Beyond Privilege, On Pathways Toward Anti-Racism: Reforming Writing & Literature Instruction in Elite Private Schools

This project considers how to develop an actively anti-racist pedagogy suited to English classrooms in elite private schools. Beyond a survey of the current literature and the identification of an under-served gap in the field of anti-racist pedagogy and the role of whiteness in classrooms, this project is also one of self-study. This thesis is both a personal reflection on how I moved from my position as a prep-school student with no vocabulary for conversations about race toward a more intersectional and actively anti-racist position as a teacher, and, through a collection of revised course materials from my initial forays into anti-racist pedagogy, a practical vision for the application of my insights. I desire to produce a discussion of how whiteness and anti-racist educational scholarship can inform educational practice to transform elite, privileged classrooms into anti-racist spaces that produce leaders and allies for racial equity and justice.