A Sociocultural Approach to Teaching about Racism

Drawing upon previous research which finds that a sociocultural approach to teaching about racism results in increased consciousness about racism and support for antiracist policies (Adams et al., 2008), we designed and implemented a tutorial consistent with this approach in our Cultural Psychology courses. The tutorial presented undergraduate students with media images involving stereotypical representations of people from various racially marginalized groups. Students indicated how much racism they perceived in each image and discussed different conceptions of racism, reasons for variation in racism perception, and potential consequences of exposure to these images. The instructor then presented findings from social and cultural psychological research addressing key issues in student discussions. This presentation reinforced a systemic conception of racism and encouraged students to consider the extent to which learning about racism from the target’s perspective can contribute to efforts towards social justice. Student responses were mostly consistent with the general idea that learning about racism matters, and more specifically with the proposal that a pedagogy emphasizing a sociocultural approach to racism can serve as a force for social justice