Acceptability of Actions Against Racism: An Educator-Focused Intervention to Disrupt Racism and Reduce Racialized Stress

• In Event: Developing Educators’ Social and Emotional Competencies to Advance Educational Possibilities

Abstract

Objectives. Students and staff of color commonly experience racialized stressors in schools that threaten their mental health (Mahatmya et al., 2022; Mpofu et al., 2022), but schools typically lack a comprehensive approach to addressing racialized stress. The current study examines participant perceptions of acceptability for Actions Against Racism (AAR), a novel educator-focused intervention that aims to support educators in disrupting racism and racialized stress.

Theoretical Framework. AAR builds on research demonstrating the impact of racialized stress on mental health (e.g., Harrell, 2000; Williams et al., 2018), the importance of racism-conscious racial socialization for student social-emotional and academic functioning (Anderson & Stevenson, 2019; Hughes et al., 2006; Saleem & Byrd, 2021), and the need to provide racial socialization education for the 80%-white teaching workforce (Hazelbaker & Mistry, 2021; USDOE, 2016). Further, the current study is informed by implementation science, which emphasizes identifying and addressing implementation barriers early in the development process (Lyon et al., 2019; Moir, 2018), including participants' perceptions of acceptability, or satisfaction with the intervention (Pearson et al., 2020).

Method and Data Sources. We piloted AAR in a single K-8 US charter school (2022-23) with 475 students (94% Black/African American, 78% low socioeconomic status) and 65 staff (50% white, 44% Black/African American, 70% female). AAR targets educator racial literacy skills (Stevenson, 2014), building on strengths from existing school-based practices that support both staff and student mental health, including social-emotional learning (SEL; Durlak et al., 2011; Gimbert et al., 2021) and trauma-focused interventions (Herrenkohl et al., 2019). We assessed acceptability with three items (5-point Likert-type scale, 1 = Strongly Disagree to 5 = Strongly Agree) adapted from the Acceptability of Implementation Measure and Intervention Appropriateness Measure (Weiner et al., 2017), qualitative content analysis of open-ended responses on anonymous surveys, and qualitative thematic analysis of perspectives on acceptability from one post-implementation focus group (n = 6).

Results. Across the eight post-training surveys, 77% of responses indicated participants would recommend the training to other teachers and mean acceptability scores on single items ranged from 3.94 to 4.06 (Table 2). On these three items, 81% (n = 498) of all responses were “Agree” or “Strongly Agree.” The open-ended responses (n = 5) that expressed colorblind beliefs (e.g., race does not matter) were associated with lower ratings of acceptability (M = 2.67), compared to responses indicating racism-conscious beliefs (n =9, M = 3.93) or the overall mean (n = 207, M = 3.98). Preliminary analysis of focus group data (Table 2) found satisfaction with components that encouraged emotional vulnerability, personal growth, and changing teaching practices and dissatisfaction with lack of engagement from peers. Participants expressed a need for intentional healing and resolution related to racialized stressors.

Authors

• Danielle Hatchimonji, Nemours Children's Health

• Kira Branch, Nemours Children's Health

• Priya Jayakumar, Nemours Children's Health

• Joanne Jung, Nemours Children's Health

• Tyriq Jones-Garland, Nemours Children's Health

• Kim Graham, Delaware State University

• Danika Perry, Nemours Children's Health

• Melissa Stoffers, University of Nevada - Las Vegas

• Tia Navelene Barnes, University of Delaware