Navigating the stress of racial conflict or conversation is not easy. Recent national tensions regarding race and diversity in policing, politics, and access to civil rights have led some states and schools to retreat on teaching the truth of racial injustice in this country's history. Moreover, the rise in hate has left schools and educators overwhelmed. Less understood and discussed is how racial stress and conflict undermine essential processes for effective teaching and learning. This keynote will help educators understand racial literacy theory and practice and how it can increase competent teaching and service provision by resolving stressful diversity encounters in schooling relationships.
The goals of this keynote are to: 1. Inspire interest in current research on racial bias, disparities, and trauma in preK-12 education. 2. Learn and identify the differences between racial stress, coping, self-efficacy, socialization, and literacy. 3. Increase knowledge of how racial stress and trauma can impair decision-making in face-to-face interactions, student health and learning, and teacher effectiveness. 4. Raise awareness and expectation for better competence in resolving stressful racial encounters through mindfulness approaches. 5. Learn how racial literacy skills can improve the quality and reduce the stress of proximal (face-to-face interactions) and systemic (policies and practices) racism encounters.
Constance E. Clayton Professor of Urban Education and Professor of Africana Studies, University of Pennsylvania
Dr. Howard Stevenson is the Constance Clayton Professor of Urban Education, Professor of Africana Studies, in the Human Development & Quantitative Methods Division of the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the Executive Director of the Racial Em... Read More →
