# data[].attributes.body
Strategies to incorporate UDL and antiracism

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Authors: Jess Schomberg & Elizabeth Harsma

Many thanks to Maria-Reneé Grigsby, Kerrigan Mahoney, & Brooke Burk for your peer review and feedback on this article.

Introduction

This guide shares ideas for applying both the Universal Design for Learning framework and antiracist teaching methods to courses in higher education. The introduction provides definitions of key concepts related to these frameworks followed by 10 strategies.

Key Concepts

Universal Design for Learning

Neuroscience and education research suggest that all students can be expert learners if barriers are removed. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework to help instructors address these barriers to learning. The framework is organized around three principles that correspond to three learning networks in the brain with the goal of students becoming expert learners:

"UDL is a framework to guide the design of learning environments that are accessible and challenging for all. Ultimately, the goal of UDL is to support learners to become "expert learners" who are, each in their own way, purposeful and motivated, resourceful and knowledgeable, and strategic and goal driven. UDL aims to change the design of the environment rather than to change the learner. When environments are intentionally designed to reduce barriers, all learners can engage in rigorous, meaningful learning." (CAST, 2018)

See also CAST.org Universal Design for Learning Guidelines

Antiracist teaching

Antiracist teaching begins with the instructor engaging in and committing to ongoing self-inquiry and personal antiracism work. Antiracist teaching:

Identifies and addresses racism directly through curriculum, course design, and instructional methods,

Builds students' and instructors' race literacy through collaborative examination of systems of oppression at individual, institutional, and systemic levels,

Provides opportunities to create real world solutions to address oppressive systems,

Acknowledges that the classroom and the campus community are part of the real world,

Guides students in creating plans of action to challenge and dismantle racism, and

Advocates for antiracist policies and practices at the institutional level (Bell 2020; Darling-Hammond, 2017; Kehoe, 1994; Kendi, 2019; Kishimoto, 2018; Knowles & Hawkman, 2020).

"Anti-racist teaching addresses racism directly and focuses on the cognitive aspects. Anti-racist teaching confronts prejudice through the discussion of past and present racism, stereotyping and discrimination in society. It teaches the economic, structural and historical roots of inequality (McGregor 1993, 2)." ( Kehoe 1994)

See also CETL (Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning) Anti-Racist Pedagogy Resources, Talking About Race, Antiracist Teaching Methods

White supremacy

White supremacy is often understood in connection to overtly racist hate groups. Using Frances Lee Ansley's definition, white supremacy also "refers to a political, economic, and cultural system in which:

whites overwhelmingly control power and material resources,

conscious and unconscious ideas of white superiority and entitlement are widespread, and

relations of white dominance and non-white subordination are daily reenacted across a broad array of institutions and social settings" (Ansley, 1989, p. 1024).

Social construct

A social construct is an idea that exists because humans agree that it exists and means what humans say it means; this meaning can change over time and is not based in objective reality. Some examples of social constructs that influence the world we live in include time, law, languages, and gender roles. In this document, the social construct under discussion is race (Kang et al., 2017).

Intersectionality

Kimberlé Crenshaw (1989) coined the term intersectionality to describe the overlapping identities, such as race, gender, sexual orientation, ability, and class, that shape experiences of privilege and oppression. These intersecting identities do not work in isolation (Center for the Study of Social Policy, 2019). Intersectionality also "provides a critical analytic lens to interrogate racial, ethnic, class, ability, age, sexuality, and gender disparities and to contest existing ways of looking at these structures of inequality, transforming knowledges as well as the social institutions in which they have found themselves" (Dill & Zambrana, 2009).

"[Intersectionality] describe[s] the ways in which race, class, gender, and other aspects of our identity 'intersect,' overlap and interact with one another, informing the way in which individuals simultaneously experience oppression and privilege in their daily lives interpersonally and systemically. Intersectionality promotes the idea that aspects of our identity do not work in a silo" (Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP), 2019, p. 1).

Strategies for Engaging Learners with Universal Design for Learning and Antiracism

Strategy #1: Start Small, Keep Building

The basics: Getting started tips for designing with UDL include:

Start small: Engage in critical reflection. Choose one strategy, apply it to one learning activity or one assessment. Observe the results and engage in critical reflection to determine next steps.

Keep going: Continue to update, refine, and apply additional strategies to your course design and delivery. Be curious, be compassionate, be critical.

Let students lead: Get regular and ongoing feedback from students about their learning experiences to inform changes and updates. Remember that students accustomed to white supremacy may have a hard time letting go of that internalized dominance and their feedback may be a sign that they need additional interventions, while at the same time they may be creating an unsafe learning environment for students of color.

For example, request feedback in anonymous surveys or class session reflections. Consider doing this at semester start and 1 - 2 during the semester.

Considerations for feedback questions:

AVOID mandating/requiring disclosure: Be mindful of requiring disclosure of any information where students are required to 'out' part of their identity they do not wish to. Examples: socioeconomic status/class, gender, sexual orientation, citizenship status, etc.

INSTEAD use invitational language to request sharing and create online surveys that do not force responses. Some ideas for anonymous feedback questions include:

Do you feel welcome in this class?

Do you think your contributions are valued in class?

Do you feel comfortable reaching out to me (the instructor)?

Do you see yourself represented in the class materials and content?

Have you experienced or witnessed any behavior, including things I might have done, such as microaggressions or other forms of harm?

