EDUC 035. Race, Identity, and Education

The academic field of education is unique for integrating sociology, psychology, and government policy, all of which have disparate approaches to the conceptualization of race and identity. While sociology addresses the systemic and constructed nature of race, psychology concerns itself with the individual, internal experience of identity. State and national governmental policy on race changes regularly; the racial categories on any individual census have never been the same as the one before it. This course examines the individual experience of racial identity formation as well as the social phenomena of race, which gives meaning to our identities in ways that are consistent with and divergent from our unique experiences. This class will attend to all racial categories as they have evolved throughout US history, including the category of “white” (the earliest census called it “Caucasoid”) which is often omitted from conversations about race. We will look at the uses and misuses of race in education, examining how an awareness of race can help build a more inclusive society while recognizing the risks it poses as well. Risks include constructed division as well as the potential for abuse of governmental record keeping regarding racial, religious, and citizenship status. The central inquiry of the course is this: What conceptualization of race helps us build healthy, diverse, multiracial, democratic schools?
Social sciences.
1 credit.
Eligible for BLST
Fall 2026. Michael.
Catalog chapter: Educational Studies
Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/educational-studies

Access the class schedule to search for sections.