Racial Ideologies of Students Enrolled in Coursework on African American English at Five U.S. Colleges

• In Event: Developing Literacies Toward Equity

Abstract

Anti-racist work requires attending to relationships among race, racism, and language. In the U.S., coursework focused on African American English (AAE) is an important and increasingly common avenue for pursuing such work in college education and teacher preparation, yet few studies have documented racial ideologies of students enrolled in this coursework. This multi-site, repeated measures survey study examined college students’ (n=43) conceptions of race and racism before and after participating in courses with AAE content. Several findings were highly encouraging; however, surprisingly few students described race as a social construct and racism as systemic either before or after AAE coursework. Implications for college linguistics education and K-12 teacher education are discussed.

Authors

• Quentin Sedlacek, Southern Methodist University

• Lamisa Ali, Southern Methodist University

• Jordan McLarty, Southern Methodist University