Reducing racialized opportunity gaps through teachers’ anti-racism social-emotional competency training and education

ABSTRACT Racial bias in teachers’ perceptions of Black and White students’ academic abilities and classroom behavior perpetuates racialized opportunity gaps in access to education. Teachers have a particularly important role in reducing racialized opportunity gaps and can do so through transformative social-emotional learning (TSEL). We suggest that teachers’ TSEL training should begin with racism consciousness embedded within their self-awareness and social awareness. These, in turn, will impact their other TSEL competencies in racially informed ways, thus reducing opportunity gaps between White and Black youth. We provide theoretical and empirical support about the ways in which racism consciousness can be embedded within the 5 socio-emotional competencies. We share recommendations for practitioners, policymakers, and researchers on ways to increase awareness and apply teachers’ TSEL to reduce opportunity gaps.