What ideas do you have for creating more welcoming learning community? (ACUE Inclusive Teaching Toolkit)

Another way to get student feedback is to request a Students Consulting on Teaching observation through CETL.

Be in community: Connect with colleagues who are engaged in equity, UDL, and antiracist teaching. Support each other in this work, share ideas, and collaborate. This can include reviewing student feedback with a partner who shares your antiracist goals and can help you identify meaningful improvements to make.

Connection to antiracism: Engaging with others in a community of practice supports continuous self-inquiry and critical reflection on identity and practice. Both self-inquiry and critical reflection are important components of antiracist teaching methods (Kishimoto, 2018).

Technology: There are many technologies that allow you to gather feedback and build community with colleagues, such as:

Strategy #2: Use Identity Safety Cues

The basics: Use identity safety cues that address multiple intersecting identities. Identity safety cues are environmental or social cues that signal to people that their identities are valued and that they will face less discrimination in that setting than they may elsewhere, so they can focus more attention on learning. Identity safety cues can take many forms, such as when you:

Add a diversity and/or inclusive teaching statement in your syllabi.

Share your personal pronouns on your syllabi and in the learning management system.

Use students preferred names and pronouns, learn to pronounce your students names,

Use rainbow flags in the classroom and learning management system,

Include multicultural and multigender representation in examples, scholars, sources, perspectives, and discussion prompts to combat negative stereotypes.

Variation: Reconsider your relationship with your field of study as you develop your antiracism skills. If, for example, you want to add a land acknowledgement on your syllabus or course introduction to indicate to Indigenous students that you respect and welcome them, make sure that your course content is not perpetuating settler-colonialism. In this example, the steps you follow might be:

Connection to antiracism: Higher education has a history of exclusion. Racialized students and students with other marginalized identities are harmed when faculty lack cultural competence. Because of this, students with marginalized identities may be more vigilant about their safety in the classroom than other students, and that vigilance may make it more difficult for them to give their full attention to course content. Identity safety cues tell students that they belong (Howansky, Maimon, & Sanchez, 2021).

Add personal pronouns to your syllabus, D2L Brightspace, and Zoom

Use Creative Commons Image Search to add diverse images and examples

Add a CETL Inclusive Teaching Statement to your syllabus or course introduction

Be attentive to the disparate social impacts of technology tools when developing assignments, particularly the risks of race- and gender-based bullying when giving social media assignments, facial recognition algorithms that misrecognize people of color, proctoring software that mischaracterizes the engagement of neurodiverse students, the anxiety that surveillance systems create for many people with marginalized identities, and uneven availability of high speed internet and other tools.

Review important considerations for online proctoring, including considerations for bias in these softwares.

Strategy #3: Reflect on Values and Goals

The basics: Help students to make connections between course learning goals and their own core values and learning goals to increase the salience and engagement with the course.

Disclose your own reflection process and share how your values are aligned with the course (modeling the behavior you want to see in students)

Ask students to identify a few of their core values.

Engage students in reviewing the course learning goals or in identifying their own learning goals.

Ask students to share a reflection on how the learning goals support their values.

Offer students the option to share in a podcast, blog/discussion post, short video, or infographic (Novak, 2022).

Some example reflection questions might be:

What are your core values?

What does this core value mean?

How did you come to have this core value? (School, family, friends, etc.)

How does this core value influence your study habits and/or beliefs about learning?

How do you see your core value connecting to the learning goals in this course?

Strategy #4: Support Agency in Discussions

The basics: Provide multiple opportunities to engage in robust discussion on topics of social justice, antiracism, and envisioning an antiracist future. Build scaffolds into the course to reduce barriers and ensure that students have the tools they need to participate effectively in challenging discussion without reproducing inequities through denial and defensiveness, demanding to be comforted, or oversimplifying complex realities.

Provide guidelines or collaboratively create community agreements for engaging in challenging conversations. Engage the community in managing potential conflicts and barriers to difficult conversations.

Browse these resources from the National Equity Project for more ideas:

Support students in engaging in conversation and/or writing effective discussion posts and questions.

Share class agendas, learning goals/essential questions, study guides, review sheets to focus learners on key topics.

Provide multiple opportunities for low or no-stakes practice with feedback that supports effective discussion.

Provide models and examples of expected behavior or learning products.

Engage students in self-assessment or peer review of discussion posts or contributions to improve metacognition. After a first draft, ask students to consult a handout like this one: Revised Blooms Handout (iastate.edu) and edit to incorporate new ideas or language.

Provide a comprehensive list of emotions from which students would select their emotional reactions rather than rely on open-ended questions, such as an emotion wheel

Connection to antiracism: Part of white supremacy culture (Okun, 2021) is the phenomenon of maintaining white power through white right to comfort and fear of conflict. Antiracist education disrupts this right to comfort by engaging in difficult conversations to prevent whiteness from claiming innocence, looking away from injustice, and not taking responsibility. Students need to be taught how to engage in authentic class discussions and self-reflective critical thinking about race and other emotionally challenging topics (Boatright-Horowitz, Marraccini, & Harps-Logan, 2012; Evans-Winters & Hines, 2019).

Technology: Shared Word Online document

Strategy #5: Incorporate Diverse Representation

The basics: Infuse diverse representation of scholars, perspectives, images, examples, etc. throughout your course curriculum. Depict Black, Brown, and Indigenous people through an asset- and strengths-based lens. Answer these questions to help you reflect and change:

Who is depicted through images in your course? Select most of the pictures and images in your curriculum of Black, Brown, and Indigenous people. Assure you are using contemporary, contextual images that counteract stereotypes.

