Framework for Anti-racist Pedagogy

For white teachers, Anti-racist pedagogy asks them to question their privilege and confront the emotions and thought processes linked to attitudes and assumptions that inform their prejudices. In some cases, this has proven to help white teachers to prepare themselves more fully to understand and implement more equitable practices (Matias & Mackey, 2016). In many cases, we find teachers resisting conversations of race, anti-racism, privilege, and structural inequity (Vaught & Castagno, 2008). It is not only educators, however, that we find in conflict with anti-racist pedagogy.

Implementing Anti-racist curriculum in our schools is a matter of resistance and will itself be met with resistance by those who hold to the traditions of the American school system. Often passed off as "reverse racism" and "indoctrination,", Anti-racism is often misunderstood and misconstrued to be an anti-American philosophy. History shows a continued conflict over the use of Anti-racist curriculum, as groups in a society battle over policy and standards in which we should be educating our children.

As recent as last year, the former President of the United States fought against critical race theory trainings and curriculum that focused on the harm that the United States has historically done to people of color. Issuing the 1776 Report and an accompanying executive order, it's the former administration's goal is to decenter the voices of the marginalized and to focus on "patriotic education.".

While President Biden has disbanded the commission, there are individuals attempting to keep the movement alive, and we see states attempting to secure the legacy of the 1776 Report and its root principles. The current governor of Texas, among other representatives, has sought to carry over a nationalistic (i.e. white supremacist) curriculum to his state. States like Louisiana and Oklahoma are attempting to prohibit "divisive" curriculum that seeks to silence anti-racist principles. Many stakeholders in our communities and schools support these inequitable actions. This, of course, is nothing to say about the racism seen in our schools at the classroom level.

One of the trickiest parts about moving forward with a diversity or anti-racist curriculum, or really any social justice curriculum is the anticipation of parental resistance. We have heard for years on the news about teachers facing backlash for reading books such as “I am Jazz” or hanging Black Lives Matter posters in their classrooms, so shouldn’t they anticipate backlash when introducing any controversial curriculum, such as social justice, multicultural, gender identity, or even diversity?

Resistance can come in many forms, both in positive ways and negative. If students are resisting, there may be a bigger picture to look at before forcing them to learn a subject or topic. For example, a group of teachers in Austria faced resistance from their Arab students when they tried to enforce the school’s mandatory swimming curriculum (Santoro & Forghani-Arani, 2015). Many students tried to sit out from the swim classes with doctors notes, or were absent whenever they had to go to the pool. Other students came dressed in multiple long sleeve shirts, swim caps, and leggings. These Arab girls were resisting the swimming curriculum because their religious beliefs forbid them from showing skin in public places, such as a swimming pool and the girls were uncomfortable with the gender norms of ladies swimsuits. They did not want to participate in the sport because it went against their religion, but the teachers in their effort to enforce the curriculum made the girls change and had them swim anyways. Santoro (2015) states after interviewing the teachers, “the core of the problem, is not teacher ignorance of these cultural practices, but disregard for them and a lack of respect for the students for whom these practices are important.” This in itself should be considered racist and the school and curriculum need to change to adapt to the religious beliefs of the students it teaches.

If “democracy entails a modicum of commitment toward open public discussion so that citizens may share different opinions as they consider issues of common concern” then we need to start teaching students early how to hold those discussions without hate for one another (Ho et al, 2014, p. 3). If anything, it is sad and despicable that “social studies teachers and students are wary about discussing controversial topics such as race in class because of the fear of breaching laws such as the Sedition Act and the Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act, and fear of being reported to the authorities” (p. 4). While these specific laws do not exist in the United States, similar fears exist since teachers have been arrested for teaching curriculum not aligned before. One educator suggests going around and visiting every family and home before school starts, so the teachers can see what backgrounds and conditions students are coming from (Controversial Subjects, 2013). This method also builds trust between parents and teachers earlier than the first day of school. When talking about controversial issues, trust is a key ingredient to your relationships or else parents are more likely to resist the social justice curriculum.

Researchers Hermann-Wilmarth and Ryan (2019) have already started teaching a social justice curriculum involving racism, sexism, and gender identity to their elementary students. When teaching a social justice curriculum, “Contrary to the fears of many teachers, the vast majority of students' parents never expressed objections or resistance to their LGBTQ-inclusive teaching” which was included in their social justice curriculum (Hermann-Wilmarth, & Ryan, 2019). The other major backbone to their teachings Ryan (2019) explained, "I'm not going to stop reading the book because someone has an issue with it." Because of these beliefs, Linda's commitment to her larger class could continue to walk hand-in-hand with her flexibility toward individual parents. With the refusal to change the curriculum, she offered an alternative assignment to those students whose parents wanted them to learn something else. The most important key is to not back down when faced with parents who are against the social justice curriculum, because it is more beneficial to the entire class to have those conversations than fear the reactions of others.

Anti-racist curriculum is itself resistance to the status quo and will continue to be met in kind. There are educators out there, however, doing the work that needs to be done to dismantle inequity and injustice in our school districts.