Taking the Reimagining Education Summer Institute "Home": The Barriers to Antiracist Education in Classrooms, Schools, and Communities

• In Event: From Exploring Antiracist Praxis to Reimagine Education Policy: Educators' Calls for Structural Change

Abstract

Throughout our interviews with teachers and school leaders, we sought to identify the barriers that undermine implementing antiracist education. While participants found RESI to be affirming and/or eye-opening as outlined in papers 1 and 2, educators have faced obstacles in moving this work beyond the institute and into their school contexts. This paper will outline the macro and micro level barriers that impede educators from actualizing the professional knowledge they know to be essential for providing a high quality, culturally responsive education.
All participants in this study were able to identify barriers despite the support and preparation they felt they had cultivated at RESI. While the barriers they identified varied based on school context and location, we observed several trends in the data including lack of teachers and leaders of color; lack of cultural competency (particularly among white educators), lack of support or outright resistance from teachers and/or school or district leadership, lack of funding and resources to meaningfully do this work, pressure to focus on and align curriculum to tests and finally, the current political backlash to racial justice with a particular focus on the war against CRT and the 1619 project. The teachers we interviewed spoke of the chilling effect of this backlash as well as fears and threats of losing their jobs for doing explicit antiracist work in their classrooms and schools. This paper will focus on the political backlash against antiracist efforts in education while also highlighting the ways in which the other barriers educators cited are also connected to this resistance and ultimately, antiblackness in education as evidenced through the fervent opposition to racial justice or any effort to teach about our racialize past.
This work is of particular significance in the current moment given the proliferation of “anti-CRT” propaganda. Such rhetoric, combined with legislation in a growing number of states, has contributed to a chilling effect on educators otherwise eager to enact antiracist pedagogy. Throughout our interviews, some educators described efforts by parents as well as students to censor their instruction as well as self-censorship based on fear of anticipated backlash. During these interviews, educators simultaneously noted how important this work is and how as Gloria Ladson Billings explained, “it’s just good teaching.”
This paper will be informed by critical race theory (CRT) in education, as we look to examine the ways in which racism is embedded within the education system. Using a CRT lens will support our analysis of how antiracist pedagogy and practices are obstructed at the structural level.

Authors

• Leana Cabral, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Madeline Dressner, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Maja Pehrson, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Thuy Vi Nguyen, Teachers College, Columbia University