Masquerading as equitable: using white teachers’ racist communication to guide diversity course revisions

ABSTRACT Graduate programs for inservice teachers seeking additional credentialing often include a mandatory diversity course. One aim of these types of courses is to help teachers recognize and dismantle their racial biases in hopes that this self-reflection process will enable teachers to use antiracist teaching approaches and create classroom communities where all students feel safe, respected, and justly included in the classroom. We, two practitioner-researchers, both taught separate sections of one such mandatory graduate diversity course for inservice teachers. Instructor photos revealing our race (Author 1: Black, Author 2: White) were the only differences in the fully online, asynchronous course sections. After experiencing/witnessing graduate students’ racial bias towards the Black instructor captured via informal communication posted to the ‘Ask the Instructor’ board, we investigated whether students’ racial bias would be captured in graded coursework. Using both Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) and Critical Race Theory (CRT) we compared students’ work samples from each course section and found that students’ racial biases were not captured. Our findings help us problematize diversity courses hinged on broad-stroke equity frameworks. Thus, we use CRT to posit course revisions aimed at helping students develop post-racist mindsets and commit to anti-racist practices.