Learn from public syllabi.

As an educator who teaches courses on histories of race in the United States, I am all too aware of the deep need to address how current events impact the things we talk about in the classroom. A week before the quarter began this year, for instance, I emailed my students in order to address the January 6 insurrection. I touched on how it would likely impact the way in which we engaged with our course, as well as why learning about histories of racial formation and activism were so critical to moving forward. As writer and professor Rebecca Schuman puts it, “college, with its structured reading environment and safe discussion spaces, can give an entire generation the tools not just to begin to understand our violent, incomprehensible world—but to make it a little bit less violent, and a lot more comprehensible” (Slate). I see my courses as giving students those tools to take with them as they move beyond the university.

Happy Sunday! Today is Ida's third publication of a three-part series on how to diversify our education. I really appreciate this one; this newsletter has acted as my own public syllabi, in a way. I get to dive deep into diverse topics and constantly get introduced to new sources and inspiring people. But the sources that mean most are the *actual* syllabi that educators share online. I'd love to hear where else you're learning from and what this email inspires.

This newsletter is a free resource and that's made possible by our paying subscribers. Consider giving $7/month on Patreon. Or you can give one-time on our website, PayPal, or Venmo (@nicoleacardoza). You can also support us by joining our curated digital community. Thank you to all those that support!

Nicole

TAKE ACTION

Explore curriculum guides & public syllabi curated by academics, such as the #StandingRockSyllabus, #ImmigrationSyllabus and #IslamophobiaIsRacism syllabus, among many others.
Read or view at least one of the syllabus items that intrigue you.
Create a regular reading group with friends or colleagues to go through some of the syllabus items and have collective discussions about the texts.

GET EDUCATED

By Ida Yalzadeh (she/her)

Unfortunately, most do not have access to these kinds of spaces that allow us to collectively process and work through the historical underpinnings of what’s going on right now. Most don’t know where to turn in order to figure out, “What got us to where we are today?”

In previous issues, I’ve written about the importance of new media & zine culture as two different yet converging mediums that allow for information and knowledge to be more easily distributed among those advocating for structural change. Today, I wanted to talk about online & crowd-sourced syllabi as a source that puts a new spin on the traditional college course. By using current events as framing sites for deep dives into histories of the United States, scholars, researchers and activists are curating online syllabi to distribute foundational texts and accessible content that help others process what’s going on and how we got to these moments.

The first real instance of an online syllabus going viral was in 2014, with the instigation and organization of the #FergusonSyllabus on Twitter by Marcia Chatelain, an African American Studies and history professor at Georgetown University. The Ferguson unrest was prompted in the wake of the shooting of Michael Brown, and had many, including Chatelain, wondering what they could do. She began the hashtag as a way of crowd-sourcing texts that could speak to the reasons for the unrest and its historical context (The Atlantic). While Chatelain curated a list of books, essays, images and videos that lives on The Atlantic, searching the twitter hashtag yields thousands of results.

Since then, many other historians and scholars of the United States have collectively developed syllabi in order to help other communities make sense of the historical and political underpinnings that frame our current circumstances. Syllabi have been written to further contextualize the horrific Charleston church shooting, anti-Muslim racism, immigration, Standing Rock and the rise of Trump. These syllabi have the common goal of serving as a tool for those interested in social justice to educate themselves on the deeper contexts that underlie our most pressing issues of the current day.

One point I’d like to emphasize, though, has less to do with the content itself and more with those who are organizing it. Most all of the syllabi I listed here are curated by scholars of color. Back in November, I wrote about the importance of creating a more diverse professoriate in academia, as with their research comes asking a “more diverse set of questions—questions that are critical of using whiteness and capitalism as the norm by which all other subjects and ideas are measured.” That scholars of color are leading the way in these initiatives to digitally distribute knowledge across communities should come as no surprise. Community-based projects are central to the practice of collective liberation as we work to move our research beyond the Ivory Tower.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

By using current events as framing sites for deep dives into histories of the United States, scholars, researchers and activists are using online syllabi to distribute foundational texts and accessible content that help others process what’s going on and how we got to these moments.
The first real instance of an online syllabus going viral was in 2014, with the instigation and organization of the #FergusonSyllabus by Marcia Chatelain, an African American Studies and history professor at Georgetown University.
Syllabi written to contextualize the Charleston church shooting, anti-Muslim racism, immigration, Standing Rock and the rise of Trump have the common goal of serving as a tool for those interested in social justice to educate themselves on the deeper contexts that underlie our most pressing issues of the current day.

RELATED ISSUES

2/10/2021 | Celebrate zines.

1/21/2021 | Invest in new media.

11/8/2020 | Rethink what a professor looks like.

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Nicole Cardoza 8/17/20 Nicole Cardoza 8/17/20

Fight for equity in remote learning.

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Happy Monday! My day job is in education (Yoga Foster) so I've been watching the decisions on back-to-school unfold with a blend of anticipation and dread.

