Critical Ethnography to Evaluate the Advancement of Anti-racist Pedagogy

Abstract

This chapter discusses how the authors, both faculty members who primarily instruct doctoral students, participated in a two-year faculty fellowship to build the internal capacity of university instructors to use anti-racist pedagogy within a unique undergraduate program at their university. The fellowship was organized as an action research study and evaluated using critical ethnographic methods. We explore and analyze the various ways that ethnographic methods allowed for inductive processing and contextualized sense-making by leveraging our insider perspectives. We were able to reveal hidden university dynamics through our critical reflections related to responses and processing of campus incidents of antisemitism, union protests, sexual assaults, and racism. We, the faculty fellows, facilitated professional development sessions anchored in an anti-racist pedagogical framework that would guide our pedagogical approach and introduced consultancy protocols and feedback surveys for instructors to receive additional support. These tools offered insights on how many instructors in the AUx program initiated pedagogical support and thought partnership from the fellows. In addition, the survey collected key information regarding the type of support that participants preferred to guide the facilitation of subsequent professional development sessions. Integrating ethnographic and action research strategies revealed a sobering understanding of the complex bureaucratic nature of university programs, particularly how they facilitate instructor recruitment, professional development, curriculum development, and affinity spaces.

Citation

Thomas IV, W.N. and DeCuir, A. (2024), "Critical Ethnography to Evaluate the Advancement of Anti-racist Pedagogy", Goodnight, M.R. and Hopson, R. (Ed.) Theories Bridging Ethnography and Evaluation (Studies in Educational Ethnography, Vol. 20), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 85-104. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1529-210X20240000020009