Department of Teaching and Learning

Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, & Human Development

New York University
TCHL-UE 41 / SCA-UA 755
American Dilemmas: Race, Inequality, and the Unfulfilled Promise of Public Education
Fall 2022

Instructor: Arundhati Velamur (she/her/hers)

Meetings: MW 9:30 - 10:45 am | Recitation M 8 - 9:15 am
Tisch LC9
Email: aav268@nyu.edu
Personal Zoom: https://nyu.zoom.us/my/avelamur
Office Hours: By appointment on my personal zoom

Website: NYU Brightspace: Access through your NYU Account. This will be used for
assignments, virtual discussions, and all other asynchronous course materials.

Course Description: In this course we will interrogate the construction of race and
public education through a critical commitment to feminist, sociological and historical methods.
We will critically examine the structural role of U.S. schooling in reflecting, building, sustaining,
and—crucially—disrupting social hierarchies in contemporary United States Society. The course
is organized around a cascading set of themes that will help us develop an understanding of
racism, capitalism, and patriarchy as interlocking systems that are constituted by and constitutive
of public schools. We will begin by thinking about the various roles schools and teachers play in
US society; how US national and imperialist interests led to shifts in the educational policy and
design over the last hundred years; and finally reflect on critical perspectives to reclaim public
education as a vehicle for social transformation. Throughout the course, we will engage in
content, activities, and assignments that will provide analytical tools to make sense of the many
issues involving race and education and to gain a practical understanding of the challenges
confronting communities, public schools, and educators.

Commitments: I am a teacher and educational researcher committed to an anti-casteist,

antiracist, anticapitalist, and feminist future. I believe that the pursuit, practice, and teaching of
mathematics (my area of specialization) as well as all disciplines are framed by historical,
cultural, and political forces. Educators, policy-makers, and organizers working towards equity
need to be aware of how these forces play out in their practice and reflect critically on how to
challenge them. All students can engage in critical thought and find joy and liberation through it;
our work is to make such pleasures available to them all.

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 Course Objectives: By the end of this course, you will be able to:
1. Describe and explain how race, gender, and capitalism have influenced the character of
U.S. public education;
2. Critically analyze the ways social change can occur, thinking about how education can
serve (and historically has served) vulnerable communities;
3. Evaluate and develop informed opinions on many of the contemporary issues involving
education and society in the U.S. today.

