Ambivalent White Racial Consciousness: Examining Intersectional Reflection and Complexity in Practitioner Graduate Training

Core components of an anti-racist approach among health professions educators: an integrative review

Objectives

This integrative literature review aimed to identify the core elements of an anti-racist approach among health professions educators.

Methods

We searched five databases CINAHL (EBSCOhost), ERIC (ProQuest Dissertations & Thesis Global), EMBASE (Ovid), MEDLINE (Ovid), and Web of Science (Social Sciences Citation Index, Citation Index Expanded) in March 2021. The search strategy combined concepts related to anti-racist pedagogies in the context of health professions education by educators in any capacity. From 1,755 results, we selected 249 manuscripts published in English or French between 2008 and 2021 based on titles and abstracts. After reviewing the full texts, we selected the 48 most relevant sources. We extracted data regarding knowledge, skills, and attitudes in reference to anti-racist approaches or surrogate terms. Within each category, we grouped similar data using a conceptual map.

Results

Analysis of the selected sources revealed that, for health professions educators, engaging in an anti-racist pedagogical approach requires more than incorporating racialized perspectives and content into the classroom. It rather rests on three interrelated components: developing a critical understanding of power relationships, moving toward a critical consciousness, and taking action at individual and organizational levels.

Conclusions

This review sheds light on knowledge, attitudes and skills that educators must deploy to adopt an anti-racist approach competently. This approach is a learned, intentional, and strategic effort in which health professions educators incorporate anti-racism into their teaching and apply anti-racist values to their various spheres of influence. This ongoing process strives for institutional and structural changes and requires whole-system actions.

Diversity Wanted! Utilizing Transdisciplinary Scholarship on Structural Inequality to Educate Psychology Graduate Students

INTRODUCTION

The scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) should promote diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice for the next generation of psychologists.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

I worry that the SoTL propagates an exclusionary field that becomes increasingly irrelevant in our diverse society given that graduate curricula largely exclude scholarship on structural inequality.

LITERATURE REVIEW

I detail the process of graduate curricular changes in my current department, with a focus on my new required graduate course, Diversity, Systems, and Inequality. I utilize scholarship from law, sociology, philosophy, women and gender studies, education, and psychology.

TEACHING IMPLICATIONS

I provide the structure and content of the course-including syllabi and lecture slides-as well as modes of assessment that promote inclusivity and critical thinking. I detail how current faculty can learn to incorporate the content of this work into their own teaching and scholarship through weekly journal clubs.

CONCLUSION

SoTL outlets can publish transdisciplinary, inclusive course materials regarding structural inequality, thus mainstreaming and amplifying such work for the benefit of the field and our world.

Teaching Note-#BlackGirlsMatter and the Social Work Curriculum: Integrating Intersectionality Within Social Work Education

Black girls in the United States face a double or triple jeopardy that places them at risk compared to White girls and other ethnic minority girls. Furthermore, their voices and experiences are often ignored and not discussed fully within the social work classrooms. Since the social work profession is founded on social justice and equity, we urge educators to center the experiences of Black girls within their curriculum by recognizing their experiences within the context of power, privilege and oppression. This teaching note presents intersectionality as a framework for teaching social work students about working effectively with Black girls by focusing on their unique social location. Specifically, we provide strategies that engage social work students through case studies using qualitative research, student reflections, educational videos, and guest speakers. By using an intersectionality lens, social work curriculums can provide an important foundation for students to understand the nuanced ways that Black girls develop and experience the world.

Thematic Co-occurrence Analysis: Advancing a Theory and Qualitative Method to Illuminate Ambivalent Experiences

Ambivalence is a phenomenon that transcends disciplinary divides and is associated with a myriad of mixed outcomes. Yet, identifying and representing the complexities of ambivalent experiences can be difficult using traditional qualitative methods. Thus, the goal of the present study was to advance a qualitative method, thematic co-occurrence analysis, to address this issue. To illustrate the usefulness of this method, I present a case study detailing 35 estranged adult children's ambivalent responses and reactions to their parents' (non)contact during the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings reveal seven themes and four (non)relationships between them that reflect (a) theme independence, (b) unilateral co-occurrence, (c) unbalanced co-occurrence, and (d) complementary co-occurrence. These findings advance a theory of ambivalence and corresponding method to aid in the future investigations of ambivalent phenomena.