Making Change: Activism, Social Movement

Summer and Semester version:

Making Change: Activism, Social Movements and Education will look at the ways people power has pushed for change in the United States educational landscape. We will study historical and current social political education movements to answer questions such as: What does education/teacher activism look like? Who engages in educational social activism, and why? What do different models for organizing look like, past to present? We will learn from the examples of the Freedom Schools, the Chicago Teachers Union, the Tucson Unified School District fight for ethnics studies, BLM at Schools, Teacher Activist Groups and more. We will engage in readings, watch documentaries and hear from education activist guest lecturers.

Learning Outcomes: 

• You will explore the historical relationships between and across social movements in education and its social contexts. 
• You will reflect on major educational justice movements from across the country and analyze its impact and importance. 
• You will evaluate the changing role of education and schools in our society and propose actions that could be taken to improve education and schools in the future.