Implementing Anti-Racism Activities in U.S. Political Science Courses

Abstract

This paper makes the case for why anti-racism pedagogy should be included and identified as anti-racism in political science courses and provides and evaluates an example of anti-racism pedagogy in an American Political Thought course. In addition, I address critics of anti-racism and ways of addressing those critics in the classroom. In evaluating anti-racism pedagogy, work from higher education research is integrated with political-science specific teaching and learning work. I detail multiple ways anti-racism has been included in the example course, student evaluation of an active learning anti-racism activity and evaluate the learning outcomes for students who completed the original and enhanced active learning versions of anti-racism in the course. I find that although students are able to partially meet the learning goals, additional anti-racism content is necessary to fully achieve the learning goals of identifying and countering racist ideas, actions, or outcomes.