Innovating the Teach-In to Transform the Faculty: Findings from a #BlackLivesMatter Teach-In

Xavier L. Guadalupe-Diaz

Lina Rincon

Virginia Rutter

pdf

English

Humboldt State University

Black Lives Matter

Racial Justice

teaching

faculty

higher education

College students across the U.S. have been mobilizing their campuses in exposing institutional racism, biases, and curriculum structures that have historically marginalized students of color. As a response to ongoing racial justice movements such as #BlackLivesMatter, we developed a new teach-in model with the aim of creating a transformative experience for faculty and students. Our teach-in challenged faculty to incorporate topics related to #BlackLivesMatter to the discipline-specific content of their course during the same one-week period; this was followed by a campus-wide town hall event. Framed by critical race theory with the goal of creating transformative learning for faculty, we sought to assess the impact of the teach-in from the perspective of teachers. Our findings indicated that our teach-in successfully created an opportunity for faculty to interrogate their curriculum, engage students in race discussions, and develop the knowledge and professional skills needed to tackle a more inclusive social justice curriculum.