UCLA Report Explores Race and Education
Cal Poly Pomona Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership Liane I. Hypolite recently co-authored the fourth report in a series of papers from UCLA’s Civil Rights Project.
The inception of this research study was prompted by growing concerns over legislation threatening to limit the discussion of racial history in classrooms. In response to pushback and bans from legislators, the report aims to empower educators with the knowledge and tools needed to teach race effectively and address the contentious issue of teaching race in schools.
The report is headed by Suneal Kolluri, assistant professor in the Educational Policy and Leadership Department at the UC Riverside School of Education; Liane I. Hypolite, assistant professor of Educational Leadership at Cal Poly Pomona; Alexis Patterson Williams, associate professor and incoming chair of Teacher Education at UC Davis; and Kimberly Young, a teacher and Social Science Department co-chair at Culver City High School.
“The Racial Reckoning and the Role of Schooling: Exploring the Potential of Integrated Classrooms and Liberatory Pedagogies” details the history of segregation in American schools while addressing modern teaching practices that limit opportunities and reinforce segregation and racial inequality. According to the research, ill-informed teaching practices are worsening racial divides even when students are in the same classroom.
Additionally, the report recommends that schools play a more active role in confronting racism. School integration practices such as bilingual schools and ethnic studies courses were just some of the recommendations the report made on the most effective measures toward better racial integration policies and practices.
According to Hypolite, “This paper suggests an approach to school integration that advances the critical consciousness of students and educators by grappling with the realities of race and racism and fosters engaging learning environments for reimagining schools as liberatory spaces that can help achieve the racial reckoning needed to realize opportunities for justice in the United States.”
The full report can be read on the Civil Rights Project website.
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