Course Requirements: The grade for this course is determined by two components: one,
your engagement with the texts, videos, and materials assigned each week, and two, your
completion of two term projects. These activities are elaborated on below.
I. Participation + Weekly Assignments (40%): This is a problem-based course. The
quality of this class depends on your thoughtful engagement with activities and readings,
consistent collaboration and contributions to your writing groups, and timely completion
of assignments. Good contributions to the classroom space do more than simply push the
conversation along. Positive, substantive contributions make your thinking available to
the class, raise new questions, and challenge your writing group, the whole class, and
yourself. Participation is assessed based on your completion of assigned weekly tasks.
Each week you will be expected to engage in a task or activity individually or in your
study group, in which you will make connections between the theoretical underpinnings
of problems of racism and inequity, and practical considerations surrounding the
addressing of these problems. Depending on the task, you will have to post (to a
Brightspace forum for this course) or bring to class a photograph of your work, a written
response, a video file, or some other artifact.
Weekly assignments are due Fridays 5:00 PM Eastern Time.
II. Term projects (60%): This course requires you to submit two pieces of original work.
Each project requires you to engage with two or three central themes of the course.
○ Term Project 1 - Critical Response Paper: To practice and assess progress
toward all three course objectives, you will write a critical response mini paper,
4-6 pages (double spaced, 12pt font). Do not go over 6 pages. This response is
designed to organize your thinking at a strategic point in the course and improve
your writing skills. Look at the course objectives for the types of skills you should
practice while you write the mini paper. The following is a breakdown of the
timeline for this assignment.
■ M, Sep 26, 2022 : In class, you will develop a focused free-write in
response to a prompt.
■ M, Oct 3, 2022 : You will bring to class a “zero-draft” of your critical
response paper to class. A zero draft develops the ideas from your in class
free-write to put ideas down without giving it too much thought. Just put
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 yourself on a 30-60 minute timer and let your ideas flow onto the
paper/document in whatever form they come without looking back. Make
a beautiful mess. In class you will workshop your zero draft within your
writing groups to help it become your critical response mini paper.
■ W, Oct 19, 2022 : The final paper is due on Brightspace by 9:00 AM
Before you submit, please make sure that:
a) You utilized at least 4 sources from weeks 2-8 of the syllabus;
b) You double spaced the paper and used 12pt Times New Roman
font;
c) Your narrative did not exceed 6 pages;
d) Your paper is a Microsoft Word document or PDF; and
e) Your file name has your last name followed by your first and
middle initials. (e.g.,Velamur_A_Critical Response)
Note: Class will be asynchronous and class time on this day will be used
for completing this assignment.
○ Term Project 2 - Analysis of Contemporary Educational Issue: In this
assignment you will:
■ M, Dec 5, 2022 : Identify and bring to class a contemporary policy issue
facing a public school district, board, subset of schools, or a school by
perusing newspaper articles and online news sources;
■ W, Dec 7, 2022 : Summarize a description of the issue in terms of its
social and political tensions as discussed in this course;
■ M, Dec 12, 2022 : Create a poster containing a summary description of
the issue, steps taken by various actors (such as teachers’ unions, the board
of education, school board, teacher and student activists) in response to the
issue, and YOUR ANALYSIS of how these steps have reinforced or
challenged racial inequity in the school or district.
■ W, Dec 14, 2022 : Poster Gallery Walk.

Note: There will be no separate weekly assignment grades in weeks during which
term Projects (or their parts) are due. Find detailed information on term projects below.

Required Texts: We will read either all or substantial parts of the following books:
Ewing, E. L. (2018). Ghosts in the schoolyard: Racism and school closings on Chicago's South
Side. University of Chicago Press.
hooks, b. (2014). Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom. Routledge.
Ladson-Billings, G. (2022). The dreamkeepers: Successful teachers of African American
children. John Wiley & Sons.

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 Course Schedule: Below is a tentative course schedule. Please note that this schedule is
subject to change. Any changes will be communicated to students in class and/or on the course
website at least one week in advance. Changes will be reflected in this google document; please
keep it handy!

Week 1: Introduction to the Course

M, Sep 5, 2022 Labor Day, no class.

W, Sep 7, 2022 Just show up :)

Week 2: A brief history of public education

M, Sep 12, 2022 - Baldwin (1983) - A Talk to Teachers

- Ewing (2018), Ghosts in the Schoolyard - Introduction (pp.
1-14)

W, Sep 14, 2022 - Writing and small group workshopping practice

Week 3: Race, Racism, and Racial Capitalism

M, Sep 19, 2022 - Bonilla-Silva (2013) - Chapter 2: The New Racism

- Gerrard et al. (2022) - Education and Racial Capitalism
- Robin D. G. Kelly (2017), Revisiting Black Marxism
- Morales-Doyle & Gutstein (2019) - Racial capitalism and
STEM education in Chicago Public Schools

W, Sep 21, 2022 - Activity: Timeline of policy shifts in US public education

- Discussion: Brown vs Board of Education

Week 4: The Public School in the United States I

M, Sep 26, 2022 - Ewing (2018), Ghosts in the Schoolyard - Chapter 1, “What a
school means” (pp. 15-52)
- Ladson-Billings (2009), The Dreamkeepers - Chapter 1, “A
Dream Deferred” (pp. 1-15)

W, Sep 28, 2022 - First focused free-write for Critical Response Paper
- Continued discussion from Monday, Sep 26, 2022

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 Week 5: Critical Response Paper

