This course is an advanced and in-depth exploration of the issues of power and inequality in U.S. history including but not limited to racism, classism, sexism, homophobia, and linguicism. The historical survey of inequity becomes a foundation for addressing current issues from a variety of perspectives and possibilities. Key course concepts for social justice in education include cultural deficit frameworks, meritocracy, whiteness as social construct, color blindness and race neutrality, microaggressions, and the politics of epistemology. Students will examine historic and contemporary examples of educational institutions as mechanisms of social, political, and economic control. Examples will include U.S. American Indian boarding schools, school segregation, tracking, and vocational education. Students will engage in critical research, analysis, writing and development of programs in their field that strive to end oppressive practices and balance systemic inequities.
Acceptance into EdD program.