Intercultural Teaching:

Anti-Racist Pedagogy

Anti-Racist Pedagogy

Anti-racist pedagogy refers to methods and practices of teaching that aim to combat racism. The importance of anti-racist pedagogy extends past the pressing need to better support BIPoC learners. When we implement anti-racist practices into our teaching, we encourage all students to be more critical and thoughtful about the ways they can commit to combatting racism in their personal lives and future careers.

Racism is often thought of as racial discrimination through one-on-one interactions or instances of racial harassment, which includes derogatory name calling, racist jokes and insults, displays of racially offensive material, and verbal or physical attacks. However, it is important to note that racism goes beyond instances of racial harassment because it is rooted in the values attached to how society is organized—this level of racism is referred to as systemic racism.

Systemic racism requires us to look at the "big picture" of society and examine how patterns of racial inequity appear within institutions (i.e. health care, social services, employment, housing, etc.) as well as the structural ways the effects of these patterns accumulate across institutions. Examples of systemic racism in education include: