Race Matters! Disrupting Educational Racial Color Blindness Through the Implementation of Antiracist Curriculum

• In Event: Pedagogy and Curriculum for Developing Critical, Racial, and Gender Literacies

Abstract

The United States continues to be a highly racialized society, which perpectuates predictive educational outcomes for students in the PK-12 public education system. Further, racial color-blindness continues to dominate educational institutions, as White teachers often feel uncomfortable and ill prepared to talk with students about race. This research study sought to understanding how teachers attending collaborative professional development sessions experienced the process of designing and implementing anti-racist curriculum. The qualitative data collected for this research–participant observations, semi-structured interviews, participant journal entries, and completed lesson plans– were transcribed, coded, analyzed through the theoretical framework of transformative curriculum. The findings indicated that the collaborative experiences were beneficial for the participants, not only to construct curriculum but to foster new “anti-racist” lenes.

Author

• Kelly Deits Cutler, Arizona State University