Sites of Antiracist Resistance within the University Ecology

Overview: This workshop will guide attendees in using a critical race ecological systems framework to visually map their university environment and identify optimal targets for antiracist resistance to pervasive white supremacy at multiple system levels of their academic institutions.Proposal text: Background

Social work educators and scholars are beginning to grapple with the many ways white
supremacy permeates our classrooms, curricula, schools, and institutions. For instance, the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE, 2020) has shifted from a focus on engagement with diversity to a commitment to racial justice. This new emphasis is reflected in the inclusion of antiracism in the 2022 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (CSWE, 2021). Additionally, recent social work scholarship has examined how white supremacy manifests itself in social work education and the multiple complex challenges that stand in the way of resisting and dismantling it. From the whitewashing of social work history in the curriculum (Wright et al., 2021) to the accumulation of microaggressions suffered by BIPOC students and faculty (Gooding & Mehrotra, 2021) to the permeating whiteness of the neoliberal university structure (Shahjahan, 2015), the barriers to meaningful antiracist work as a social work educator are well-documented and immense. The multilevel nature of the problem requires a multilevel perspective in order to break down the barriers.

Vargas et al. (2021) use a critical race ecological systems framework to deconstruct mentor-protégé relationships between white faculty and students of color. We adapt this framework as a tool to explore barriers to antiracist work within the complex university ecosystem and to identify sites and opportunities of resistance. The framework, which illuminates the nested, recursive macro-micro systemic processes that reinforce the status quo, also sheds light on spaces of hope and transformation within the ecological context of each university. Additionally, it offers a lens into the system-justifying ideologies that must be challenged to create sustainable change.

Teaching Methods

This interactive workshop will engage attendees in an exploration of their own institutional ecologies to identify possible sites of antiracist resistance. The facilitators will interweave a brief, didactic review of critical race theory (Delgado & Stefancic, 2012) and ecological systems theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1977) with examples from their own experiences as white, early-career educators at two different institutions. Situating themselves at the center of their respective ecological holons, the facilitators will describe the microsystems of their departments and colleges, the exosystems of their universities, and the macrosystems of the broader political and social contexts. For example, when one facilitator attempted to implement a university-wide antiracist leadership program, they encountered encouragement within their school, benign indifference within their broader college, but evasive withholding of support at the level of university administration. Within each of these system levels, the facilitators will compare and contrast the opportunities for antiracist resistance across their respective institutions, highlighting the system-justifying ideologies functioning throughout the university ecologies. Throughout, the facilitators will invite attendees to share stories about their own experiences with antiracist action at various system levels. The workshop will culminate in a mapping exercise during which attendees will visually depict the ecological system of their university environment to identify optimal targets for antiracist resistance. Finally, attendees will craft individual action plans for antiracist resistance at their own institutions.