35.010 - Bending Toward — or Away From — Racial Justice? An Interactive Case Study in Educational Ethics

Session Type: Invited Speaker Session

Abstract

At its core, the case study raises questions about how evidence is taught, accepted, and rejected in schools. For generations, American students have been taught historical narratives about the United States that privilege European-American viewpoints and obscure narratives of cultural imperialism, racial oppression, and gender-based domination at the expense of indigenous, African-American, and female perspectives in particular. The institutionalization of such historical narratives in textbooks and school curricula carries with it important signals about which facts and whose truths matter. As we grapple with what it means to live, teach, research, lessen inequality, and increase educational opportunities in a post-truth era, we must also determine what it means to live with and transform pedagogy of history that is all too often composed of fragments of truth. By connecting scholars across educational disciplines, epistemologies, and national contexts, we hope to expand the conversation around school-based decision-making and connect current philosophical research to that in curriculum development, policy, and school administration. Indeed, we believe the session format itself models a way to build multimodal narratives that (at their best) democratize evidence and facilitate joint inquiry into challenging ethical issues that face educators in the United States and around the world.

Session Format: This session is grounded in a normative case study that explores the range of challenges a charter school network curriculum designer faces as she implements a new anti-racist curriculum at a majority-white school in her network. Audience members will have the immersive experience of participating in a Reader’s Theater performance before joining a small group discussion about the ethical dilemmas in the case. The session will close with short presentations from the panelists and an open discussion about the case. Through these experiences, we seek to model a deliberative, democratic, and inclusive form of inquiry that cuts across multiple lines of disconnection and dissonance.

Sub Unit

• AERA Presidential Session

Chair

• Meira Levinson, Harvard University

Participants

• Meira Levinson, Harvard University

• Jacob Fay, Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University

• Deborah Loewenberg Ball, University of Michigan

• Darrius D Robinson, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

• Winston Charles Thompson, The Ohio State University

• Janine de Novais, University of Delaware

• Margot Ford, University of Newcastle

• Daniella J. Forster, The University of Newcastle Australia

• Kevin Lowe, Macquarie University

• Teresa Rodriguez, Boston Collegiate Charter School

• Clinton W. Smith, Harvard University

• Tatiana Geron, Harvard University