University of Florida history course requires an examination of privilege for a grade

Over the summer, the University of Florida (UF) College of Education offered a history course titled “History of Education in the U.S." that required students to create a positionality statement on their “personal and educational experiences.”

The statement was worth 10% of students' grades, The New Guard reported.

The course "explores how issues of race, class, gender, exceptionality, sexual identity, language, geography, and religion have historically impacted U.S. education," the class syllabus explains.

[RELATED: Florida university takes down ‘anti-racism’ statements]

Carolyn Silva, a Ph.D. candidate and teacher of the course, focused primarily on “the development of schooling and educational practices in the land that became the United States and the interaction between educational practices and the larger cultural, social, economic, and political context.”

One of the assignments suggested students write their final essay on topics such as the Black Panther Party or the socialist political gang called the Young Lords. 

[RELATED: Loyola asks ‘each academic unit’ to teach ‘identity and privilege’]

“I was shocked to find out that the class that was supposed to be about the history of the education system was more focused on telling me how different minority communities have been oppressed by our government,” a student told YAF. 

The class comes hot off the heels of Florida's enacted House Bill 7, which took effect July 1 and prohibits the teaching of any content in Florida that “espouses, promotes, advances, inculcates, or compels such individual to believe specified concepts constitutes discrimination based on race, color, sex, or national origin”.  

Campus Reform has reached out to Silva and the University of Florida’s College of Education. This Article will update accordingly.