What authors, scholars, or experts are represented in your content? Whose perspectives? Who is missing? Review your curriculum. Does it counteract white supremacy culture? Is there a multitude of people of color? How are they depicted? Be aware of stereotypes and tokenism.

Strategy #6: Empower Students with a Class Digest

The basics: Engage students in creating a collective class digest of vocabulary or key topics. Or provide your own digest of vocabulary or key topics that students can collaboratively annotate and/or comment with questions or additions. Provide structure to support student agency and creativity and provide feedback to correct or clarify as needed. Options include:

Cooperative online note taking to support multiple forms of class participation

Cooperative word maps, concept maps, flow charts or other graphic organizers to support vocabulary development and a deeper understanding of sequences and relationships (examples for various subject areas)

The Frayer model, or four-square mind map, in another type of graphic organizer, to support conceptual thinking

Variation: Build a foundation for critical reflection by engaging learners with Strategy #3: Discussions to Support Agency. Then use the class digest to engage students in critical reflection to:

Contextualize your discipline: Incorporate the historical, political, and economic context of your discipline into the course to set the stage for discussions of race, racism, power, and privilege (Baker-Bell, 2020; Bell, 2020; Kishimoto, 2018).

Analyze race: Guide students in deconstructing myths and analyzing race as a systemic and social construct to identify impacts and root causes (Bell, 2020; Kishimoto, 2018) and

Explore intersectionality: Analyze the diversity of individual experiences within and between racial groups without 'flattening out the differences' (Davis & Livingstone, 2016; Kishimoto, 2018, p. 545)

Strategy #7: Make it Accessible

The basics: Engage learners with accessible curriculum, course design, and instructional methods.

Variation: Browse the resource below for ideas on using accessible language/rhetoric, adopting accessible class policies, and more:

Strategy #8: Support Information Processing

The basics: In asynchronous modules and/or synchronous classes use an instructional model that supports information processing (Hammond, 2015).

Help students build cognitive routines to process and review learning - As they process new content, review, or study material, teach students to ask and answer these four questions:

Open educational resources and online videos can provide music or pose questions that can gain learners' attention.

Writing tools ranging from paper & pencil to Word Online, or Media Space audio recording for students to record and share their thoughts.

Strategy #9: Try Ungrading

The basics: Ungrading is a set of practices designed to encourage compassionate critical thinking about the process of grading and evaluation. Ungrading encourages us to ask questions about who benefits from grading, what purpose grading serves, and whether grading supports learning as well as other processes might. Some elements of ungrading suggest that instructors:

Contact CETL if you are interested in pursuing an Un-grading certificate.

Connection to antiracism: Talking with students about their goals and supporting their agency in the learning process provides a more humanizing environment than efficiency approaches like automated grading calculations, which treat students as objects to be normed and put into a hierarchy based on how well they comply with instruction (Stommel, 2020a). However, for ungrading to be an antiracist practice rather than another "hidden curriculum" it needs to be done in conjunction with intersectional antiracist teaching methods (Stommel, 2020b).

One Note class notebook can be used to create portfolios or to support students in monitoring and tracking their learning progress.

D2L Brightspace Grades: Consider flexible qualitative (no points) feedback options, such as using Text or Selectbox Grade Items or creating a qualitative Grade Scheme.

D2L Brightspace Rubrics: Try a no points evaluation option in rubrics to provide individualized feedback that does not require rating or ranking student work.

D2L Brightspace Discussions: Use small group discussions for peer grading/feedback; Or create individual private discussions to turn evaluation into a conversation with a student.

D2L Brightspace Quizzes: Use Quiz Results Display to hide scores from students but display feedback. Use un-graded quizzes to collect student responses for negotiated self-grading or contract grading.

Strategy #10: Big Ideas, Real World Thinking

The basics: Social justice issues are embedded in all disciplines. Allowing students to investigate the social justice implications embedded in, for example, environmental science, statistics, or management can help students see how the numbers we collect have human implications. It can also help us guide students in challenging some of the ideology we absorbed during our own educational experiences.

First, model various examples of how to analyze and apply learning to social justice issues. This includes identifying the problem and proposing possible solutions. Then allow students to choose a social justice problem they would like to explore with an antiracism lens. Some examples include:

Geology/Ecology: Evaluation of groundwater quality could invite analysis of the systemic racial disparities in access to clean water, both historically and currently.

World Languages: Studying history and culture of target languages offers space to examine racialized stereotypes and the impact of colonialism in the past and present.

Agriculture: Legacy of land theft, broken treaties, and genocide that foreground land currently used in agricultural business. Learn from, celebrate, and understand Indigenous histories and present practices of land management, supply chains, and food production processes, etc.

Mathematics/Statistics: Analysis of ableism/racism inherent in stereotypes related to mathematics ability, representation of Black, Brown, Indigenous scholars in the field, misuse of statistics to support racially biased claims, critiques of Galton/history of statistics.

Education: Critical analysis of systemic issues of racism, including laws, public policy, instructional practice, that lead to racial opportunity gaps and the perpetuation of the school to prison pipeline.

Nursing/Psychology/Health science: Critique historical and ongoing practices of pathologizing non-normative bodyminds by learning about the social contexts in which categories are created and applied (e.g., drapetomania, hysteria, overdiagnosis of schizophrenia among Black populations, undertreatment of Black patients in pain).

