Dismantling Racism

Christian Education and Dismantling Racism

EL3539, Luther Seminary, January 2021

This course analyzes institutionalized racism and proposes a series of frameworks from within Christian Education for engaging and dismantling racism, and for supporting intercultural congregational learning. Here is a print version of the syllabus but you should make sure to sign into MyLutherNet for current materials as they become available. There are also additional resources for the course available online.

This class meets in a residential focus course format, including an intensive of experiential learning, January 4th - 8th, 2021.

Course Objectives

  • recognize elements of racialization within the dominant culture in which you live, and understand how you negotiate your own identity in multiple spaces with respect to systems and structures of power
  • articulate how different social realities molded by various histories give shape and meaning to current experiences, relationships, Christian beliefs and/or practices in complex ways
  • demonstrate the capacity to ask complex questions of people from whom you differ with a clear stance of humility, and see conflict as a source of learning
  • demonstrate a clear sense of how your faith sustains and challenges you in the work of dismantling racism
  • design and support learning processes that seek to dismantle racism in faith communities

**Please note that this class is an intensive course, and given Luther’s need to practice remote instruction during January of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, will take place entirely online. Mornings of each day will be spent in individual exercises and learning, with the afternoons focused on synchronous engagement via zoom.