Learning About Race Through a Qualitative Research Course

I have not taught a class on race; however, race is a topic that comes up in the classes I do teach. This was especially the case this summer. Since 2018, I have taught a six-week, online asynchronous qualitative research methods course at a PWI. The goal of the course is to introduce students to the ‘basics’ of qualitative research. While I do not make learning about race an explicit part of my curriculum, I have found that students – especially those I taught this summer – have an interest in understanding the implications of race and it is important that I provide curricular opportunities for them to do so. Below, I explain three aspects of my class that facilitate students’ engagement with contemporary issues related to race and racial inequality.

1. Flexibility in the substantive content of the curriculum – This summer students completed interviews that were conducted either via phone or videoconferencing technology. Normally, they would also be able to conduct in-person interviews; however, the ongoing pandemic and regulations put in place by the university did not allow for this. Students had the freedom to decide the topic of the interview and who to interview. I give them this freedom because I want them to have a vested interest in the course and they know what resources they have access to better than I do. This flexibility in the substantive content of the interviews resulted in most students investigating the disproportionate effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on minoritized communities – including communities of color – and topics related to police brutality, criminal justice, and the Black Lives Matter movement. As such, students interviewed K-12 educators, lawyers, roommates, and friends as they began to investigate aspects of social inequality in the USA. These interviews served as a broad tapestry of the multiple ways in which race intersects the thought processes and lived experiences for students from a variety of racial, ethnic, and class backgrounds whose lives continue to be deeply impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic and the reality of racial injustice.

2. Incorporation of readings from diverse scholars – In my course, students have to complete a book review assignment. This requires them to read a book of their choice written by a sociologist who uses qualitative research methods. In the written assignment, students must discuss how the author’s methods produced their findings. To do so, they also have to read two articles about at least one of the qualitative methods the author uses. It is a challenging assignment, but students seem to enjoy it because they can select the book they must complete for the assignment. With that said, I do provide them with a list of suggested books to read. The list I provided this past summer included the following books:

1. Evicted by Matthew Desmond

2. Color stories: Black women and colorism in the 21^st century by JeffriAnne Wilder

3. Unequal childhoods: Class, race, and family life by Annette Lareau

4. Doing the best I can: Fatherhood in the inner city by Kathryn Edin and Timothy J. Nelson

5. Appropriately Indian: Gender and culture in a new transnational class by Smitha Radhakrishnan

6. Keepin’ it real: School success beyond black and white by Prudence Carter

7. The managed hand: Race, gender, and the body in service work by Miliann Kang

8. The diversity bargain and other dilemmas of race, admissions, and meritocracy at elite universities by Natasha Warikoo

9. Mothering while black: Boundaries and burdens of middle-class parenthood by Dawn Dow

10. Ethnic church meets megachurch: Indian American Christianity in motion by Prema Kurien

11. Global Cinderellas: Migrant domestics and newly rich employers in Taiwan by Pei-Chia Lan

12. Opting out? Why women really quit careers and head home by Pamela Stone

13. Surviving the Holocaust: A life course perspective by Ronald Berger