Connection to antiracism: Antiracist teaching methods incorporate power sharing and mutually supportive learning environments. This includes decentralizing authority and empowering students (Kishimoto, 2018).

Technology: There are many technologies that could support this strategy including:

Flip video discussions - Consider for modeling analysis, brainstorming,

One Note class notebook - Create graphic organizers with analysis prompts you can provide to each student to support their work, use the collaboration space for peer review

Media Space for creating video and audio to share analysis

Free online graphic design software

Ansley, F.L. (1989). "Stirring the ashes: Race, class and the future of civil rights scholarship." Cornell Law Review, 74(6): 994-1077.

Crenshaw, Kimberle (1989). Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics. University of Chicago Legal Forum: Vol. 1989, Article 8. Retrieved from: https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclf/vol1989/iss1/8

Fritzgerald, A. (2020). Antiracism and universal design for learning: Building expressways to success. CAST Professional Publishing.

Hammond, Z. (2015). Culturally responsive teaching and the brain: Promoting authentic engagement and rigor among culturally and linguistically diverse students. Corwin, a SAGE Company.

Kishimoto, K. (2018) Anti-racist pedagogy: From faculty's self-reflection to organizing within and beyond the classroom. Race Ethnicity and Education, 21(4), 540-554. DOI:10.1080/13613324.2016.1248824

Knowles, R. T., & Hawkman, A. M. (2020). Anti-racist Quantitative Research: Developing, Validating, and Implementing Racialized Teaching Efficacy and Racial Fragility Scales. The Urban Review, 52(2), 238-262. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-019-00526-1

Novak, K. (2022). UDL Now!: A Teacher's Guide to Applying Universal Design for Learning in Today's Classrooms. Wakefield, Mass.: CAST.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
10 Strategies for Engaging Learners with Universal Design for Learning and Antiracism

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Authors: Jess Schomberg & Elizabeth Harsma Many thanks to Maria-Reneé Grigsby, Kerrigan Mahoney, & Brooke Burk for your peer review and feedback on this article. Introduction This guide shares ideas for applying both the Universal Design for Learning framework and antiracist teaching methods to courses in higher education.

# data[].attributes.body
A framework that accommodates all students needs.

UDL = Equal Opportunity for All.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
1. Home

2. Our Impact

3. About Universal Design for Learning

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn.

UDL at a Glance

Find out how the UDL framework guides the design of instructional goals, assessments, methods, and materials that can be customized and adjusted to meet individual needs.

UDL to Change the World

CAST created the Universal Design for Learning framework, and it remains one of our core levers of change to help make learning inclusive and transformative for everyone.

Universal Design for Learning Guidelines

The UDL Guidelines are a tool used in the implementation of Universal Design for Learning. These guidelines offer a set of concrete suggestions that can be applied to any discipline or domain to ensure that all learners can access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities.

Visit the UDL Guidelines

Engagement

For purposeful, motivated learners, stimulate interest and motivation for learning.

Explore Engagement

Representation

For resourceful, knowledgeable learners, present information and content in different ways.

Explore Representation

Action & Expression

For strategic, goal-directed learners, differentiate the ways that students can express what they know.

Explore Action & Expression

Top of Page

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
About Universal Design for Learning - CAST

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Learn more about the UDL framework and the UDL Guidelines, developed and maintained by CAST.

# data[].attributes.body
Non-racist teaching methods

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Author: Elizabeth Harsma

Many thanks to Kyoto Kishomoto for serving as peer reviewer on this article.

Antiracism is defined as "supporting an antiracist policy through actions or expressing an antiracist idea" (Kendi, 2019, p. 19). Antiracist policies, actions, and ideas are any that say that the racial groups are equal (Kendi, 2019). Antiracist teaching methods are those that support antiracist policies by expressing antiracist ideas and taking action to address inequality.

Knowles and Hawkman (2020) distinguish antiracist teaching methods from non-racist and culturally responsive teaching methods:
Characteristics of Antiracist Teaching

Non-Racist Teaching: Avoids direct teaching on issues of institutional and systemic racism, may teach on individual racism or acknowledge issues of race.

Culturally Responsive Teaching: Responds dynamically to student learning needs through culturally relevant materials, cultivation of teacher-student learning relationships, incorporation of collaboration, and applying a critical lens to teaching and learning, among other methods (Gay, 2002; Hammond, 2015; Ladson-Billings, 1995).

Antiracist Teaching: The practice of culturally responsive teaching that also challenges issues of institutional and systemic racism to build race literacy and address systems of oppression through real world action.

An antiracist teaching practice intentionally and regularly:

Challenges assumptions about white privileges,

Deconstructs race relations,

Articulates the influence of whiteness and white supremacy, and

Actively rejects all manifestations of white supremacy.

The desired outcomes of an antiracist teaching practice is to:

Build students' race literacy through examination of the persistence of systems of oppression at individual, institutional, and systemic levels,

Provide opportunities to create real world solutions to address oppressive systems, and

Guide students in creating plans of action to challenge racism (Knowles & Hawkman, 2020).

Other scholars suggest that antiracist teaching goes beyond classroom interactions. Antiracist teaching may include advocating for antiracist policies and practices at the institutional level such as ongoing professional development, recruitment and retention of diverse faculty and staff, and examining resource allocation and funding structures, among other approaches (Bell 2020; Darling-Hammond, 2017; Kendi, 2019; Kishimoto, 2018).

