Associate Professors of Psychology Scott Mirabile, Gili Freedman and Kristina Howansky, along with their colleague Nicole Lorenzetti (City College of New York), recently published an article “Foundations of Anti-Racist Pedagogy: Creating an Anti-Racist Classroom Context” in the open-access Race and Pedagogy Journal.
Educators aiming to implement anti-racist pedagogy require practical tools that are theoretically grounded and can be adapted to diverse classroom environments. In this paper, the authors argue that the classroom context—encompassing physical, social and emotional dimensions—is foundational to enabling anti-racist strategies across other teaching domains, such as curriculum design and instructional methods. They use White Supremacy Culture and Disability Critical Race Theory to frame, support and concretize common recommendations for fostering an anti-racist classroom climate (for example, co-creating policies with students and emphasizing relationship-building and belonging). They also discuss the limitations of these approaches and offer strategies to help instructors anticipate and navigate potential resistance.
