Responses: Toward an Antiracist Pedagogy

Self Cite

This article maintains that knowledge of the literature on multicultural education and social justice pedagogy is indispensable for white college professors who desire to teach effectively about racial justice concerns. In exploring this literature, I have noticed that many publications either articulate theory or reflect on concrete classroom strategies, while relatively few deploy theory to evaluate specific attempts at teaching for justice. This seems to me a gap worth filling. Speaking as a white, conventionally trained, Catholic theologian, I begin by explaining why I deem it appropriate to employ antiracist pedagogy. I then demonstrate that the literature on multicultural education and social justice pedagogy is essential to this effort by utilizing both types of literature, theoretical and practical, to analyze my own strategies and goals to date. Throughout, I discuss white antiracist theological pedagogy not as an accomplished fact, but as an emerging endeavor.

Getting Out of the Left Lane: The Possibility of White Antiracist Pedagogy

Teel

2014

Self Cite

Teaching Race: Pedagogical Challenges in Predominantly White Undergraduate Theology Classrooms

Scheid

Vasko

2014

Self Cite

While a number of scholars in the field of Christian theology have argued for the importance of teaching diversity and social justice in theology and religious studies classrooms, little has been done to document and assess formally the implementation of such pedagogy. In this article, the authors discuss the findings of a yearlong Scholarship of Multicultural Teaching and Learning (SoMTL) study, which examined student learning and faculty teaching regarding race and white privilege in two theology classrooms. After a brief overview of the study's design and execution, we reflect upon our findings and draw out implications for pedagogical practices. In particular we discuss students' emotional responses to the material and the role of cognitive dissonance in student learning with respect to racial inequality via social structures. See a companion essay in this issue of the journal (Karen Teel, "Getting Out of the Left Lane: The Possibility of White Antiracist Pedagogy") and responses by the authors of both essays, also published in this issue of the journal ("Responses: Toward an Antiracist Pedagogy"). 1 We want to acknowledge and thank Duquesne's Center for Teaching Excellence and the Scholarship of Multicultural Teaching and Learning faculty research group (2010)(2011) for their support and assistance throughout this study. We thank especially Laurel Willingham-McLain, Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence, for her continual support. We also want to thank our department chair Dr. Maureen O'Brien for reading our initial draft of the IRB application and for her support throughout the project. Finally, we thank our research assistants Jeffrey Schooley and Mark Ortwein for their help with data analysis and our anonymous reviewers for numerous helpful suggestions to strengthen this essay. ARTICLES

Challenging Racism and White Privilege in Undergraduate Theology Contexts: Teaching and Learning Strategies for Maximizing the Promise of Community Service‐Learning

Reed-Bouley

Kyle

2015

This paper explores the possibilities and challenges inherent in employing community service‐learning as a pedagogy for engaging undergraduates in theology and religious studies courses that contribute to racial reconciliation. The paper summarizes research from the scholarship of teaching and learning on best practices for structuring service‐learning projects and processes that hold the possibility of students' genuine engagement with issues of race and the wisdom of the Catholic tradition.