Kishimoto (2018) shares these foundational aspects to engaging in antiracist teaching practice:
Foundations of Antiracist Teaching

Continuous self-inquiry is necessary to build awareness of institutionalized racism and one's own racial and social identities (including/especially white race). Awareness of one's social position allows an educator to reflect critically upon that position in relation to course content, teaching methods, and the identities of students in the classroom (See also Darling-Hammond, 2017).

Critical reflection helps an educator understand that one's identities are not static - that each individual has both privileged and oppressed identities. Critically reflecting on dynamic social identities builds an educator's capacity to analyze power, privilege, and oppression as it relates to teaching practice.

Mutual learning communities within the classroom diminish hierarchical power structures between student and faculty and make space for students to share their expertise (See also Freire, 2014). Educators can build community through vulnerability and humility as they share with students their own 'in process' work around race, oppression, and privilege.

Examples of antiracist teaching methods related to self-inquiry:
Continuous Self-Inquiry

Avoid a cookie-cutter approach: Acknowledge that antiracist teaching methods are limited and contain contradictions. Educators must engage in ongoing self-reflection to avoid being complicit in oppression, even in the practice of antiracist teaching. Avoid unexamined repetition of what is considered to work or has worked in the past (Kumashiro 2015).

Help students become aware of their social positions: Provide opportunities to practice self-reflexivity and to see themselves as part of the topics discussed; value all students experiences without re-centering whiteness or restraining conversation for white student comfort; expect discomfort and provide opportunities for processing these experiences. This could be done in any discipline by discussion the ethics of research and accountability to the communities being researched (Kishimoto, 2018).

Leverage identity development models: Assist students in processing challenging thoughts, emotions, and experiences related to antiracist work (Davis & Livingstone, 2016). One method for processing include analysis of experiences through racial identity development models (Kishimoto, 2018). This can help students imagine an antiracist future and constructively challenge racism on a daily basis in their lives (Darling-Hammond, 2017; Kishimoto, 2018).

Incorporate issues of social justice: Discuss social justice, diversity, power, and discrimination in your subject matter - research suggests that this can be done in disciplines where race is not a central subject including biology, english, engineering, nursing, math/statistics, social work, and many other disciplines (Baker-Bell, 2020; Bell, 2020; Darling-Hammond, 2017; Davis & Livingstone, 2016; Kishimoto, 2018).

Antiracist teaching methods related to critical reflection include:
Critical Reflection

Diversify course content: Challenge Eurocentrism in the curriculum by seeking multiple sources that represent a variety of voices in your field, avoid additive and/or tokenized inclusion - instead make diverse sources of content a seamless part of curriculum in a meaningful way (Darling-Hammond, 2017; Kishimoto, 2018).

Contextualize your discipline: Avoid presenting content as ahistorical or apolicital - knowledge is not neutral; Incorporate the historical, political, and economic context of your discipline into the course to set the stage for discussions of race, racism, power, and privilege (Baker-Bell, 2020; Bell, 2020; Kishimoto, 2018).

Analyze race: Guide students in deconstructing myths and analyzing race as a systemic and social construct to identify impacts and root causes (Bell, 2020; Kishimoto, 2018).

Explore intersectionality: Analyze the diversity of individual experiences within and between racial groups without 'flattening out the differences' (Davis & Livingstone, 2016; Kishimoto, 2018, p. 545)

Represent resistance and agency: Avoid presenting racial groups as victims - instead present these groups as empowered people with agency. Include representations of antiracist work that goes beyond big, visible movements, including counter narratives and subtler forms of resistance such as oral stories, art, journals, interviews, writing in other languages, songs, or other non-academic sources (Kishimoto, 2018).

Promote critical thinking: Help students challenge assumptions; deconstruct ideas of 'objectivity' or 'objective Truth' in your discipline by analyzing power relations in knowledge production by questioning:

what counts as legitimate knowledge;

who has access to and can create knowledge;

identify and analyze how and why certain theories or knowledges became popular or considered legitimate;

examining whose stories, experiences, and knowledge have been ignored and why they are excluded (Baker-Bell, 2020; Kishimoto, 2018).

Communicate expectations: Declare your antiracist teaching approach in the syllabus, acknowledge that teaching is not neutral/apolitical with your students (Kishimoto, 2018; Kumashiro, 2015).

Process oriented: Antiracist teaching methods are non-prescriptive and focus on the learning process. Start with where your students are at, design antiracist learning activities and assessments that focus on the process of learning rather than end results (Kishimoto, 2018).

Decentralize authority: Faculty can practice self-reflexivity, acknowledge learning as a mutual process between student and instructor, and employ practices like co-creation of syllabus, assignments, assessments, and learning process to allow students to take responsibility and to lead their own learning (Friere, 2014; Kishimoto, 2018).

Descentralizing authority is moderated in complex ways by both student and faculty social identities including race, class, and gender.For example, sharing power in the classroom may be easier for a white male faculty, whose authority is mostly unchallenged, while this may be of greater challenge for faculty of color or women faculty, who authority is already challenged (Kishimoto, 2018).

For faculty, this process can include emotional and intellectual challenges as well as a heightened awareness of positionality in teaching practice (Kishimoto, 2018).

De-centering authority requires self-reflection on one's social position in the context of systems of race, privilege, and power before going into the classroom and continue in an ongoing capacity (Kishimoto, 2018).

