A Scoping Review of Colorism in Schools: Academic, Social, and Emotional Experiences of Students of Color

Students of color experience academic, social, and emotional challenges due to colorism in schools. The purpose of this scoping review is to compare the experiences with colorism of students from varying racial backgrounds (African Americans, Native Americans, Asians, and Latin) in U.S. public schools. It is predicted that the understudied group of Latinx and indigenous students of color will uniquely experience colorism in academic settings when compared to African American and Asian students. A 30 article literature review utilizing search dates from 1990 to 2020 was conducted employing a scoping review framework. Themes emerged that include: the privileging of lighter skin and more Eurocentric features in academic outcomes, the complicated social status created for students of color experiencing colorism in schools, and the increased potential for emotional challenges as a result of colorism. This review highlights possible school reform efforts to affirm all skin tones, reduce colorist biases, and offer mediation to mitigate colorist experiences in the school environment.

Systemic Response: Developing a Strategic Response to Support Young Men of Color during COVID-19 Pandemic

The aim of this work is to provide insight into the California State University Young Men of Color Consortium (CSU YMOC), which was created to explore the unique challenges young men of color face during their postsecondary experiences, as well as advance effective approaches to better support them. Specifically, we focus on CSU Male Success Initiative programs and detail how campus partners worked collaboratively to support men of color during the previous academic year amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the ways that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic disrupted education across the P-16 spectrum, the MSIs were positioned uniquely to support some of the challenges that students endured. Recent reports reveal that the pandemic has exacerbated a number of difficulties, both old and new(er), that men of color experience in their college years, from accessing and transitioning to matriculating and persisting in higher education. We provide an overview of the CSU YMOC Consortium and present details about one program element (Critical Conversations) we incorporated this year as a measure to be responsive to challenges brought on by the pandemic. Finally, partners at three institutions share reflections on how their MSI shifted their efforts to meet students’ needs and provide support.

“I Live Here”: How Residents of Color Experience Racialized Surveillance and Diversity Ideology in a Liberal Predominantly White Neighborhood

In many liberal predominantly white neighborhoods, white residents view their communities as inclusive yet they also engage in racialized surveillance to monitor individuals they perceive as outsiders. Some of these efforts center on people of color in neighborhood open spaces. We use a diversity ideology framework to analyze this contradiction, paying particular attention to how residents of color experience racialized surveillance of their neighborhood’s publicly accessible parks and swimming pools. This article draws on data from neighborhood documents, neighborhood digital platforms, and interviews with residents of a liberal, affluent, predominantly white community that was expressly designed with public spaces open to non-residents. We find that resident surveillance of neighborhood public spaces is racialized, occurs regularly, and happens in person and on neighborhood online platforms where diversity as liability rhetoric is conveyed using colorblind discourse. These monitoring efforts, which are at times supported by formal measures, impact residents of color to varying degrees. We expand on diversity ideology by identifying digital and in-person racialized surveillance as a key mechanism by which white residents attempt to enforce racialized boundaries and protect whiteness in multiracial spaces and by highlighting how Black and Latinx residents, in particular, navigate these practices.

Teaching Anti-Racism in Gerontology: An Interactive Program of Recognition, Self-Work, Pedagogy, and Action

Older adults with intersecting identities as persons of color experience disparities in health and well-being due to racism in individual and structural spheres, which have been amplified by health, economic, and social consequences of COVID-19. We can begin the work to reduce these inequities by training scholars and practitioners to disrupt the systems within which we work that relegate advantages and disadvantages throughout the life course and in later life by racial groups. This interactive symposium presents resources on anti-racist gerontological education and provides an opportunity to engage critically with peers in all stages of their careers and anti-racism journeys who are interested in integrating anti-racism into their teaching. The first presenter introduces conversations to begin anti-racist pedagogy and assumptions to dismantle. The second presenter describes cultural humility as an essential step towards self-awareness and critical self-reflection for educators and practitioners. The third presenter presents how anti-racist pedagogy, a teaching approach that combines racial content, pedagogy, and organizing, may be applied to gerontology education. Fourth, an example will be presented from an online course module developed to guide Master of Social Work students toward recognizing racial disparities in aging services systems and identifying concrete suggestions for improvement. Finally, strategies for curriculum design will be presented with examples from Public Health education. This symposium is designed to include ample time for group discussion on this critical and under-addressed area of teaching in gerontology across disciplines, such that participants can better connect with others to build awareness, competency, and resources.

