August 20

Remembering Barbara Rose Johns (August 20, 2025)

Welcome . . .

I. Journaling Time

What are you so interested in/swept up by/pissed off with right here, right now that you would love to read and write about it? (This doesn't need to be about the course--- just your intellectual interests.) Say as much a you possibly can.
What's going well so far in graduate school? What's not going so well and why?
This class is all about a philosophy of education-meets-Black liberation that does not rely on the state for approval, direction, or content. How does that relate to your work and/or aspirations? What do you want to do and learn here and why? [Please go deeper than white liberalist mantras of wanting to be a better person, colleague, teacher, etc]

II. Three Question Interviews + Classroom Introductions

The Components of the Course
III. Syllabus Review

The public-facing learning guide works with the website (LEARNING GUIDE PDF is at the website and on D2L)
The policy interface is available digitally (see QR code on learning guide --OR-- https://bit.ly/kynard-policy-2025)
Assignments are uploaded at D2L
Sign-up sheets for presentations, YAL choice, and Canon/Cannon choice will be available in next week's class.

IV. Time to Read/Explore Followed by Q&A

V. BREAK (the snack drawer has been budget-compromised this year)

The "Et Al" of Brown v Board of Education, et al: BARBARA ROSE JOHNS
VI. Check-in

(watch all of this)

(watch from 10:40-16:05; 28:20-34:00)

A) Small Group Discussions (jot down notes as you watch)

Choose a facilitator who will represent the group's discussion (note: the facilitator has to represent everyone's ideas, not just their individual ideas)
As a group, discuss QUESTION 1: What are your reactions to Barbara Rose Johns's activism? Does this overview match what you have already learned about her? How would you describe her role in Black educational history? Facilitators should make sure everyone contributes to the conversation.
As a group, discuss QUESTION 2: Why schools? Why education? Why are schools and curriculum the site of so much power and oppression?
As a group, discuss QUESTION 3: What does all this mean for us today?

B) Report Back + Whole Class Discussion

What are your reactions to Barbara Rose Johns's activism? Does this overview match what you have already learned about her? How would you describe her role in Black educational history?
Why schools? Why education? Why are schools the site of so much power and oppression?
What does all this--- especially Project "Massive Resistance"--- mean for us today? How does it compare to and/or implicate "adaptive discrimination via privatization"?