Empower students: Make space for students to question how and what they are learning. Seek to make learning relevant through application of theory to practice. Find opportunities for relevant problem-based learning that applies to students' everyday lives (Darling-Hammond, 2017; Ladson-Billings, 1995; Gay, 2002; Kishimoto, 2018).

Create community through collaboration: Rather than competition, encourage collaborative learning to build a trusting community through self-reflexivity, shared interest in mutual well-being, willingness to be vulnerable and challenge others. Consider collaborative work that deconstructs racism and then imagines an anti-racist alternative (Ladson-Billings, 1995; Gay, 2002; Hammond, 2015; Kishimoto, 2018).

Mutual Learning Communities
Baker-Bell, A. (2020). Dismantling anti-black linguistic racism in English language arts classrooms: Toward an anti-racist black language pedagogy. Theory Into Practice, 59(1), 8-21. DOI: 10.1080/00405841.2019.1665415
References
Bell, B. (2020). White dominance in nursing education: A target for anti‐racist efforts. Nursing Inquiry, 28(1). https://doi.org/10.1111/nin.12379

Darling-Hammond, L. (2017). Teaching for social justice: Resources, relationships, and anti-racist practice. Multicultural Perspectives, 19(3). https://doi.org/10.1080/15210960.2017.1335039

Davis, A. & Livingstone, A. (2016). Sharing the stories of racism in doctoral education: The anti-racism project. Journal of Teaching in Social Work, 36(2). http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08841233.2016.1147521

Freire, P. (2014). Pedagogy of the oppressed: 30th anniversary edition. ProQuest Ebook Central https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy.mnsu.edu

Gay, G. (2002). Preparing for Culturally Responsive Teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 53(2), 106-116. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487102053002003

Hammond, Z. (2015). Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain. Corwin.

Kendi, I. X. (2019). How to be an antiracist. Random House.

Kishimoto, K. (2018) Anti-racist pedagogy: From faculty's self-reflection to organizing within and beyond the classroom. Race Ethnicity and Education, 21(4), 540-554. DOI:10.1080/13613324.2016.1248824

Knowles, R. T., & Hawkman, A. M. (2020). Anti-racist Quantitative Research: Developing, Validating, and Implementing Racialized Teaching Efficacy and Racial Fragility Scales. The Urban Review, 52(2), 238-262. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-019-00526-1

Kumashiro, K. (2015). Against common sense: Teaching and learning toward social justice. 3rd Ed. Routledge.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Maverick Learning and Educational Applied Research Nexus

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Author: Elizabeth Harsma Many thanks to Kyoto Kishomoto for serving as peer reviewer on this article. Antiracism is defined as "supporting an antiracist policy through actions or expressing an antiracist idea" (Kendi, 2019, p. 19). Antiracist policies, actions, and ideas are any that say that the racial groups are equal (Kendi, 2019).

# data[].attributes.body
Build relationships, bridges, connections, discussions, etc.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Culturally Responsive Teaching

Teachers may be hesitant to discuss race with young kids, but these research-backed, age-appropriate strategies can help.

Conversations about multicultural education, antiracism, and antibias are becoming more prevalent within educational communities. However, there may be hesitation and confusion about whether and how to create a classroom community that is supportive of children from racially diverse backgrounds-particularly ones who are younger.

In early childhood, educators may approach racial diversity and race-related issues from a color-blind philosophy or believe that young children are unable to understand issues of race due to their age. These approaches not only are dismissive of children and families' experiences but also create an inaccurate portrayal of history and current events. Additionally, color-blind approach is an ableist term that equates actual medical blindness with ignorance and implies that racism is only connected to sight and negates the structural and day-to-day issues associated with racism.

As a result, educators should intentionally create a learning environment that respects and values racial diversity while addressing students' experiences and the historical issues that shape those experiences. Here are five research-based approaches that early childhood educators can use.

Reflect on Who You Are and Your Experiences With Race

In order to create a learning environment that authentically supports racial diversity, educators can start with self-reflection. Understanding oneself will reveal educators' feelings, thoughts, and attitudes about race and how they influence interactions and expectations with students.

Even if teachers share a similar racial background with students or self-identify as a BIPOC, it does not mean that they're aware of how race and culture influence their teaching. Educators can try journaling or having peer discussions to reflect on how their teaching practices are influenced by race and culture.

Remember Intersectionality

In addition to race, many children and families may experience other forms of discrimination and oppression when they belong to multiple identity groups simultaneously, such as gender, class, ability, language, or sexual orientation. Children may be blamed for problems or experience erasure because of their multiple identities. Therefore, creating learning environments that are supportive of racial diversity should also be inclusive of children's multiple identities. You can use resources like Photovoice, films, and texts to encourage students to reflect on the experiences of children and families with intersectional identities and think of ways they can be supported.

Discover Something to Love About Each Student

Even though children come from different racial and ethnic communities, it's important to balance that with recognizing students individually. To build learning environments that affirm and acknowledge racial diversity and intersectional identities, educators should discover something to love about each child in the classroom. This love and connection can develop through visiting the children's homes, meeting with families and community members, or interacting during recess or outdoor activities.

Avoid Tokenism

Educators should avoid doing one-off projects that reinforce stereotypes about different groups of people. Educators may incorporate activities and lessons that expose students to historical knowledge about people from a variety of racial and ethnic groups, the oppression experienced by people of different racial and ethnic groups, and the ways in which different groups have historically and currently contributed to national culture and society. When doing this, it's valuable to not position one or two well-known individuals as representative of their entire cultural community.

