Struggles of Hope: How White Adult Educators Challenge Racism

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to understand how White antiracist adult educators challenge racism. Seven participants from 5 different antiracist educational organizations were included. Data were collected over a 5-month period using interviews, documents, and participant observations and were analyzed using the constant comparative method. Results addressed the understandings of racism and White privilege that adult educators bring to their work and how these understandings guide them to challenge racism. A systemic understanding of racism, as well as an understanding of how their own White privilege affects them and People of Color, guided the adult educators’ work. Their analyses of racism influenced the participants to take particular and strategic actions to challenge racism. The study has implications for adult educators who recognize the entrenchment of racism in our society and who want to move their abstract understandings to the concrete level of daily interactions and take specific actions within their educational practices.