Diversity in Urban Education

URB

632

Diversity in Urban Education

Urban schools are nested within communities, and the education that happens in these schools is partially conditioned by the social relations that permeate these communities. This course will examine the social forces that shape urban education. We will evaluate the extent to which urban schooling reproduces the existing social relations and the extent to which it can act as an agent of change. Because of their central role in community life, urban schools have been the site of multiple layers of struggles involving democratic values, public -private organization and community control, civil rights and equal access to quality education, unionization of the educational workforce, economic development and employment opportunity, the multi-racial and multi-cultural content of the curriculum, the instrumental or humanistic nature of education, and the role of professional autonomy in evaluating the instructional process. The conflicts embodied in these struggles will be examined through the experiences of immigrant communities, different racial and ethnic groups, working class communities, and students gender roles and identities. Where possible, we will map specific communities and understand how urban school?s structure and engage the experiences of students with the goal of exploring the transformative possibilities of urban education.

Fall, Spring

Graduate

Yes