Document Type

Syllabus

Publication Date

Spring 2024

Course Description

The civil rights movement in education is most prominently associated with the Brown v. Board of Education decision and the desegregation of public schools in the United States, but this decision is actually part of a much broader movement. From the Lau v. Nichols decision which challenged discrimination against Chinese speakers, to the Serrano v. Priest decision which contested inequitable funding in California, the civil rights movement in education has historically been a broad-based, multi-racial struggle with multiple, sometimes competing, visions of what education can and should be. The Chicano/Latino civil rights struggle—from the Serrano decision, to the LA School Walkouts, to the battle over Mexican-American studies in Arizona--has been a critical component of this ongoing movement. This course looks at the Chicano/Latino civil rights movement through the lens of books removed in 2010 from classrooms in the Tucson Unified School District when its governing board disbanded the Mexican-American studies program in that district. In this course we will read these “banned” books, placing them in context and exploring their content through an examination of educational theory, historic court cases, social theory, Chicano/Latino history and current events. We also connect these events to current struggles over curricula, books, and teaching in K-12 schools throughout the US.

Student Outcomes

Student learning outcomes: By the end of this course students will be able to:

  • Understand and analyze the interconnected roles of pedagogy, historical actions, historical representation, theory, art, organizing, and legal structures in shaping ethnic studies policy and practice in K-12 classrooms.
  • Describe some key events, movements, and figures in historical and contemporary Chicanx and Latinx educational organizing, justice movements, and policy development.
  • Identify contemporary struggles over the curricular and pedagogical content of K-12 schools, particularly as these relate to ethnic studies, critical race theory, and social justice related content and describe the different positions of key actors in these struggles.
  • Draw nuanced connections between contemporary and historical events as these shape the construction of content in K-12 schools and connect historical to contemporary strategies for educational change.

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