EAD 949: Advanced Seminar in Education Policy: Schools, Housing & Neighborhoods (3 Units)
Michigan State University – College of Education
Dr. Tasminda (Tasmin) K. Dhaliwal
Thursdays, 10:20am-1:10pm
Course Description:
The relationship between schools, housing, and neighborhoods is multidimensional. Housing and neighborhoods shape students’ educational experiences. Where students live usually dictates what kind of public education they receive and whether students have access to affordable and stable housing matters for their educational outcomes. At the same time, education policy decisions related to school choice, accountability, and integration also have implications for residents’ housing decisions and neighborhood composition. This course will examine the multidimensional relationship between housing and education by first engaging with different perspectives on the causes and consequences of the current state of schools, housing, and neighborhoods. Then, we will consider how housing and neighborhoods shape educational experiences, including the educational implications of interventions for housing affordability, neighborhood opportunity and revitalization, and integration and gentrification. We then shift focus to specific education policies to examine how education reforms impact neighborhoods and housing. We focus on school choice, school accountability and closures, integration, and student homelessness as cases of education policies that have salience for housing and neighborhoods. Because race is of particular import to this seminar topic, we will grapple with how racial exclusion and racism interplays with schools, housing, and neighborhoods throughout the course.
The readings from this course span across US cities and suburbs. Students will examine a specific location of their choosing to better understand how the dynamics studied unfold in a given location.
Delving into a specific location enables students to build site-specific knowledge of the evolution of housing and neighborhoods, including the interplay with educational experiences and policy. The course will culminate with an original research proposal where students will develop a research narrative on a topic related to housing, neighborhoods, and education policy.
Learning Objectives
Throughout this course students will be able to:
- Demonstrate a complex understanding of how housing and neighborhoods shapes schools
and student outcomes through issues related to housing segregation, affordability,
neighborhood opportunity and revitalization, and gentrification and integration. - Draw connections between how education policies (e.g., choice, accountability, integration,
McKinney-Vento Act) shape housing and neighborhood composition. - Identify a range of theoretical perspectives and methods that have been used to explore the
dynamics between housing and schools. - Read, synthesize, and apply social science texts related to housing, neighborhoods, and
education, including those that draw on perspectives from sociology, economics, and critical
theories, in writing assignments and an original research proposal.