M, Oct 3, 2022 - Ladson-Billings (2009), The Dreamkeepers - Chapter 2, “Does

Culture Matter?” (pp. 17-32)
- “Zero-draft” of Critical Response Paper

W, Oct 5, 2022 - Writing Workshop: Developing the “zero draft” of the Critical
Response Paper

Week 6: The Public School in the United States II

T, Oct 11, 2022 - Ewing (2018), Ghosts in the Schoolyard - Chapter 2, “City of
losses” (pp. 53-93)
- Noguera & Syeed (2020), City Schools and the American
Dream 2 - Chapter 2, “The Social Context and its Impact on
Inner City Schooling” (pp. 14-32)

W, Oct 12, 2022 - Continued discussion from T, Oct 11, 2022

Week 7: Critical Pedagogy

M, Oct 17, 2022 - hooks (2014), Teaching to Transgress

- Introduction: Teaching to Transgress (pp. 1-12)
- Chapter 1: Engaged Pedagogy (pp. 13-22)
- Chapter 2: “A Revolution of Values” (pp. 23-34)

W, Oct 19, 2022 - Final Critical Response Mini Paper due

Week 8: The Politics of Schooling - I

M, Oct 24, 2022 - Ewing (2018), Ghosts in the Schoolyard - Chapter 3, “Dueling
Realities” (pp. 94-124)
- hooks (2014), Teaching to Transgress - Chapter 4: “Paulo
Freire” (pp. 45-58)

W, Oct 26, 2022 - Continued discussion from M, Oct 24, 2022

Week 9: The Politics of Schooling - II

M, Oct 31, 2022 - Ewing (2018), Ghosts in the Schoolyard - Chapter 4,

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 “Mourning” (pp. 125-156)
- Ladson-Billings and Tate IV (1995) - Toward a Critical Race
Theory of Education (pp. 27-42)

W, Nov 2, 2022 -

Week 10: The Cultural Politics of Teaching - I

M, Nov 7, 2022 - Ladson-Billings (2009), The Dreamkeepers - Chapter 3,

“Seeing Color, Seeing Culture” (pp. 33-58)
- Lewis-McCoy (2014), Inequality in the Promised Land -
Chapter 6, “Culture as a Hidden Classroom Resource”

W, Nov 9, 2022 - Activity: Analyzing Contemporary Issues in Educational Policy

Week 11: The Cultural Politics of Teaching - II

M, Nov 14, 2022 - Ladson-Billings (2009), The Dreamkeepers - Chapter 6,

“Culturally Relevant Teaching” (pp. 111-137)
- hooks (2014), Teaching to Transgress - Chapter 3: “Embracing
Change” (pp. 35-44)

W, Nov 16, 2022 - Discussion: The classroom as a liberatory space

Week 12: Class Politics in Public Education

M, Nov 21, 2022 - hooks (2014), Teaching to Transgress - Chapter 12:

“Confronting Class in the Classroom” (pp. 177-190)

W, Nov 23, 2022 ***THANKSGIVING BREAK***

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 Week 13: Subverting Inequality - The School as a Site of Liberation

M, Nov 28, 2022 - Noguera & Syeed (2020), City Schools and the American
Dream 2 - Chapter 3, “The Role of Schools in Reducing Racial
Inequality” (pp. 33-47)
- Ewing (2018), Ghosts in the Schoolyard - “Conclusion: An
Open Door” (pp. 157-166)

W, Nov 30, 2022

Week 14: Feminist perspectives on knowledge

M, Dec 5, 2022 - Prescod-Weinstein (2021), The Disordered Cosmos - Chapter

10, “Wages for Scientific Housework”
- Ladson-Billings (2009), The Dreamkeepers - Chapter 5, “The
Tree of Knowledge” (pp. 27-42)
- Barton (1997), “Liberatory Science Education”

W, Dec 7, 2022 - Identify a contemporary educational issue for analysis in your

final poster project

Week 15: Closing/ final poster presentations

M, Dec 12, 2022 - Poster-preparation session: Summarize and analyze your

contemporary educational issue through the lenses developed in
this class

W, Dec 14, 2022 - Poster Session/ Gallery Walk

Grading: Your final grade will be determined using a weighted average of your
performance on each of the components described above and according to the Steinhardt
Grading Scale:

