POL 3101 POLITICS AND EDUCATION
POL 3101 investigates the intersections of politics, policy, and education. While education is commonly understood to be a means of acquiring knowledge and skills essential for employment, and just as often represented as a practice of self-discovery and a path to personal growth and fulfillment, political dimensions of teaching and learning are frequently overlooked. Who “gets” an education, where they are taught, what they are taught, and by whom significantly impacts the life of entire communities, from the organization of the economy and the distribution of power in society to the values and identities that predominate in a given place and time. Open only to Teaching Fellows.
We will focus our exploration of education and politics around three course themes:
1. The National Commitment to Public Education
2. Education and Inequality
3. Teaching as a Political Act
- At the conclusion of this course, students will be able to:
1. Describe what politics is and how it impacts educators and students, both inside and outside of the classroom.
2. Develop vocabularies for evaluating relations of power as they shape educational institutions and outcomes.
3. Evaluate the interests and values at play in national and state-level initiatives to reform public education.
4. Assess how the racial wealth gap and other dimensions of economic and racial inequality impact schools and students.
5. Describe the social purposes of education, linking educational practices to political socialization, acculturation, economic processes and hierarchies.
6. Reflect on the ways that educators function as political actors/agents in their schools and in the wider community.
7. Serve as informed, effective advocates for themselves and their students and feel empowered to engage politically in relation to issues of public concern.