically, and in contemporary society, and the actions by educational leaders and policymakers to change schools.