Taught By:
Tiffany Timberman
Faculty Lecturer
Graduate School of Social Work (Online Program)
Fairleigh Dickinson University
Read profile here.
Course Description:
This course has components of a traditional school social work course, covering IEPs, responding to crises, working with families, truancy, and school law, etc., but is enhanced by actively educating students on the racism and oppression that exist in K–12 education. Additionally, the course highlights how K–12 works to bolster other harmful systems, such as the criminal justice system where the school-to-prison pipeline serves as a benefit for the prison system and how the militarization of schools through the use of police officers is a tactic used to justify racist and oppressive school policies without addressing the underlying needs of student mental health, well-being, and safety.
Students in this course will learn how to recognize and address racism and oppression when it shows up in school by using anti-racist approaches to advocate for change. Students who do not work in schools benefit from this course as school is a part of life regardless of the setting in which a person may be working.