Exploring the Foundations of Systemic (In)Equity in American Education

3 credits · Peabody College - Professional

This course introduces intellectual perspectives useful to discerning disadvantage in and beyond education. Disadvantage is understood here as an outcome of systemic inequity. Efforts to disrupt inequity require critical study of the institutions, social codes, and policies that enclose, sustain, and perpetuate it. Such study is anchored to, and guided by, critical theory and theorizing. Equity, on the other hand, represents the quality of fairness, of impartiality and parity. Equity might also be imagined as a commodifiable currency valuable for reconciling (or reinforcing) the power imbalances that (re)produce the suffering characteristic of disadvantage. This course ultimately aims to sharpen students’ foundational understanding of inequity in the US, as well as strengthen their strategy and capacity for building equitable education systems that actively undo intersectional racial harm. [3]