Educators may also share depictions of people building friendships with those from different backgrounds. These lessons can help reduce children's prejudice and negative attitudes toward people from different racial groups and increase young students' feelings about racial fairness. Even if students in the setting are more racially homogeneous, children can still benefit from being exposed to and learning about other races in nonstereotypic portrayals.

Build Bridges

Educators can implement activities that specifically address race-related topics or conversations. Students can read books that feature characters of different skin tones, then have a conversation about the importance of making friends with people from different backgrounds.

They can also make self-portraits by mixing paint colors or using crayons that match the children's skin tones. In this activity, children can see variation within their own and possibly other racial groups. This also may be a chance for students to observe colors associated with racial groups, like white, and notice if there are students who match that skin tone that may identify as White. For classes that are conducted virtually, students can use online painting tools.

Students may also compose books and photo journals or engage in oral storytelling to share information about themselves and their families with their peers. If educators notice children separating into racial groups in the classroom, they may have students complete activities and projects with different buddies, particularly those they may not choose to play with.

When educators start with understanding themselves and then expand that to understanding the experiences of others, they can intentionally cultivate a learning environment that honors racial and intersectional diversity within the classroom and the larger society. It is not a practice that has an end result; rather, it's a process that requires consistent reflection, learning, and growth.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to Support Young Learners in Racially Diverse Classrooms

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Culturally Responsive Teaching Teachers may be hesitant to discuss race with young kids, but these research-backed, age-appropriate strategies can help. Conversations about multicultural education, antiracism, and antibias are becoming more prevalent within educational communities. However, there may be hesitation and confusion about whether and how to create a classroom community that is supportive of children from racially diverse backgrounds-particularly ones who are younger.

# data[].attributes.body
Creating a more equitable classroom

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Teachers shaken by recent events and wondering how to work for change in our society and schools can start with these lesson plans, videos, and other resources.

John Minchillo / Associated Press

Protesting the killing of George Floyd, a crowd gathers for a rally at Cadman Plaza Park in New York City on June 4, 2020.

"I'm a White educator, where do I start?"

"How can I help?"

"What if I get it wrong?"

Recent events have shaken me to my core, and the nationwide protests over the killing of George Floyd suggest that people across the country are similarly shaken. These are dark times, but if there's anything that seems like a glimmer of light to me at the moment, it's the fact that so many teachers are reflecting on how to fight racism:

For me, a Black educator and mother to a Black 16-year-old who has reached the appearance if not the legal age of manhood, these questions stir hope. Folks who don't look like me are embracing the idea that the fight for equity has to be everyone's fight. But fighting racism is a big job, and when the fires of outrage cool, we teachers will be confronted with the reality of planning deadlines, testing schedules, and another hundred things that are all in a day's work. The difficult work of equity may become just another item on a desk crowded with to-do lists.

What Can Teachers Do?

The answer, an old joke: How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time, of course-and achieving equity is no different. Take small bites that can have big impact and don't worry about getting it wrong sometimes, as you inevitably will. If you keep going, you can do something that brings about change.

Reading: Even if you only have 10 minutes, you can learn something to help you create a more equitable classroom. Websites like Teaching Tolerance, the NEA's EdJustice, and KQED's Mindshift feature resources for lesson planning as well as lessons for you as a teacher. Teaching Tolerance is the perfect place to start, whether you want to use bias-free language to teach tolerance through reading with young learners or plan a social action campaign with high school students.

In addition to a rich collection of K-12 classroom resources, the website features self-guided PD, on-demand webinars, and podcasts that may enable you to earn a certificate-check with your administration first. Those can easily be broken up into small chunks of time. And note that many of the site's feature articles list recommended actions at the bottom.

If your goal is to understand the Black community better, sites designed for Black audiences like The Root, The Undefeated, and Huffington Post's Black Voices are good places to start. These non-mainstream media outlets feature content by minority and minority-supporting journalists. You'll find content on topics not covered in mainstream media, like coverage of historically Black colleges and universities, news about Black brands and influencers, and stories like this one on MIT's first Black female student body president in its 159-year history. If you're teaching Black children who are generally inundated by media that does not reflect them, these are priceless ways you can enrich your current events and show-and-tell circles.

Watching: You can improve your cultural competence and learn about Black Lives Matter by watching " 4 Black Lives Matter Myths Debunked" on YouTube, which will answer quite a few questions on social justice issues, probably including some you didn't even know you had. And if you want help in having real discussions on complex issues with young children, the YouTube show LivingRoomProtest will lead you through conversations on being Black, politics, pride, and even death and the afterlife-try the episode " Education Is a Human Right " for starters.

If you want entertainment with a cultural component, Netflix has a host of shows that cater to a Black audience, as well as original content that regularly features diverse character lineups. Hulu has not only a small curated selection of Black Stories but also six seasons of the binge-worthy, socially conscious Black-ish and its spin-off prequel Mixed-ish. While Black-ish might be a little campy, it tackles real issues surrounding racism, bias, and social justice issues that arise within the Black community.

Taking action: For the civic-minded, the Kellogg Foundation has put together a website that lets you create your own personal plan to support, donate, or volunteer in the way you find most relevant. This site can help you focus your attention on one or two civic tasks with broader impact.

Social action is also a great way to involve students, which multiplies your impact. You can teach students how to write emails or letters by asking them to write to your local government in favor of policy changes banning the eight most deadly policing strategies listed at 8 Can't Wait, which has ideas on how to call or email your government yourself-there's a script you can use or adapt.

