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Donna-Marie Peters
Sonja Peterson-Lewis
Rickie Sanders
Elizabeth L. Sweet
Karen Turner
Kimmika Williams-Witherspoon
This co-authored chapter is published in Leadership, Equity, and Social Justice in American Higher Education- A Reader editied by C.P. Gause (Peter Lang).
This work grew out of a group discussion of the ideas of bell hooks who in Teaching to Transgress, highlighted the experiences of mostly white students in a classroom with an African American teacher. She also paid attention to the opposite dynamic — white classroom teachers and students of color. We quickly realized that in the current academic context where students are required to take courses that focus on Race; those of us who teach these “R” designated courses have a unique experience not described in hooks’ work.
Here, we discuss the political and practical fallout faced by faculty who teach content that introduces difficult social and political issues to students in classes that they are required to take. Although students react negatively to taking University required courses in general, we see the reaction to the “Race” requirement as especially important, especially when they are taught by women faculty of color whose social location places them in a vulnerable and susceptible position and subjects them to the deeply engrained prejudices held by both students and institutions. Such a discussion is needed given the perfect storm created by the current political economy of education in higher education (the declining perception of the importance of the liberal arts, the historical antecedents of the “Race” requirement in the University curricula, problematic deployment of student evaluations as a means of assessing the suitability of faculty) and the larger neoliberal context (falling wages, rising tuition, the intrusion of a consumerist (customer satisfaction) mentality among students and University officials, and the election of the first African American president which sent a symbolic message that American society is now a post racial society).
Our aim was to encourage ways of thinking that further social justice. We rely on pedagogies akin to Freire’s critical consciousness building and the Socratic Method. As far as we are aware, there is no research examining various pedagogies and their impact on teaching Race and/or Diversity courses.
After some background about the history of designated/required courses at Temple University, we provide a description of the Research Group, and a brief discussion of ameliorative methods. Following that we share what emerged from the discussions and conversations among the members of the research group and conclude with Lessons Learned and Proposals for Future Work. An important next step is to extend the discussion beyond the Women of Color group.