Education, Inequality, and American Democracy

How are public schools and the educational programs they offer products of political inequality? How might public schools remedy those inequalities or exacerbate them? This course examines the ways in which education contributes to democratic governance; how the development of American public schools builds on and reproduces political, economic and social privilege and inequality; and the promise and limitations of various types of reforms designed to redress inequality, including the Common Core. This course focuses primarily on the United States, but looks to other democracies, including Canada and Mexico, to understand the intersection of education, inequality and democratic governance.