Education Commons^™

Healing Racial Injustice With Mindfulness Research, Training, & Practice, Danielle "Danae" Laura

Mindfulness Studies Theses

This thesis offers a collection of authors and studies in support of improved research, training, and practice connecting mindfulness with racial justice through intergroup applications. The paper identifies barriers at work (e.g., colorblindness, spiritual bypass, white fragility, and implicit bias) in contemplative science, Western Buddhist communities, and secular mindfulness centers, which block the sizeable contributions possible in studying the intergroup application of mindfulness practice—specifically Lovingkindness Meditation, among others—when used as an intervention with anti-racist aims. Through secondary qualitative research, I reviewed six key works from Black authors on mindfulness and race, as well as six sample studies on the prosocial …

Overcoming The Void: Obstacles To Authentic Culturally Relevant Teaching, Lindsay Rowe

Education | Master's Theses

This study explored how teacher perceptions of professional development (PD) on culturally relevant teaching (CRT) and a lack of student voice impede authentic implementation of CRT. Culturally relevant teaching involves utilizing student backgrounds and voices to shape curriculum and pedagogy. However, a review of the literature revealed that student voice is largely missing in CRT research. Additionally, teacher responses to PD were not frequently discussed in studies exploring implementation of CRT. The purpose of the study was to better understand student desires for education and teacher responses to PD on CRT. Research was conducted at a 7-12 public school in …

Disrupting White Fragility And Colorblind Racism: Using Games To Measure How Race And Ethnicity Courses Change Students’ Racial Ideologies, Alicia L. Brunson, Christopher Benedict Cartright

Race and Pedagogy Journal: Teaching and Learning for Justice

This research provides instructors teaching race and ethnicity a tool to assess the racial ideologies of their students in the form of “race talk.” In particular, Bonilla-Silva’s (2010) concepts denoting colorblindness and DiAngelo’s (2018) concept of white fragility were measured before and after completing one race and ethnicity course by having students play a live version of the game “Guess Who” (Hasbro Co.). At the end of the course, student responses during the game, and their subsequent reflections, revealed a significant decrease in white fragility. Using this game, instructors can assess students’ racial ideologies and whether or not they have …

Don't Poke The Bear - A Project Report, Nicole Kontolefa, Grace Cannon

Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Journal

In 2018, four applied theatre practioners created a forum theatre play and workshop for a small Wyoming community. They wanted to engage participants in a dialogue about inclusion, racism and homophobia, in particular how it manifests in a state known as the "Equality State."

Forum theatre focuses on a protagonist experiencing oppression and how they may break their own bonds. In this report, two of the facilitators and creators reflect on how using forum theatre to follow the actions (or inaction) of a potential ally in a play about the exclusion of a gay woman of color was useful in …

Implicit Bias Training For Woke Faculty, Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt

Faculty Publications

Dr. Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt pens a satirical memo from higher education administrators to faculty regarding implicit bias training.

This essay originally appeared as part of Conditionally Accepted, a career advice blog for Inside Higher Ed providing news, information, personal stories, and resources for scholars who are, at best, conditionally accepted in academe. Conditionally Accepted is an anti-racist, pro-feminist, pro-queer, anti-transphobic, anti-fatphobic, anti-ableist, anti-ageist, anti-classist, and anti-xenophobic online community.

In Our Own Words: Institutional Betrayals, Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt

Faculty Publications

When Dr. Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt, professor of English at Linfield College, asked a large group of underrepresented faculty members why they left their higher education institutions, they told her the real reasons for their departures — those that climate surveys don't capture.

This essay originally appeared as part of Conditionally Accepted, a career advice blog for Inside Higher Ed providing news, information, personal stories, and resources for scholars who are, at best, conditionally accepted in academe. Conditionally Accepted is an anti-racist, pro-feminist, pro-queer, anti-transphobic, anti-fatphobic, anti-ableist, anti-ageist, anti-classist, and anti-xenophobic online community.

Reframing Internationalization: Faculty Beliefs And Teaching Practices, Marco Tulluck

Ed.D. Dissertations in Practice

This study applies Critical Race Theory as a critical lens to gain a clearer understanding of highly racialized policies and teaching practices around international student engagement in US higher education. The findings help to inform higher education leaders of how to support faculty to foster more inclusive and affirming learning environments for international students of color and other diverse student populations.

This mixed methods study employed a modified version of the Colorblind and Multicultural Ideology of STEM Faculty Measure as well as focus group interviews to gain a more complex understanding of how university faculty members’ beliefs align with colorblind …

Examining Campus Racial Climate For Faculty And Staff, Sherri Fujita

Ed.D. Dissertations in Practice

The purpose of this study was to understand how campus racial climate at a historically White public university in the Pacific Northwest of the United States is perceived by faculty and staff. Two theoretical frameworks are used in this study; first, that of critical race theory’s notion of interest-convergence and racial capitalism, and second, DiAngelo’s (2018) tenet of white fragility. A modified version of Hurtado, Milem, Clayton-Pedersen, and Alma’s (1998) multidimensional framework was used to guide the study to include demographics of the university as well as historical, structural, and psychological descriptions. A mixed method study was conducted using institutional …

Are You Supporting White Supremacy?, Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt

Faculty Publications

Dr. Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt, professor of English at Linfield College, provides an opinion piece in the form of a checklist of 15 “troubles” she has identified to help others in academe recognize (un)conscious contributions to white supremacy.

This essay originally appeared as part of Conditionally Accepted, a career advice blog for Inside Higher Ed providing news, information, personal stories, and resources for scholars who are, at best, conditionally accepted in academe. Conditionally Accepted is an anti-racist, pro-feminist, pro-queer, anti-transphobic, anti-fatphobic, anti-ableist, anti-ageist, anti-classist, and anti-xenophobic online community.

White Religious Educators Resisting White Fragility: Lessons From Mystics, Mary E. Hess

Faculty Publications

Decades of work in dismantling racism have not yielded the kind of results for which religious educators have hoped. One primary reason has been what scholars term “white fragility,” a symptom of the structural racism which confers systemic privilege upon White people. Lessons learned from Christian mystics point to powerful ways to confront and resist the siren call of such formation and instead to make resisting racism an integral part of Christian identity for White people.