GED 571 - Antiracism: Critical Theory and Praxis

This course employs racial reflexivity to explore the ways in which we are all stakeholders in the advancement of antiracist policies, ideologies, and social ways of being. We will employ critical reflexivity to intentionally attend to the context of knowledge construction, confront our own assumptions, and consider how social positionality affects one’s analysis of inequity and racism. Drawing upon critical consciousness theory (Friere, 1973) this course examines the dynamics of marginalization and oppression in creating and sustaining social inequity. Antiracist educators must reveal and disrupt racist and inequitable systems, policies, behaviors, language, and ideologies in the name of collective liberation. To this end, we will read and discuss the work of critical theorists, scholars, and authors to explore the fundamental questions they ask and address, and how they are relevant to antiracism in our own lives and pedagogical practice.

Course Objectives

• To engage with the course themes of antiracism and collective liberation personally, reflexively, authentically, and introspectively;
• To expand our critical consciousness and capacity to embrace antiracism in theory and practice;
• To read and discuss the work of critical theorists, scholars, and authors to explore the fundamental questions they ask and address, and how they are relevant to antiracism in our own lives and pedagogical practice; 
• To interact with a diversity of perspectives, including each others’;
• To understand how implicit bias impacts our assumptions, interpretations, interactions, and beliefs;
• To draw connections among current events, contemporary movements, and our own positionality in relation to them.

 

Credits: 3