Spring 2005 Course Description
Seminar on Topics in Public 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.
Barbara Jordan intoned that citizens have a right to, '...expect America to live-up to her promise...' The American Promise, as articulated by Lyndon Johnson when he signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act, sets the stage to explore the evolving character of our democracy, the moral commitment needed to keep the promise, and the role schooling plays in the process. In particular, the course explores the values, ideology, and politics that shape policy decisions on schooling. It assumes that public school has both a special role and an obligation in the democratic process. What are they? Who is responsible for creating the "right" conditions for learning? The course emphasizes activism as substantive civic engagement, mutually supportive relationships, and strong, bottom-up community organizations.
The course rests on two 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. 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.
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