EDPP+5045+Race,+ethnicity+and+US+educational+policy

Next Offered
Spring 2013

Professor
Amy Stuart Wells (TC)

Syllabus
 Note: Syllabus is subject to change at the professor's discretion.

Course Description
In the last 30 years, policy makers and judges have questioned the veracity of race-conscious public policies and moved to systematically dismantle them, calling the U.S. a “colorblind” and “post-racial” society that no longer needs such corrective actions. Many of these race-conscious policies were created in the 1960s and 70s to remedying the long-lasting and inter-generational vestiges of a history of slavery, Jim Crow, and racial inequality. At the time, “racism” and “racial discrimination” was defined in fairly simplistic terms that focused on prejudice and racial attitudes that led to the exclusion of Blacks, Latinos, Asians, and Native Americans in particular through public policies and private practices. Such forms of “racism” were addressed via legislation and law suits during the Civil Rights era.

Looking back on this history and the evidence brought to bear on issues of race and ethnicity in the field of education, scholars can see that the social science research strongly suggests that these so-called Civil Rights policies were far more effective than the political rhetoric that came to define them would suggest. Furthermore, some of the more recent research suggests that these programs, including school desegregation, affirmative action and de-tracking efforts, were necessary but insufficient efforts to address our nation’s racialized structure and culture. The implications of this research are that more awareness of more forms of structural and institutional racism – including its socio-cultural dimensions – is needed to construct meaningful race-conscious educational policies and practices. Such a proposal seems so distant from the “colorblind” racial politics of the late 20th and early 21st Century, which argues that racial inequality is a thing of the past, not something we should address in a more comprehensive manner.

This Politics and Education course will explore the strong disconnect between the research and the politics of race in the U.S. today as well as the implications of this disconnect for education policy and practice.

Review
Not available

Student Contact Information
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