A recent article by Natalie Schwartz takes a closer look at how the University of Pittsburgh is addressing racism through courses aimed at 1st-year students, and how administrators across the nation can make campus-wide changes to address racism. Packback’s recently published Anti-Racist Discussion Pedagogy Guide is included in the article as one way to build an anti-racist pedagogy.
As students look to faculty and administrators to implement measures which address racism on campus, two University of Pittsburgh campuses will be requiring all first-year students to take a new course on anti-Black racism.
The article by Natalie Schwarz takes a closer look at the course, a result of student demands, and what is hopefully the beginning of many measures to address inequities on campus.
Schwarz includes Packback’s ARDPG as a way for administrators to enact lasting change through the implementation of an anti-racist pedagogy in any course.
Although one-off classes about social inequities can be important, incorporating anti-racist pedagogies into all courses is a “better method,” said Alisa Cooper, a journalism, literature and English professor at Glendale Community College, in Arizona.
“We have to convince (students) that these issues are important,” she said. “And the best way to do that is to integrate these types of discussions and pedagogy into the regular courses.”
Cooper is a co-author of a new report detailing the ways anti-racist pedagogy can be incorporated into classes. The report makes several recommendations, including that instructors reflect on their own relationships to race and power.
An excerpt from “Pitt’s 1st-year students will take anti-Black racism course”