Looking within: Finally, and perhaps most importantly, take inventory of your feelings. It's normal to be most comfortable around people who are like you. It's just not good when that makes you and those like you an "us" and those who aren't like you a "them." Use a journal to sort through your personal feelings on racism or read books that provide perspective on systemic inequities and bias. These long-haul strategies will produce change in you while you take more immediate action in other ways.

The devastating events of the last days have left me shaken. I have felt anger, fear, grief-so many emotions. But I have also felt buoyed by the great outpouring of support from my less melanated colleagues who want to listen, learn, and find out how to do better. So many of them are already doing amazing things with diverse students. This piece is dedicated to them. They give me hope that this time, we will fight racism together and bring about lasting change.

Don't stop now. How do you eat an elephant? One small bite at a time.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
A Guide to Equity and Antiracism for Educators

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Teachers shaken by recent events and wondering how to work for change in our society and schools can start with these lesson plans, videos, and other resources. John Minchillo / Associated Press Protesting the killing of George Floyd, a crowd gathers for a rally at Cadman Plaza Park in New York City on June 4, 2020.

# data[].attributes.headline
How schools and staff can support antiracism education 

# data[].attributes.subject
How schools and staff can support antiracism education 

# data[].attributes.body
9 practices that teachers takeaway

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Schooling in the United States has been shaped by racism, and Black and brown students have been subjected to institutionalized conditions that sideline their identities, their assets, and their humanity. To correct that terrible injustice, we need anti-racist teachers who have abandoned color-neutral ideologies, understand oppression, know how to teach about horrific racist events, and see students as unique human beings. We need such teachers-even as many states try to restrict their work with laws and policies limiting discussions of race and racism. We need such teachers, but are they getting the training they need?

Teachers in the classroom often don't think so. In my work with schools, districts, and institutions of higher education, the critique I frequently hear is that too much professional development time is spent on providing theories and frameworks and not enough time is spent focusing on what anti-racist teaching looks and sounds like in practice. Teachers are asking how to translate anti-racist research and theories into what they do day-to-day in their classrooms and schools.

To ensure that teachers are equipped with the core competencies required of anti-racist educators, nine critical curricular components should be rolled into all anti-racist teacher professional development. Here they are with concrete suggestions about how trainers can help teachers acquire those competencies.

1. Build a shared understanding of concepts related to race, racism, and anti-racism. Teachers must first understand "anti-racism" as a term and a concept in order to begin to reflect on how they can develop the knowledge, literacies, and capacities that will support their development as anti-racist teachers. Trainers can work with teachers to collaboratively craft a shared definition of anti-racism and a chart of core competencies required of anti-racist educators.

2. Interrogate our own identities. Teachers must consider their own racialized identities and biases, particularly when making decisions in the classroom. Trainers can guide teachers in asking questions about their experience, including how their home, school, and community addressed race and racism and how that affects their ability to form relationships with students with different identities.

3. Examine and deconstruct racist stereotypes and tropes. Teachers must identify and unpack racist language and concepts so they can see how they contribute to racial oppression in schools. Trainers can guide teachers in identifying common stereotypes and tropes about students of color and provide counterstories and research that refute dominant narratives about students' abilities, assets, and intelligence.

4. Understand the history of racism in education. Teachers must have historical knowledge about the erasure, violence, and exclusion that Indigenous, Asian, Black, and Latinx students, families, and communities have faced in the U.S. education system. Among the many possible topics trainers can choose to explore are atrocities like Native American boarding schools that forced violent assimilation on Indigenous students and the connections of the eugenics movement to intelligence tests and the standardized tests that we use today to sort and label students.

5. Develop anti-racist teaching skills. Teachers must develop skills and understanding to address the interpersonal needs of students through an anti-racist lens. Trainers can explicitly walk teachers through frameworks such as "community cultural wealth" that outline how to see, affirm, and make classroom use of the knowledge and skills students bring from their communities.

6. Critique how curriculum and school policies shape classrooms. Teachers must examine their own schools' policies and curriculum for biases. Trainers can lead teachers in critically evaluating an educational policy or a curriculum in their own school to identify racist language and outcomes. Teachers can then rework the policy or curriculum to achieve anti-racist goals.

7. Engage collaboratively with students' families and communities. Teachers must build relationships and networks that embrace community-led efforts related to race and education. Trainers can invite parents and community members to a training session as guest speakers to work collaboratively with teachers to respond to problems rooted in racism.

8. Provide strategies to sustain anti-racist practices when encountering resistance or racist events. Teachers must prepare for resistance from students, families, and colleagues. Trainers can provide real-life instances of racist occurrences in schools and have teachers role-play scenarios and develop plans of action to address the problems.

9. Grow anti-racist teacher leaders within each community. Teachers must become local experts and leaders in anti-racism. Trainers can prepare teachers to train colleagues at their respective sites using this framework.

There is no doubt that anti-racist teachers are needed and necessary. The time is now to invest in ensuring that teachers are prepared and empowered to undertake this work that is so important to the well-being and future of our nation's most precious asset, our children.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to Train an Anti-Racist Teacher: 9 Practical Takeaways (Opinion)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Schooling in the United States has been shaped by racism, and Black and brown students have been subjected to institutionalized conditions that sideline their identities, their assets, and their humanity. To correct that terrible injustice, we need anti-racist teachers who have abandoned color-neutral ideologies, understand oppression, know how to teach about horrific racist events, and see students as unique human beings.