Examining a Critical Race Theory-Informed Undergraduate Research Experience: Proposing a Conceptual Model of the Benefits of Anti-Racist Programs on Student Development

Hate crimes and racist incidents are occurring with alarming and increasing frequency on college and university campuses. As colleges work to reduce racist incidents on campus, there is still a need to prepare students to respond to racism when it occurs. When students are prepared to respond to racist incidents, they tend to have better mental health. We draw on prior literature to examine whether learning about critical race theory (CRT) and receiving CRT-informed mentoring—as embedded in an undergraduate research experience program—related to four-year college students’ self-assessed ability to respond to racism. Specifically, we propose and test a conceptual model to examine the benefits of participating in an undergraduate research experience program that required students to learn about CRT and receiving CRT-informed mentorship. Consistent with prior literature on undergraduate research experience programs, we found that the intervention positively related to students’ sense of self-efficacy and science identity, but it did not have an independent, direct relationship with self-assessed ability to respond to racism. However, the intervention indirectly supports students’ preparedness to respond to racism through its positive relationship with self-efficacy. As state legislatures around the country work to ban CRT, this paper offers empirical evidence that embedding CRT in university programs can support student development in multiple related ways.