Color Me Mute or Color Me Brave: Breaking our Comfortable Silence on Race in American Education (2016)

Undergraduate: Megan Stanley

Faculty Advisor: Patrick Akos
Department: Psychology & Neuroscience

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This project aims to assess how (if at all) our schools are addressing race and racialized events within the classroom. Adopting the role as a participant-observer, I will apply a qualitative approach to examine what themes address and contexts surround racialized dialogue in classroom discussions. In addition, I will learn how educators can broach the subject of race with their students and gain insight on factors that may enable or hinder a teacher¿¿¿s ability to engage in race talk. Broaching the subject of race is a significant addition to education that helps promote multiculturalism in that it: (1) allows students to develop racial literacy and fosters their personal racial development, (2) promotes critical thinking skills, and (3) addresses an issue that is inherently ingrained in societal values and educational institutions. While many teachers may promote a colorblind and colormute approach to teaching, in which they do not see or speak about color for fear of controversy, race must be talked about. Through qualitative data collection, the objective of my piece is to show why the practice of race talk is necessary and how to ultimately integrate the topic of race effectively within a teacher¿¿¿s curriculum.