For today's newsletter, Jami wrote a fascinating piece on what's unfolding in education this fall. I would love to hear how you're navigating this upcoming school year if you have children in school – reply to this email with your thoughts.

And thank you to everyone that's contributed money to the newsletter! If you haven't already, you can give on our website, Paypal, Venmo (@nicoleacardoza) or subscribe $5/mo on Patreon. And it's certainly not required, but always appreciated.

Nicole

ps – we've received a few questions about what is happening with the USPS. If you haven't already, we highly recommend reading last week's newsletter on the vote by mail situation and how you can take action.

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TAKE ACTION

Read your local schools’ reopening plans. How do they support—or fail to support—low-income families?
Contact your local school board, many of whom are specifically seeking responses from the community right now, with your concerns.
Reflect on how your position and access shapes the choices you and/or your family is making during this pandemic. How can you support other families?
Follow Black educators on social media for their perspectives.

GET EDUCATED

By Jami Nakamura Lin

In the last month, 180,000 have children tested positive for coronavirus (American Academy of Pediatrics). This 90% four-week increase happened to coincide with many students in the South and Midwest returning to school. Parents all over the country are worried about whether it is safe to send their children back to school— and if not, what to do instead.

The situation we’re in is terrible for all parents, all students, and all families. Talk to any parents, and you’ll hear their fear, their worry. But what sometimes gets lost in the social media arguments about school reopening is that, while this affects everyone, it does not affect everyone equally. As all kids return to some form of school by September, it is low-income families that are going to get hit the hardest— families that are often Black and Brown, due to America’s systemic racism and structural barriers (Pew Research Center).

The disparity comes to light when we look at what happened in the spring. An in-depth LA Times survey of school districts found that districts serving low-income (predominantly Latinx and Black) students had much worse virtual learning outcomes than districts serving higher-income (predominantly white and Asian) (LA Times). Under-resourced districts struggled to get their students devices and internet connections. (Now, even months later, California officials still say that they need over a million computers and hot spots for their students.) One teacher had less than 10% of his students show up for classes. Beyond the barrier of the digital divide, these students also had bigger things on their minds than school: their parents losing their jobs, paying rent— and of course, coronavirus itself. Because Black people have died of coronavirus at a 2.5x higher rate than white people (and Indigenous and Latinx people at a 1.5x higher rate), non-white students have had much more first-hand experience with coronavirus than white students (COVID Racial Data Tracker).

Since the spring, schools have changed their plans, and changed their plans again, due to vacillating instruction from the government and their overly-optimistic ideas about the pandemic’s course (NYTimes). In response, parents are scrambling to find the best option for their own families—choices that are all fraught. I was struck by an article where the interviewer asked teachers what they thought about wealthy parents choosing to “pick the all-distance option, create a home-schooling pod if you need to for a year. Ease the pressure on the system, so the lower-income kids have more access to the resources they need, including if they need in-person learning” (Slate). Black teacher Brandon Hersey’s response was short and to the point: "I think that's racist as f---." The teachers agree: while it seems like a good idea, it just makes in-person school a hot zone for kids with the least options, resources, and access. Because of the inequity in many types of tutoring/homeschooling pods, some schools don’t support them (Fairfax County Public Schools).

Even in areas like mine where everyone is beginning the school year virtually, remote learning exacerbates the differences between the haves and have-nots. In response to working parents’ childcare concerns, my school district partnered with Right at School, a company that will “support students in their remote learning, providing small groups and a quiet space for schoolwork, as well as supplementing with fun activities and group fitness” to the tune of $225 per week (Right at School). In other words: the school will provide a semblance of in-person school, but it’s outsourced, and parents have to pay. There was no information on whether it would be provided for free or at a discount for lower-income households (I contacted my school board and am waiting for a response). In both this case and the one that the Slate teachers were worried about— where the rich stay home and the poor go to school— school is segregated between those who can pay and those who can’t.

Our government has left us with no good options, but some organizations are trying to develop more equitable solutions. Yenda Prado notes that learning pods could be successful if they are available to all who need them most; if this system could be scaled and supported institutionally (Online Learning Research Center). “Learning pods – when done in certain ways and contexts – can be a form of equity work that supports families and schools,” she writes. “When families, particularly those that have been marginalized, come together in times of crisis to address their children’s needs – that becomes equity work. It is incumbent on all us to support their efforts by developing systemic solutions at scale to the current educational challenges.” San Francisco is attempting to do this by creating learning hubs for underserved children (San Francisco Chronicle).

Many parents have important reasons for opting their children out of in-person learning. But opting out of in-person learning doesn’t have to mean opting out of collective action. Whether we have children or not, we can all put pressure on our local organizations to best support the kids in our communities who need it most.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

180,000 children have tested positive for coronavirus in the past month.
1. Our individual decisions about schooling affect the community.
2. Virtual learning exacerbates the educational inequities between students of color and white students.