Critical Race: Theory in Education

In 1998 Gloria Ladson-Billings published a landmark piece entitled, “Just what is critical race theory and what is it doing in a nice field like education?” The piece revolutionized the field of education and helped bring an important lens of critique to understanding and working against inequity in schools. In this course we will examine the ways in which critical race theory has been utilized as a lens for interrogating past and current issues of systemic racism and other forms of oppression affecting our schools. We will focus specifically on curricula, funding, desegregation, special education, discipline practices, and federal laws affecting schools.