Education Commons^™

Conversations About Race Between Educators And K-12 Students, Elana Wolkoff, Ronda Goodale

Race and Pedagogy Journal: Teaching and Learning for Justice

Conversations about race between teachers and K-12 students have been found to improve racial attitudes for students of all races and to serve as a protective factor for students of color. This study examines perspectives of educators and youth in regard to these conversations, obstacles that impede them and factors that increase positive outcomes. Eighty-nine educators and 130 youth completed questionnaires that included multiple choice and open response questions. Samples were diverse in regard to race and geographic region within the US. Using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis, researchers found that these conversations generally have positive outcomes and often strengthen …

Fighting Back Against Anti-Asian Xenophobia: Addressing Global Issues In A Distance Learning Classroom, Dara Nix-Stevenson, Laura Shelton, Jennifer Smith

Middle Grades Review

This practitioner essay will outline a project designed by a team of three critical educators at The Experiential School of Greensboro (TESG), a new grassroots charter school in Greensboro, North Carolina. In this essay, we will describe the social context of TESG, discuss how we built towards addressing complicated topics related to systemic racism, and outline the ways we addressed anti-Asian racism and xenophobia in a remote learning context during the COVID-19 pandemic.

How Race And Racism Empower A School's Curriculum, Sunni Ali

Journal of Research Initiatives

Teaching students about race and racism are so multi-faceted and sophisticated, yet it remains the most crucial conversation and lesson to have with young people to empower them. One of the useful ways Americans can attempt to unravel and transform this complicated legacy is to make it a part of a school’s curriculum. Allowing race and racism to remain a hidden-aspect of a school’s curriculum reinforces its trivialization and dysfunction.

Indeed, having constructed, well-thought-out lessons about race and racism “myth-bust” any attempts for future Americans to continually embrace xenophobia and genetic inferiority. In recent years, the institution of education and …

The Green Book: Race, Geography, And Critical Understanding, Mark Pearcy Ph.D.

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

Social studies teachers face a number of disciplinary challenges--for instance, insufficient geographic knowledge, fewer opportunities for critical analysis amid shrinking instructional time--and, in terms of confronting discrimination and disparity, an increasingly racially segregated society. Teachers can, however, make excellent use of historical resources and modern mapping tools to empower students in their analysis of the Jim Crow era and segregation in American daily life. This article describes the use of The Negro Motorist Green Book, a guide produced from 1937 to 1963 for African-American drivers which detailed American businesses which catered to black travelers. Using the data from these books, …

The Revolution Will Be Live: Examining Educational (In)Justice Through The Lens Of Black Lives Matter, Amy Jo Samuels, Gregory L. Samuels, Brandon Haas

Journal of Educational Controversy

The article explores current sociopolitical implications of race through the lens of Black Lives Matter. In highlighting critical incidents in the movement and connecting to related events of historical significance, we establish parallels to emphasize the persistence of bias, race-based oppression, and injustice. The article focuses on established power structures and explores inequity, oppression, and sociopolitical contradictions by examining institutionalized racism. We emphasize how deficit perceptions, racist ideologies, and silence on racism are dangerous and must be challenged to foster action, advocacy, and change.

The Sound Of Fury: Teaching, Tempers, And White Privileged Resistance, Tema J. Okun

Catalyst: A Social Justice Forum

This essay focuses on the resistance of students situated in positions of privilege in classrooms addressing issues of dominance, identity, and oppression related to race and racism. Examining the psycho/social history of two critical aspects of resistance – defensiveness (related to guilt and shame) and denial – the author draws from both practice and theory to explicate the roots of this resistance and offer specific, effective ways to support students in moving through resistance into responsibility.

Using The Film Crash To Promote A Multicultural Identity In Students, Richard P. Long

Perspectives In Learning

This review demonstrates how the film Crash can be used in the classroom to show students a nonthreatening way to reconsider stereotypical views of racism. Until the film Crash was released in 2005, Hollywood timidly made movies such as Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? and To Kill a Mockingbird, in which the underlying theme was that other people are racists, not us. Crash, literally and figuratively, questions that stereotypical view of racism. Crash suggests that each of us is indeed racist and, when placed in a threatening situation, these prejudices control our behavior. Using selected scenes from the film, …