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 Accommodation for NYU Students with Disabilities: This course is designed for all
students, irrespective of the tools through which they engage in learning. If you have needs to
help support your learning and your presence in our classroom spaces, let me know as soon as
possible. I want to know how I can best help you succeed in this course. Any student attending
NYU who needs an accommodation due to a chronic, psychological, visual, mobility, and/or
learning disability, or is Deaf or Hard of Hearing should register with the Moses Center for
Students with Disabilities at 212 998-5980, 240 Greene Street. See www.nyu.edu/csd.

Student Complaint Procedures: I encourage you to get in touch with me whenever you
have questions about the course content, a grade, an assignment, or anything else related to this
class. I will always be happy to meet with you to help you through any concerns you may have
and, of course, with course content. The specific procedures for any complaint you may have
with me or the course are available at this link.

Academic Integrity: Academic integrity is the guiding principle for all that you do; from
taking exams and making presentations to writing term papers and working on projects. It
requires that you recognize and acknowledge information derived through collaborations and
from a variety of sources and take credit only for ideas and work that are yours. You violate the
principle of academic integrity when you…
- … submit the same work for two or more different courses without prior permission from
your professors;
- … receive help on an assignment that explicitly calls for independent work; or
- … plagiarize.
Plagiarism is failure to properly assign authorship to a paper, a document, an oral presentation, a
musical score, and/or other materials that are not your original work. You plagiarize when,
without proper attribution, you do any of the following:
- Copy verbatim from a book, an article, or other media;
- Download documents from the Internet;
- Purchase documents;
- Report from others’ oral work;
- Paraphrase or restate someone else's facts, analysis and/or conclusions;
- Copy directly from a classmate or allow a classmate to copy from you.
For more on academic integrity see http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/policies/academic_integrity

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 Bibliography

Baldwin, J. (2008). A talk to teachers. In Handbook of Research on Teacher Education (pp.

202-207). Routledge.

Barton, A. C. (1997). Liberatory science education: Weaving connections between feminist

theory and science education. Curriculum Inquiry, 27(2), 141-163.

Bonilla-Silva, E. (2006). The new racism: The U.S. racial structure since the 1960s. Racism
without racists: Color-blind racism and the persistence of racial inequality in the United States.
(pp. 25-39) Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

Ewing, E. L. (2018). Ghosts in the schoolyard: Racism and school closings on Chicago's South
Side. University of Chicago Press.

hooks, b. (2014). Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom. Routledge.

Ladson-Billings, G. (2022). The dreamkeepers: Successful teachers of African American

children. John Wiley & Sons.

Gerrard, J., Sriprakash, A., & Rudolph, S. (2022). Education and racial capitalism. Race
Ethnicity and Education, 25(3), 425-442.

Ladson-Billings, G., & Tate, W. F. (1995). Toward a critical race theory of education. Teachers
college record, 97(1), 47-68.

Lewis-McCoy, R. H. (2014). Culture as a Hidden Classroom Resource. In Inequality in the

Promised Land (pp. 117-138). Stanford University Press.

Noguera, P. A., & Syeed, E. (2020). City schools and the American dream 2: The enduring
promise of public education. Teachers College Press.

Morales-Doyle, D., & Gutstein, E. R. (2019). Racial capitalism and STEM education in Chicago
Public Schools. Race Ethnicity and Education, 22(4), 525-544.

Prescod-Weinstein, C. (2021). Wages for scientific housework. In The disordered cosmos: A

journey into dark matter, spacetime, and dreams deferred. Hachette UK.

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Robinson, C. J. (2020). Black Marxism: The making of the black radical tradition (3rd ed). UNC
press Books.

Speak Out Now. (2016, October 23). Robin Kelley: Revisiting Black Marxism in the Wake of
Black Lives Matter [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxRuTQZAT2Y

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