Spring 2006 Course Description
Advanced Topics in Public Policy
| Section Title: |
Education and Social Change |
| Instructor(s): |
Lodis Rhodes |
| Course: |
P A 388K - Advanced Topics in Public Policy
(previously Seminar in Topics in Public Policy) |
| Unique Number: |
62515 |
| Day & Time: |
Wednesdays, 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM |
| Room: |
SRH 3.101 |
| Waitlist Information: | For LBJ Students: UT Waitlist Information
For Non LBJ Students: LBJ School Waitlist Instructions |
This course fulfills requirements for the following specialization(s):
- Social and Economic Policy
Description: The course is appropriate for advanced graduate students with an active and well-defined research interest in education policy. It may suit beginning graduate students interested in school reform and the broader issues of social inequality, race, and class.
Lyndon Johnson's delivered The American Promise speech before he signed the Civil Rights Act of 1965 (aka Voting Rights Act of 1965). It declared that 'rights must be opportunities'. He had in mind equal opportunity to a quality education and voting unimpeded by issues of race. Race, however, continues as the most intractable social problem in American society. It now hides in the cracks and crevices of social class, seemingly beyond the reach of conventional race and class theory. But is it? Probably not if we update our theories. The update needs to reflect the current reality of living in a vividly race and class conscious society while we deny the continuing significance of these issues. The paradox of races and class consciousness and denial is seen in schooling enterprise and the associated initiatives to reform it.
The course rests on three propositions and an assertion. The propositions? A strong democracy is the best guarantor of personal freedom and equal opportunity. Knowledge and skill (individual and group) plus an active commitment (i.e., performance) to the American Promise are the best antidote for poverty. And, A sound education forges opportunity. The assertion? Poverty is not the mere lack of money. Schools are impoverished not because students of modest means attend them. Rather, schools are impoverished because of the political, administrative, and cultural conditions under which they operate.
The course uses an interdisciplinary approach to explore the link between the previous questions, propositions, and assertion. It combines aspects of an organized course, e-learning, and individualized instruction. If you take the course, you should have a computer and unhindered high-speed access to Internet. You should also be familiar with basic software applications. Finally, you should be willing and prepared to interact and work cooperatively with other members of the class during and outside of scheduled class times
Return to Spring 2006 Course Schedule
