Skip to main content

S1E4: Anti-Racist Pedagogy in Practice

In this episode of What We’re Learning about Learning, we featured faculty who engage in active strategies to create inclusive, anti-racist classrooms. We grounded this episode in the events of the past year on the Georgetown campus and across the country, as well as the results of our Cultural Climate Survey. The goal is to learn from colleagues how to foster a sense of belonging for all students, even when the conversations get tough.

In the summer of 2020, a group of Black Georgetown athletes produced a video called I Can’t Breathe, in which they shared the pain and harm they’ve experienced in their everyday lives on our campus and in our classrooms. This episode begins with an excerpt from that video, before hearing from faculty who share the tools and techniques they turn to, to make their classrooms more inclusive, equitable, and just.

Some of the key points faculty emphasize include: creating an inclusive climate, approaches to class facilitation, handling difficult moments, assignment design, and the role of community based learning. Sabrina Wesley-Nero (Educational Transformation and Education, Inquiry, and Justice programs) calls this sense of belonging the “pedagogy of care.” Implementing a pedagogy of care involves fostering psychological safety in the classroom, where conflict and discomfort are expected, but the goal is to bring people closer through understanding, clarification, restoration, and repair.

Rana and Culbreath emphasize that a pedagogy of care must start with faculty themselves (2019). Understanding yourself and reflecting on your identity as a faculty member allows you to recognize the culture that you bring to the classroom. Amrita Ibrahim, Assistant Teaching Professor in Anthropology, learns that students are more comfortable and feel more cared for when you humanize yourself as a professor and share more bits of yourself.

In the end, faculty members acknowledge that the work of creating inclusive and anti-racist classrooms is ongoing. As Bob Bies (Management) states, “It’s about direction, not distance. It’s about progress, not perfection. You may aspire for perfection and settle for excellence. But I always believe that it’s still unfinished business. Because there’s still more horizons and more people. And that’s not bad.”

Bios

Featured in this episode:

Special thanks to the Georgetown students who contributed to the “I Can’t Breathe” Video:

Lara Adakunle, Eni Akinniyi, D’Andre Barriffe, Wes Bowers, Anthony Childress, Theron Cooper, Cameron Crayton, Sari Cureton, Aniella Delafosse, Maya Drayton,Max Edwards, Tony Gyimah, Jaz Harmon, Rio Hope-Gund Jewell Johnson, Josiah Laney, Stanford Maison, Kai Nelson, Yasmin Ott, Ruach Padhal, Cassidy Palmer, Allen Paul, Tiy Reed, Tamiya Roberts, Alexis Smith, Margo Snipes, Symone Speech, Sherman Steptoe, Joshua Stevens, Jordan Wells, Ahmad Wilson, Quincy Wilson, and Shanniah Wright. Additional thanks to Daelyn Waters, the producer of the “I Can’t Breathe” video.

Georgetown resources

Bibliography

Back to top arrow_upward