Anti-racist Actions at Bow Valley College

To address a need for anti-racist action on our campus and across our community, an exploratory project funded by the Bow Valley College General Research Fund is collecting data to investigate how and what anti-racist resources might best support our learners, our diversity and inclusion efforts, and our wider campus community.

The project will produce a literature review, seeks to interview subject matter experts, and will survey and conduct focus groups with College learners, staff, and faculty. This work directly responds to the data being collected for the ongoing Vicarious Trauma in the Classroom project and the sharp increase in requests for anti-racist and anti-oppressive information and actions noted by the College’s Intercultural Centre throughout the past year.

Anti-racist actions at Bow Valley College not only builds on Creating a Culture of Inclusion and supports Vicarious Trauma in the Classroom, it also responds to the College’s academic and research priorities.

Implementing the project draws on internal strengths through its collaboration with the Intercultural Centre. It also provides an opportunity for two College student research assistants to apply what they are learning in class to a real world setting as well as gaining new skills as they contribute to the research plan’s data gathering and analysis.

The data gathered from the literature review, the six interviews with anti-racism experts, and the survey and focus groups with 130 College learners, staff, and faculty aims to produce a set of recommendations for next steps in developing anti-racism and anti-oppression resources and supports for our campus community.