Learning to Live Together: Connecting the Classroom to the Community for Racial Justice in Housing

Abstract

This chapter addresses the complex problem of racial, ethnic, and economic segregation in the United States. How can pedagogy address this fundamental problem, by engaging students directly in efforts to dismantle segregationist housing policies? I begin by reviewing the history of public policies that have generated hypersegregation in American cities. I then describe a set of learning activities designed to help graduate students: (1) understand the ways in which we continue to segregate ourselves via public policy, (2) participate in the spheres in which such policy decisions are made, and (3) critically examine the role of our own institution in racialized neighborhood change. The learning activities presented include critical examination of exclusionary zoning policy; participation in public events, including protests, government hearings, and community meetings; and investigation into the complex causes of gentrification in a neighborhood adjacent to our University. Examples from student products are included. This chapter presents a series of novel learning activities designed to help students understand the real connections between public policy, structural racism, and housing opportunity. I present an approach to teaching that empowers students to participate actively in civic life.

Citation

Metzger, M.W. (2016), "Learning to Live Together: Connecting the Classroom to the Community for Racial Justice in Housing", The Crisis of Race in Higher Education: A Day of Discovery and Dialogue (Diversity in Higher Education, Vol. 19), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 109-125. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-364420160000019006