Introduction to Urban Education and Social Change

Catalog description

This course offers an introductory and cross-disciplinary examination of historical and contemporary issues related to education in urban America. Course readings and discussion will focus on various perspectives in the field in order to understand the key issues and debates confronting urban education. Students will examine historical, philosophical, political, economic, and socio-cultural frameworks for understanding urban schools, students, and teachers. The course is divided into three interrelated themes. Typical urban education courses examine and apply urban education theories without sufficiently studying the critical theories that ground said examination and application. Tacking in a slightly different direction, one of the aims of this course is to study theoretical frameworks that serve as the foundation for critical urban education theory and practice. The first theme of the course, Introduction to Critical Theories Applicable to Urban Education, introduces students to some of the canonical texts written by critical theorists from a variety of perspectives. Moving from Theme I to Theme II: Critical Analysis of Urban Education Philosophy, Policy, and Schooling, students will read the work of urban education specialists who conduct critical analyses of urban education realities in the United States. Because the aim of this course is to not only critique current urban education realities, but re-imagine and transform them, the course concludes with the study of Re-Imagining and Transforming 21st Urban Education, the third and final theme of the course. Taken together, the three themes of this course will empower urban educators to critically analyze and transform education in Philadelphia and other urban settings.