Instructor: William Smith
Mon/Wed | 9:00 AM - 9:50 AM | In Person
This seminar explores a host of recent public controversies surrounding curriculum in K-12 public schools: from censored children’s books in Florida to banned Holocaust literature in Tennessee, from anti-Critical-Race-Theory legislation in Texas to debates about history and patriotism in Michigan. Students will examine the political contexts in which these controversies take place and learn various theoretical lenses through which to interpret controversial teaching and learning in U.S. public schools. The course will include guest speakers on Tucson’s own notable curriculum controversy – the state’s ban on ethnic studies – and also provide students with the opportunity to research, and reflect on, fights about what to teach in their own home communities.