Brave Community: teaching and learning about racism in college

Abstract

This study asks, “How do instructors successfully engage students in learning about controversial issues of race without hitting the common tripwires of low trust, stereotyping or racial microaggressions?” To address this question, I conducted a study of two courses on race that were focussed on difficult issues, yet were consistently highly rated by students in evaluations. What I found led me to an emerging theory about how instructors can foster classroom cultures in which learning about race is challenging but edifying and empowering for students. Drawing from data from one course, I show that the instructor does this by establishing and sustaining what I call academic grounding, a mix of academic content and academic culture. This grounding, in turn, allows students to become braver and more empathetic in their learning. I named this process Brave Community to highlight that this dynamic tension between bravery and empathy is integral to meaningful learning about racism in racist societies.

Keywords:

• Race
• culture
• pedagogy
• higher education

Acknowledgments

The author is deeply indebted to the students and professors who generously shared their learning journeys with her. This manuscript benefitted immensely from comments and suggestions from Abena Mackall, Rosalie Rolón-Dow and QSE reviewers.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Gable University and all other names are pseudonyms. Identifying information has been changed to preserve the anonymity of the institution, the students, and the professors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Janine de Novais

Janine de Novais is Assistant Professor in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Delaware. Her work focuses on race, culture, and critical pedagogy.