Reclaiming Urban Education: From Miseducation to Liberation Through Critical Race Curriculum

Abstract

This paper examines urban school curriculum across time, tracing it as a tool of oppression and, conversely, a potential site of liberation. I begin with the evolution of curriculum as a tool of control, showing how pre-Brown segregation established persistent patterns of mental colonization in neoliberal tracking systems and standardized testing regimes. I then discuss current inequities, documenting how students experience curriculum violence while demonstrating a remarkable capacity for critical consciousness development. Yosso's critical race curriculum is introduced as an approach for transformation and liberation, concluding with strategies for teacher resistance and a call for educational practices of freedom.

Keywords

critical race curriculum urban education critical consciousness culturally relevant pedagogy educational equity mental colonization

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