Best Practices for Antiracist Education in Virtual Settings

Abstract

In 2020, resources proliferated for 1) teaching in virtual settings in response to educational disruptions; and 2) antiracist education practices. Resources that combined these subjects to suggest antiracist education practices for the virtual setting were comparatively few. In this article, the authors propose ways to connect antiracist practices to virtual education. We begin with an exploration of racism and antiracism. Next, we explore existing literature for how racism shows up in the virtual classroom. Literature suggests instructor bias, course planning, and course delivery practices can work to uphold racism and manifestations of white supremacy in these virtual settings. Drawing from the work of scholars in the area of antiracist pedagogy, we suggest processes educators can engage in for increasing awareness of instructor bias, and for increasing the use of antiracist practices in course planning and delivery to help begin (or continue) the process of implementing antiracist practices in the virtual classroom.