Community of Practice: Anti-Racism
Center for Engaged Pedagogy | Community of Practice: Anti-Racism | Academic Year 2022-2023
In October, the Center for Engaged Pedagogy began hosting its annual community of practice on anti-racism. This year’s meetings focused on anti-racist frameworks for reproductive justice, trans inclusion, and climate. These are three large topics that are connected to campus-wide pedagogical initiatives and that are prominent in higher education today. We spent two months on each. One of those months was devoted to discussions of readings, videos, and podcasts, while the other took the form of a workshop where instructors collaboratively develop pedagogical practices, curricular projects, and strategies that moved between engaging the classroom and engaging the broader world. All Barnard instructors are welcome to join.
Schedule
Discussions and workshops for the fall took place on the following dates and times: October 14 from 11:30am-1:30pm; November 11 from 11:30am-1pm, and December 9 from 11:30am-1pm.
Commitment
Because this is a community of practice, we expect participants to consistently attend and participate in meetings and to complete a small number of readings or exercises between sessions.
Fall 2022: one meeting of 2 hours and two meetings of 90 minutes
Spring 2023: three meetings of 90 minutes
Questions about the community of practice can be directed to Alex Pittman (apittman@barnard.edu).
Center for Engaged Pedagogy | Community of Practice: Anti-Racism | Academic Year 2021-2022
Anti-racism in and beyond the classroom
Over the course of AY 2021-2022, the Center for Engaged Pedagogy hosted its second annual community of practice on anti-racism. In this community of practice, which met three times per semester (or six times in total), we worked together to identify how racism permeates higher education and how to actively dismantle it. The institute applied practical, conceptual, and historical lenses to the subject of anti-racism while constructing a space for collaborative learning and strategizing. For example, participants critically considered the ways they are positioned and perceived within the classroom in light of the role of white supremacy and racism in higher education, their discipline, and course design and content. They also developed strategies and recommendations to address the complex ways racial hierarchies materialize in the different forms of labor that make the campus run and in the historical development of different disciplines. Throughout the meetings, participants read excerpts of foundational theories of race and racism, connected this scholarship to their own teaching through reflection and discussion with colleagues, and created and adapted anti-racist strategies to design their courses, facilitate difficult discussions, and deliver content and assessment.
We have replaced the language of an Institute with that of a Community of Practice because we envision this less as a series of self-contained sessions and more as the formation of a group that is dedicated to exploring the topic and practices of anti-racism over a sustained period of time. It was open to any faculty member who would like to participate, from those who see the critical analysis and deconstruction of racism as a foundation of their teaching to those who are in the early stages of reflecting on their readings, assignments, and teaching and assessment strategies. Given that this community of practice was not only conceived as the formation of a community but also designed to facilitate sessions that build upon each other, participants needed to commit to attending all of the meetings over the course of the year.
Schedule:
Sessions included: (1) Sustaining anti-racism; (2) Centering/Burdening; (3) Assessment; (4) Anti-racist practices in discussion; (5) Whiteness; (6) Action-oriented strategies for active learning
Commitment:
Fall 2021: 3, 2-hour meetings
Spring 2022: 3, 2-hour meetings
With assigned texts between meetings
Center for Engaged Pedagogy | Institute on Antiracism | Academic Year 2020-2021
Antiracism in and beyond the classroom
Over the course of AY 2020-2021, the Center for Engaged Pedagogy hosted an institute on antiracism that is directed toward faculty. In this institute, which met three times per semester (or six times in total), we worked together to identify how racism permeates higher education and how to actively dismantle it. The institute applied practical, conceptual, and historical lenses to the subject of antiracism while constructing a space for collaborative learning and strategizing. For example, participants critically considered the ways they are positioned and perceived within the classroom in light of the role of white supremacy and racism in higher education, their discipline, and course design and content. They also developed strategies and recommendations to address the complex ways racial hierarchies materialize in the different forms of labor that make the campus run and in the historical development of different disciplines. Throughout the institute, participants read excerpts of foundational theories of race and racism, connected this scholarship to their own teaching through reflection and discussion with colleagues, and created and adapted antiracist strategies to design their courses, facilitate difficult discussions, and deliver content and assessment.
At the Center, we envisioned this institute less as a series of self-contained sessions and more as the formation of a learning community that is dedicated to exploring the topic and practices of antiracism over a sustained period of time. It was open to any faculty member who would like to participate, from those who see the critical analysis and deconstruction of racism as a foundation of their teaching to those who are in the early stages of reflecting on their readings, assignments, and teaching and assessment strategies. Given that this institute was not only conceived as the formation of a community but also designed to facilitate sessions that build upon each other, participants needed to commit to attending all of the institute meetings over the course of the year.
Schedule:
Sessions included: (1) Aims of the Institute (2) Antiracism, Positionality, and Pedagogical Practices (3) Antiracism and/as Course & Curriculum Design (4) Antiracism and/as Institutional Labor (5) Antiracism, Disciplinarity, and Institutions (6) Antiracism Now
Commitment:
Fall 2020: 3 virtual 2-hour meetings
Spring 2020: 3 virtual (or in-person) 2-hour meetings
With assigned texts between meetings