{"id":66137,"date":"2022-10-18T19:01:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-18T23:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/id-kayla.cms-devl.bu.edu\/wheelock\/?post_type=bu-article&p=66137"},"modified":"2023-06-18T22:07:01","modified_gmt":"2023-06-19T02:07:01","slug":"leading-an-antiracist-classroom","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/id-kayla.cms-devl.bu.edu\/wheelock\/magazine\/articles\/2022\/leading-an-antiracist-classroom\/","title":{"rendered":"Leading an Antiracist Classroom"},"content":{"rendered":"\t
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Illustrations by L.J. Davids<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t

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How to teach for transformation and liberation amid battles over critical race theory<\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n
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October 18, 2022<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
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Critical race theory.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Over the past two years, the term has made its way into the mainstream, popping up in political campaigns, on cable news programs, and at school board meetings. Furor over the alleged teaching of critical race theory in America\u2019s public schools has thrust a graduate-level field of study into the national lexicon. Almost overnight, school districts and state legislators began hearing from parents objecting to history lessons that point out threads of racism throughout US history, incorrectly claiming white students were being blamed for that history. Some school districts are removing certain race-themed books from libraries and classrooms, and state legislatures are stepping in. Since January 2021, more than 40 states have passed legislation or taken other executive actions restricting what students can learn in school with respect to race, in several cases naming critical race theory specifically. Many of these so-called \u201cdivisive concept\u201d laws regulate in-school speech about sex and gender, as well as topics involving race\u2014such as lessons about the history of slavery, treatment of Indigenous peoples, the Civil Rights movement, or, most recently, the killings of Black Americans by police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 17 states where these concept laws have passed, teaching about race and diversity in school has become more difficult than ever\u2014right when we need it the most, says Rob Martinelle,<\/a> a lecturer in curriculum and teaching and social studies education, who researches justice-oriented teacher development. He says many critics of so-called divisive concepts adhere to what he calls the \u201cneutrality myth\u201d: that teachers and schools are completely neutral and lack agency over their actions and what they teach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs teachers, we strive not to be partisan, but every decision that teachers make is political. All the books we include or do not include are political decisions, the students we call upon or do not call upon are political decisions,\u201d he says, adding that teachers he knows feel a particularly high level of pressure at the moment. \u201cI don\u2019t envy the position they\u2019re in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BU Wheelock scholars are eyeing these developments with alarm and are drawing on their research and experience to help educators understand and face the issue in their schools and classrooms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The backlash to critical race theory \u201cis picking up on the fear and confusion about what to make of systemic racism or oppression in general,\u201d says Grace Kim<\/a>, a clinical associate professor in counseling psychology and coauthor of a timely new book, Teaching Diversity Relationally: Engaging Emotions and Embracing Possibilities<\/em> (Routledge). Students, she adds, are the ones who lose in these debates. \u201cWe are taking away opportunities from children to grapple with really important issues like race, gender, and sexual orientation\u2014all of those things that certain adults may feel are taboo topics.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Little-Known Concept<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Just three years ago, critical race theory was virtually unknown outside a tiny number of graduate school lectures. The 40-year-old academic and legal school of thought explores and critiques American society, history, and institutions of power through the lens of race. Put another way, critical race theory looks beyond racism as merely the product of individual prejudice or bias, and explains how the belief is embedded in the nation\u2019s legal systems and policies, according to Kimberl\u00e9 Crenshaw, a law professor at UCLA and Columbia and one of the framework\u2019s architects. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the wake of the killings of Black Americans at the hands of  police over the last several years and subsequent calls for racial reckoning, Martinelle says conservative activist Christopher Rufo<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We are taking away opportunitiesfrom children to grapple with really important issues like race, gender, and sexual orientation\u2014all of those things that certain adults may feel are taboo topics.<\/div>