Creating Anti-Racist Classrooms

One of the important functions of universities today is to help educate and teach students how to thrive in an increasingly diverse and multicultural world. One important way we can support that as educators is to actively cultivate and model anti-racist values and pedagogies in our classroom and academic communities. 

This educational mission is all the more important given the rise in hate crimes and violence against communities of color and historically marginalized social groups, from the racialized policing and violence disproportionately impacting Black and brown communities to anti-Asian and anti-semitic hate crimes and violence to the growing threats from anti-immigrant and white supremacist political movements. 

The more faculty can do to help their students (and also other faculty) understand the root causes of these issues and address them through our classes, the better prepared our students (and fellow teachers) will be to address and engage with these issues in their personal and professional lives. This teaching guide looks at several of these key issues, such as what is anti-racist teaching and how to put it in practice.

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• RESEARCH

  Examine selected research on creating anti-racist classrooms: 

  Benson T, A., & Fiarman, S, E. (2019, September 1). The Anti-Racist Educator. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/the-anti-racist-educator

  Thurber, A., Harbin, M. B., & Bandy, J. (2019). Teaching race: Pedagogy and practice. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/teaching-race/(opens in new window)

  (2020, August 24). How to Create Anti-racist Virtual Classrooms: Strategies for Teachers and Families. University of Pittsburgh. https://www.pitt.edu/pittwire/features-articles/how-create-anti-racist-virtual-classrooms-strategies-teachers-and-families.(opens in new window)

  Arneback, E., & Jämte, J. (2022). How to counteract racism in education - A typology of teachers’ anti-racist actions. Race, Ethnicity and Education, 25(2), 192–211. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2021.1890566(opens in new window)

  Spencer, S. (2012). Teaching race and ethnicity: Towards an engaged, anti-racist pedagogy. Teaching Politics and International Relations, 179-197. DOI:10.1057/9781137003560_14(opens in new window)

  Block, J. (2015). Educate to Liberate: Build an Anti-Racist Classroom. Edutopia. org. https://www.edutopia.org/blog/build-an-anti-racist-classroom-joshua-block(opens in new window)

  Willoughby, B. (2012). Speak up at School: How to Respond to Everyday Prejudice, Bias and Stereotypes. A Guide for Teachers. Southern Poverty Law Center (NJ1). https://www.learningforjustice.org/sites/default/files/general/Speak_Up_at_School.pdf (PDF)

  Resource List. Racial Equity Tools. https://www.racialequitytools.org/resources/fundamentals/resource-list(opens in new window)

  (2015, June). Race Reporting Guide. Race Forward. https://www.raceforward.org/sites/default/files/Race%20Reporting%20Guide%20by%20Race%20Forward_V1.1.pdf (PDF)

  Tamara Moore. (2023, January 27). Best Resources for Free Social Justice Lesson Plans, Activities, and More. Ideas and inspiration for reaching the next generation. https://www.weareteachers.com/social-justice-lesson-plans-resources/(opens in new window)

  (2017, November). Reading Diversity, A Tool for Selecting Diverse Text. Tolerance Org. https://www.learningforjustice.org/sites/default/files/2017-11/Reading-Diversity-v2-Redesign-WEB-Nov2017.pdf (PDF)

  Anti-racist. Institute for Education Sciences. https://eric.ed.gov/?q=anti-racist(opens in new window)

• APPLICATION

  Ready to address anti-racist classrooms in your teaching? Here are some ideas and strategies to get you started:

  For humanities teachers, consider using one of these #Disrupt Text Teacher Guides (PDF) in your classroom to help interrogate our own biases, teach critical literacy skills, and center Black, Indigenous, and voices of color through classroom literature.

  If you want more nuts and bolts ideas for using anti-racist teaching practices in your classroom, take a look at the suggestions in this Teaching@Tufts resource guide(opens in new window).

  The Anti-Racist Pedagogy in Action: First Steps(opens in new window) from Columbia University's Center for Teaching and Learning offers many useful tips for linking this work to our classes.  

  To address race, policing, and violence with students, consider using the Washington Post's Fatal Force(opens in new window) police shootings database and reporting with this Learning for Justice guide on Teaching about Race, Racism and Police Violence(opens in new window) and this CSU Chico library Learning Guide on Policing in America(opens in new window). 

  For teachers wanting to connect anti-racist classrooms with disability studies, white supremacy, and feminist theory, Samuel Shelton's article on Disability Justice, White Supremacy, and Harm Reduction Pedagogy: Enacting Anti-Racist Crip Teaching(opens in new window) shares insights and concrete experiences from doing this work in the classroom.

  For faculty looking to connect multicultural and gender studies with an anti-racist classroom you can find more resources in this CSU Chico library Learning Guide(opens in new window).