The course aims to explore how 'race' and racism have been understood and theorised in the modern period and how education systems and institutions have operated as contexts for exclusion, discrimination, conflict, and projects of reform, civil rights, and equality. By engaging with a range of theoretical frameworks, students will acquire a broad understanding across strands of scholarship connected through seeking to investigate and illuminate questions of race and racism, and its wider determinants. Taking examples from multiple contexts, that enable a closer look at these issues globally, using different frameworks for understanding race and racism, this course will explore the social and moral consequences of events, policies, and practices contingent upon aspects of education and shaped by historical, political, and socioeconomic shifts and events. The course will consider how racism has evolved in different societies, in a wider context that includes both the Global North and Global South, drawing on local histories and research from different countries such as the US, South Africa and Britain. The course explores how different historical understandings of race, racial difference and cultural identity have interacted with education, both in terms of the reproduction and maintenance of conceptions of race, forms of discrimination and prejudice and as a site of possibilities for equality, reform, cultural survival, and the upholding of diverse identities and values such as linguistic preservation, unique to specific ethnic landscapes.

This is a taught course, normally based on one lecture and one seminar each week that draws on expertise around race and racism. The course is supported by a carefully selected range of online resources, selected readings, and self-assessment exercises.

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This course is assessed through two summative assessments -

a written assignment (25%) and a written assignment in the form of an essay (75%).

This course aims to provide students with an understanding around the knowledge canon concerning the politics of race and racism within diverse contexts, utilising different conceptual frameworks, enabling an informed perspective of the key issues associated with race, racism and social justice. The course focuses on historical references to build an understanding of their impact on black and other minority ethnic communities. It is also aimed to help highlight key events that have shaped discourses concerning race and racism within different societies and international contexts. The course aims to explore the extent to which hostile and racially violent times continue to impact people of colour from different backgrounds, within major establishments and institutions worldwide. This is done through critically reviewing literature, weighing evidence and argument to present an informed personal viewpoint. This allows for a closer look at different theories and perspectives, that highlight issues of race, racism and social justice to enable students to make informed judgements, both in class deliberations and in written format as summative assessments. The course aims to support learning in relation to research, critical thinking, communication and employing a global perspective.

By the end of this course students will be able to: 

1. Demonstrate an understanding of different perspectives and theoretical approaches to comprehending race and racism.

2. Examine a range of contexts and issues in terms of how race and or racism have affected outcomes, opportunities and issues in education.

3. Develop forms of analysis and be able to appraise questions of racism in relation to social structures and institutions, including education.

4. Consider arguments and forms of data and evidence in relation to questions of racial equality and questions of power, and access in relation to race.

5. Synthesise forms of knowledge in relation to understanding issues of race and racism within different contexts as it impinges on education.

6. Critically evaluate key concepts in this field related to racism, including race, ethnicity, gender, class, claims of privilege, nationalism, whiteness and populism and the impact of factors such as colonialism and Empire on minority ethnic communities.

7. Demonstrate an understanding of the notions of coloniality and decolonising of the mind; global social justice in relation to cognitive justice; diverse knowledges and inclusion; the historical understanding of race, racial difference and cultural identity in different contexts, to help assess the role of education as being vital for cultural survival and upholding diverse values.

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.