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 collected 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 produced a literature review, interviewed subject matter experts, and surveyed and conducted focus groups with College learners, staff, and faculty. This work directly responded to the data collected for the 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 built on Creating a Culture of Inclusion and supported Vicarious Trauma in the Classroom, it also responded to the College’s academic and research priorities.
Implementing the project drew on internal strengths through its collaboration with the Intercultural Centre. It also provided an opportunity for two College student research assistants to apply what learned in class to a real world setting as well as gain new skills as they contributed 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 produced a set of recommendations for next steps in developing anti-racism and anti-oppression resources and supports for our campus community.
