Tara Affolter
Faculty Director, Equity, Justice & Inclusion; Associate Professor of Education Studies
- Office
- Twilight Hall 108
- Tel
- (802) 443-5944
- taffolter@middlebury.edu
- Office Hours
- S24: by appointment. Please e-mail Professor Affolter to arrange a time.
Tara Affolter is an Associate Professor of Education Studies. She received her Ph.D. in Education Policy Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Affolter has over 15 years of experience teaching high school English and theatre while working for racial and social justice within the public schools.
To keep herself engaged with schools and K-12 learners she frequently spends her summers back in Madison teaching pre-K at Lincoln Elementary School. Within the Middlebury community, in addition to her contacts with local schools, Dr. Affolter volunteers at the Addison Country Parent Child Center, occasionally team-teaching courses for program participants.
Dr. Affolter has research and teaching experience in antiracist teaching, social justice education, culturally relevant pedagogy, disability studies, and Critical Race Theory.
Her teaching at Middlebury seeks to provide anyone who has an interest in education with the tools and lenses needed to successfully critique and dismantle inequities in schools. She is keenly interested in finding ways to build fully inclusive environments within schools, colleges, and universities. To that end, each year she teaches Education in the U.S. (EDST 115) Models of Inclusive Education (EDST 300) and Culturally Responsive Pedagogy and Policy (EDST 215). She also periodically offers specialized courses and First Year Seminars including, Education for Social Justice (EDST 230); Critical Race Theory in Education (EDST 1020); Race, Ethnicity and Inequality in US Schools (FYSE 1340); Black Playwrights Represent (FYSE 1475) and August Wilson in the Classroom (EDST 102).
Outside of the academic realm, she enjoys hiking, running, yoga, acting, spending time with her husband, Steve, (and any other family members she can track down) and frolicking with her dogs, Scout and Hermione.
Courses Taught
EDST 0115
Current
Education In the USA
Course Description
Education in the USA
What are schools for? What makes education in a democracy unique? What counts as evidence of that uniqueness? What roles do schools play in educating citizens in a democracy for a democracy? In this course, we will engage these questions while investigating education as a social, cultural, political, and economic process. We will develop new understandings of current policy disputes regarding a broad range or educational issues by examining the familiar through different ideological and disciplinary lenses. 3 hrs. lect./1 hr. disc.
Terms Taught
Requirements
EDST 0215
Upcoming
Culturally Relevant Pedagogies
Course Description
Culturally Relevant and Sustaining Pedagogies
Gloria Ladson-Billings’ foundation work on culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) rests on these core propositions—students must experience academic success; students must gain cultural competence in relation to their own culture and at least one other culture; and students must develop a critical consciousness. In this class we will examine CRP and other liberatory pedagogies such as Culturally Sustaining (Paris, 2012); Reality Pedagogy (Emdin, 2016), Abolitionist Teaching (Love, 2019) each of which “seek to open up possibilities,” so that students can bring their “whole self into the classroom and into the world.” (Ladson-Billings, 2021). This is a required course for all students seeking a Vermont teaching licensure. (EDST 0115) 3 hrs. lect.
Terms Taught
Requirements
EDST 0275
Upcoming
Teaching August Wilson
Course Description
Make Room: Teaching August Wilson
August Wilson has been hailed as “Theater's Poet of Black America,” yet many students have little exposure to this theatrical and literary giant. In this course we will explore Wilson’s "Century Cycle" a collection of 10 plays-each set in a distinct decade- that portray African American experiences in the twentieth century. We will take an interdisciplinary approach to reading, analyzing, staging (where possible), and understanding Wilson’s work. We will explore key influences on Wilson’s work including the blues, The Black Arts Movement, visual artist Romare Bearden, essayist and fiction writer Jorge Luis Borges, and playwright/poet Amiri Baraka among others. We also will engage with visiting artists, scholars, teachers, and community members as we consider Wilson's impact and the importance of teaching and studying his work. 3 hr. lect.
Terms Taught
Requirements
EDST 0300
Current
Models of Inclusive Education
Course Description
Models of Inclusive Education
In K-12 education, the term "inclusion" is often reduced to where students with apparent disabilities learn within schools. In this course, we will challenge the segregation of students with disabilities in schools while expanding notions of inclusion such that students' multiple identities are incorporated into learning. Students will be introduced and provided opportunities to design lessons using a Universal Design for Learning framework. We will utilize DisCrit (Disability Studies and Critical Race Theory) as a theoretical tool to explore how ableism and racism stand in the way of equitable education for many students while exploring theories, methods, and approaches to disrupt such marginalization and lead to inclusive antiracist educational practices. (EDST 0115 or SOAN 0215 or SOCI 0215 or AMST 0105).
Terms Taught
Requirements
EDST 0500
Current
Upcoming
Independent Project
Course Description
Independent Project
(Approval Required)
Terms Taught
EDST 1002
Teaching August Wilson
Course Description
Make Room: Teaching August Wilson
August Wilson has been hailed as “Theater's Poet of Black America,” yet many students have little exposure to this literary giant. In this course we will explore Wilson’s impressive cycle of 10 plays illustrating 20th century African-American experiences. We will take an interdisciplinary approach to reading, analyzing, and understanding Wilson’s work, exploring such influences as the blues, visual artist Romare Bearden, and playwright/poet Amiri Baraka. We will also use Critical Race Theory as an analytical tool for understanding Wilson’s significance within the larger context of race relations. The course will culminate with workshops at local schools and staged readings of Wilson’s work.
Terms Taught
Requirements
FYSE 1013
Teaching the 1619 Project
Course Description
Teaching ‘The 1619 Project’: Battling Miseducation, Engaging Freedom Dreaming, and Regaining Hope
In August of 2019 The New York Times launched the 1619 Project, created by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Nikole Hannah-Jones, explores the history of slavery in the United States. In this course we will explore various ways to approach teaching The 1619 Project and examine how the project pushes against miseducation within the U.S. education system. We will also delve into various states' bans against teaching the 1619 Project and scrutinize how Critical Race Theory became wrapped in these bans.
Terms Taught
Requirements
Publications
Recent Publications include:
Affolter, T. (2019) Through the Fog: Towards Inclusive Anti-Racist Teaching. Information Age Press.
Affolter T. and Donnor, J. (Eds.) (2016) The Charter School Solution: Distinguishing Fact from Rhetoric. Routledge, New York.
Affolter, T.L (2016) “There’s a Black Kid in the Classroom and I Don’t Want to Piss Her Off” (2016) In Stead, V. (Ed) RIP Jim Crow: Fighting Racism through Higher Volume 6 RIP Jim Crow: Fighting Racism through Higher Education Policy, Curriculum, and Cultural Interventions Peter Lang Publishing, Inc. (New York).
Affolter, T.L (2015) “Those teachers shouldn’t talk about race: Balancing preaching and protecting, anti-racist scholarship at home.” In G. Theorharis and S. Dotger (Eds.) On the High Wire: Education Professors Walk Between Work and Parenting. Information Age Press.