“In the treatment of the child the world foreshadows its own future and faith.” ~W.E.B. DuBois
“The classroom remains the most radical space of possibility in the academy.” ~bell hooks
“The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever.” ~Oscar Wilde
These are the quotes that begin my syllabus for Education and Justice, a split 300/400-level class I teach at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. To me, they sum up what will ultimately become the question that drives the class: what are we really doing here?
As a bit of background, the major here at UAB is largely unstructured and non-linear. As a result, we often have in the same class senior majors about to graduate and students who are taking their first philosophy class, even at the capstone level. This class had a limit of 25 students, with 15 students enrolling at the 300 level and 10 at the 400 level. The students meet at the same time and complete the same weekly assignments, but they have different projects. At the 300 level, they have a group project that leads to a presentation. At the 400 level, which is a capstone in our department, they are required to submit a term paper.
In terms of content, the class runs through a variety of questions about education. What do we mean by “education?” What is education supposed to be or do such that we are justified in compelling children to become educated? How do we conceive of the project? Once we do that, what should the content of that education be? How do we make those decisions? What should the classroom look like? How do we allocate educational resources to achieve the goals we set out in the conceptualization part of the class? How much choice should students and/or their parents have in choosing schools, educational content, and even educational systems? How much should the state support those choices? Then, we discuss contemporary controversies about education.
To sum up the class, I ask students the following question: why is the class called Education and Justice? What is the relationship between education and justice? Is justice meant to be a goal of education or a constraint on education? Or neither? We often talk about educational justice, but what view of justice is in play here? And what does it tell us about how to answer the questions we’ve spent the semester asking? One question that tends to haunt us all throughout and beyond the class is whether, as we put it, the call can come from inside the house. That is to say, if educational systems both reflect and reinforce existing social failures and oppressions, can the change come from within? I still don’t know, but thinking through it with students is one of my favorite things to do.
In this class, I experimented with a new teaching structure, and although it has its challenges, I’m never going back. Influenced by bell hooks’ Teaching to Transgress, I sought ways to encourage student investment in and ownership of their learning in this class. To do this, I created a new assignment. Each week before the first class, students had to submit a handout for each reading assignment that week. What does a handout mean? Well, I told them to imagine that they were in charge of leading the discussion that day. What might they put on a handout as a presentation aid? This likely wouldn’t include a summary of the reading, as that’s not helpful, but it might include questions, objections, and connections to other ideas/issues/readings. During the first class, I still got to sort of run the show. I was the discussion leader. But then, between the first and second class of the week, I would read and excerpt from student handouts to create something of a mega-handout for the next class discussion. Sometimes, this meant students were in conversation with each other without realizing it. Often it meant students would note things I would never have caught in the reading given my own blind spots. It gave students an opportunity to shape discussion and demonstrate thoughtful engagement with the readings. It gave me an opportunity to see how students read and think about these works that had—I admit with some shame—become a bit stale to me.
The chasm between how a professor reads texts about education and how students read texts about education became one of my favorite sources of learning in my career. hooks was right: we were all teaching and learning. However, it’s worth noting that having read a chapter of Teaching to Transgress in which hooks mentions that everyone in the room has a shared goal, one student’s handout challenged this, noting that students are in the room for all sorts of reasons that may have very little to do with learning. I knew that, of course. But sorting through—as a class—what that means for something like implementing a hooks-style pedagogy was another thing entirely. (This is what I mean. Blind spots.)
Every student had two (2) no-questions-asked 48-hour extensions on handouts, so you could have a couple of off weeks. One huge advantage of the handouts is that it put students in charge of a significant portion of their grade. Do the reading, thoughtfully engage, and you’re driving your grade up. Simple as that. Students reported that they hated and loved the handouts. I consider this a resounding success. They said they worked harder than they did in other classes, but that they loved the result. Nailed it! Indeed, I asked students who took both this class (with handouts) and my other classes (with different assignment structures), and they all agreed they preferred the handouts. One student noted that she read much more carefully to do the handouts and got more out of the readings that way. As a result, I’m converting all my non-100-level classes to this assignment structure. (I now have students submit handouts via Packback’s Deep Dives assignment, which makes them much easier for me to read and give feedback on efficiently. Earlier, I’d had them submit via email. It was chaos.)
Best case scenario, they learned a lot of really good stuff and now think more carefully about education. Worst case scenario, they got a peek behind the curtain at what all goes into designing a class/educational experience and may be a bit more charitable toward their professors going forward. I’d call either a win.
The Syllabus Showcase of the APA Blog is designed to share insights into the syllabi of philosophy educators. We include syllabi in their original, unedited format that showcase a wide variety of philosophy classes. We would love for you to be a part of this project. Please contact Series Editors, Dr. Brynn Welch via bwelch@uab.edu or Dr. Smrutipriya Pattnaik via smrutipriya23@gmail.com, or Editor of the Teaching Beat, Dr. Alexis LaBar via labaralexis06@gmail.com with potential submissions.
Brynn Welch
Dr. Brynn Welch is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where she teaches courses in applied ethics and social/political philosophy. In 2021, she received the College of Arts and Sciences Dean's Award for Excellence in Teaching. She is also co-author of the children's book, Bennie Goes Up! Up! Up! You can view her TEDx talk on children's literature here.
