Description

Objective: Given the trajectory of our current socio-political climate, we questioned how the current body of research on this topic has been influenced amidst the global disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, extreme politicization of topics such as CRT, rise in hate crimes and public outcry over the murders of George Floyd, and others. This study builds on the meta-analysis of past research focusing on anti-racism in education conducted by Lynch (2017) by reviewing peer-reviewed articles spanning 2000 to 2015. We hypothesize that there is a significant increase in research on anti-racism related to present socio-political division in recent years. Method: Searching the One Search and EBSCO databases for peer-reviewed articles written between 2019 and 2022 that were located searching the key words “anti-racist” “education” “anti-racism” “classroom” “Covid” “George Floyd” yielded 125 articles. 36 articles were randomly selected, coded similar to Lynch, we centered our focus on: author location, article type (empirical vs. theoretical research), gender, ethnicity, the aspects, and practices of educational anti-racism, dealing with backlash. We coded the 36 articles for themes that address themes associated with racism. Results: 89% of articles were conducted in North America showing it to be a topic of much greater concern in this region. 61% of the articles reviewed were theoretical, we identified 5 distinct themes that comprised, and extended the aforementioned components of anti-racist education within each of the articles that were centered on; teacher education and recognition of internal bias, decolonizing traditional curriculum, creating safe spaces for students, fostering open dialogue on sensitive topics between educators, and surrounding communities and finally addressing the role administrative support and school-wide culture contribute the acceptance of anti-racist practices or lack thereof within the educational system. Conclusion: In the past 3 years, there have been numerous articles written on antiracism, a vast increase from Lynch’s study which was conducted over a 15-year period. Most of these articles were generated in North America. The location of the murder of George Floyd. Many of the articles published over the last 3 years have been theoretical in nature illustrating a greater interest having a conversation about antiracism in education rather than critically examining the factors that produce of solve it. The increased interest in this topic might be influenced by the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and the impact of Covid especially on students of color and their families. Keywords: anti-racism, anti-racist education, COVID-19, George Floyd