Burnout and Race-Related Stress among BIPOC Women K–12 Educators

Understanding how best to recruit and retain Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) in the education workforce is critical for human resource practice and scholarship. BIPOC educators are consistently shown to positively influence student outcomes, but leave the workforce at a rate 25% higher than their White colleagues. Emerging research points to school climate as a reason that BIPOC educators leave. Relatedly, researchers find that race-based and gender-based discrimination impact job burnout. Guided by the intersectionality scholarship that acknowledges how women of color experience marginalization across multiple identities, the current study examines how race-based stressors, both in daily life and in the work environment, are associated with job burnout for BIPOC women K–12 educators. Multivariate analyses of data disaggregated from an original survey distributed to BIPOC educators in a predominantly White and rural state ( n = 145, 54.6% women) consistently isolate the effect of a racialized school climate on the burnout of BIPOC women educators. Specifically, when BIPOC women educators perceive their schools to be less open to discussing racial conflict, they report greater job burnout. Although there were no differences in the amount of burnout reported across racial groups, there were differences in the levels of daily racial microaggressions experienced. Notably, only school-based racial stressors emerged as a significant predictor of burnout. We discuss implications for organizational policies on diversity, equity, and inclusion as well as the hiring, retention, and promotion of women of color.

School as a hostile institution: How Black and Immigrant Girls of Color Experience the Classroom

The paradox of girls’ academic gains over boys, across race and class, has perplexed scholars for the last few decades. Through a 3-year longitudinal ethnography of two predominantly economically marginalized and racially minoritized schools, I contend that while racially marginalized girls may have made academic gains, school is nevertheless a hostile institution for them. Focusing on the case of Black girls and recent immigrant girls of color, I identify three specific ways in which school functions as hostile institution for them: (1) gendered racial harassment from teachers, (2) erasure of intellect, and (3) estrangement within their communities. Furthermore, the denigration of immigrant girls becomes the conduit for misogynoir. I find that the gains of some racially marginalized girls in school often justify hostility against all of them. Bringing into conversation a feminist analysis of schooling that rejects girls’ educational gains as ubiquitous evidence of a gender revolution with a Black-colonial education framework that emphasizes schooling as a technology of oppression, I explore the current role of school as a hostile institution for Black girls and immigrant girls of color.

Comparison of remote and in-person tutorials of color appearance phenomena

Accurately describing the effect of lighting on color appearance phenomena is critical for color science education. While it is ideal to conduct in-person tutorials to demonstrate the color appearance fundamentals, laboratory tutorials have been limited due to COVID-19. The limitation of in-person gatherings and the increase popularity of remote teaching help evoke alternative methods to demonstrate color appearance phenomena. Here, a remote tutorial method is described, and results are compared to in-person tutorials. While the remote tutorial had weaker result in representing observers' color experience compared to the in-person lab tutorial, remote demonstrations can be used to demonstrate and discuss the limitations of color imaging, and the difference between the human visual system and digital imaging systems.

Culturally Relevant Pedagogy and Applied Behavior Analysis: Addressing Educational Disparities in PK-12 Schools

The purpose of this paper is to describe the theory of culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) and itsapplication to PK-12 education for behavior analysts working in schools. CRP is an educationalframework that asserts that successful teachers of African American students help their studentsgain three repertoires: a) socio-political awareness, b) cultural competence, and c) academicexcellence. The CRP framework was designed to counter the effects that racial bias has on theacademic and disciplinary experiences of some students of color. This paper suggests thatapplied behavior analysis and CRP, when used together, may strengthen educators’ efforts toreduce the effects of racism that some students of color experience. The authors first explain thetenets of CRP based on the work of Ladson-Billings (1995). Next, points of convergencebetween ABA and CRP are described. Finally, the authors offer recommendations for behavioranalysts to consider when applying CRP in schools through the provision of examples ofstrategies and tactics derived from the behavioral literature that align with the CRP framework.The framework presented in this paper has implications for behavior analysts interested inapplying culturally relevant practices to their work as educators.

Antiracism Glossary for Education and Life

To create an antiracism glossary, a team of scholars from Colleagues of Color for Social Justice (CCSJ) identified and defined 48 terms relating to racism and antiracism based on careful review of existing race-related glossaries, scholarly articles, and widely-read books on the topic. This glossary of terms illustrates the daily and pervasive nature of racism that people of color experience and fills a demonstrable gap in resources of this type for college learning assistance centers and programs. The purpose is to recognize and explain terms related to attitudes, behaviors, and policies that impact people’s lives, particularly within academia. The glossary lists the terms in alphabetical order with multiple definitions from various resources and easy to understand examples drawn from personal lives, communities, and professional experiences in educational settings.