The antiracist educator’s journey and the psychology of critical consciousness development: A new roadmap

Abstract

The cultural zeitgeist has reinvigorated needed conversations about systemic racism and its longstanding impact on education. Educators confronting educational racism encounter social and psychological challenges that stifle their antiracist efforts. Challenging social psychological encounters, which reflect unavoidable but requisite facets of critical consciousness development, are experienced as jarring interactions and trigger reversions toward uncritical race-dysconscious thought and action. Without social supports, educators seeking to transform racist institutions are isolated, left to their own devices, and unprepared for the painful journey of self-liberation. We cover the foundations and structure of the antiracist educator’s journey, a model based implicitly on critical race theory and explicitly on ecosystemic, monomythic, and liberational perspectives. Our model details the social-psychological progression of race consciousness development. We identify 15 interconnected components nested across 4 phases of self-liberation. The quest for antiracist realization parallels the quests of mythical and contemporary “heroes” who achieve systemic change through self-transformation and reward. The reward is an “ecosystemic lens” whose acquisition drives the conversion of racist educational ecosystems into antiracist alternatives. The framework is a roadmap for prospective antiracist educators and is meant to validate their experiences along the journey.

After taking this grueling journey to the dirt road of antiracism, humanity can come upon the clearing of a potential future: an antiracist world in all its imperfect beauty.

—Ibram X. Kendi, 2019, p. 11

Conversations about educational racism have resurged. Educators are (re)awakening to a longtime struggle between racist destructiveness and antiracist constructiveness. Materializations of this struggle involve parent-, politician-, and propagandist-led outcries and violence over antiracism, critical race theory (CRT), and the instruction of historical facts that pertain to colonization, white supremacy, slavery, and modern racism (Heffernan, 2021; Kingkade et al., 2021). In the USA, nearly 40% of states have enacted laws or policies banning critical curricula on race/racism (Pendharkar, 2023). Comparable legal maneuvers have occurred in the UK (Trilling, 2020), highlighting the global pushback directed against antiracist movements within education. Legal and extralegal pressures lead to understandable anxiety, chilling effects, fear, and stress among educators. Racist contexts of this kind isolate prospective antiracist educators, who continue to rely on assimilationist and exclusionary pedagogies that uphold educational inequities (Pewewardy et al., 2018). Educator demoralization and culturally-reproduced racism reinforce one another due to the bidirectional influences between individuals and their contexts (see Lerner, 2007, 2015). Unfortunately, many educators are unprepared for the daunting but requisite self-transformational actions that underlie the achievement of racial parity at the levels of institutions and systems (see Vargas et al., 2021). Educators may not see value in antiracism and its demands for personal awareness, sacrifice, and change.

Building on our prior educational CRT research (see Saetermoe et al., 2017; Saetermoe et al., in prep.; Vargas et al., 2021), we introduce a new theoretical framework to describe the psychological experiences of faculty, staff, administrators, and educators at large who aspire to form antiracist identities. Many educators are ill-equipped to position themselves within the broader contexts that maintain educational racism, making identity work difficult. Educators are socialized to perceive the abolishment of racist educational practices and policies as a futile or unnecessary endeavor (see King, 1991). Antiracist knowledge and mentors can counter racial hostility and self-paralysis, in turn guiding educators toward a much-needed social awareness. The realization of antiracist identities and educational equity hinges on race consciousness. To encourage the honing of this vital critical consciousness, we integrate literature from the social sciences and humanities. The following question guides our essay: What are the psychological and social consequences for educators who journey toward an antiracist identity? Our framework captures the phenomenological complexity that accompanies the act of becoming an antiracist educator in a society structured to perpetuate injustice via its educational contexts. The model validates the painful process of self-transformation and also reveals stepping stones toward the formation of productive antiracist identities. We commence with an overview of key arguments and then cover the theoretical underpinnings of our model. Afterward, we introduce the antiracist educator’s journey and describe different trajectories for educators of color and white educators.¹ We end with a discussion of implications for educators, educational institutions, and educational psychology research.

Overview: concepts and themes

The antiracist educator’s journey is an amalgamation of ecosystemic, monomythic, and liberational concepts. Their interdisciplinary conceptual intersections illuminate themes about ecosystemic racism, race consciousness, and the “ecosystemic lens.” Figure 1 depicts a Venn diagram of key concepts (circles) and key themes (overlaps). Before delving into the theoretical roots of our model, it is first necessary to introduce and explicate the central concepts and themes that recur throughout the article. Our framework lies at the crux of these concepts and themes.

Figure 1. Conceptual and thematic foundations of the antiracist educator’s journey.

Key concepts

Bidirectional ecosystems

Occupants of Western nations reside in hierarchical systems that elevate white supremacy (Almeida, 2016; Battalora, 2013). Owing to racist influences across all layers of Western education, legions of educators grapple to envision equitable educational practices and policies (Vargas et al., 2021). Educators have internalized misconceptions about racism or are unaware of its underlying power structures. Misconstructions or lack of knowledge about racism are to be expected in cultures that endorse individualism, dualism, and independent self-construals (see Aquino, 2020; Vargas & Kemmelmeier, 2013). In such cultures, few people are socialized to critique the ecosystems of their daily lives and social world. Ecosystems refer to the multiple and interactive environmental conditions that humans face throughout their lifespans and that influence their development as biopsychosocial and intergenerational beings (Overton, 2015). Ecosystemic theories declare a basic but insightful principle about human development: people are both products and producers of their agency, familial dynamics, local neighborhoods, community services, social institutions, governmental policies, cultures, and sociohistories (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Lerner, 2015). In this way, racism operates at the micro-, meso-, macro-, and temporal-spheres of human interaction (Spencer, 2008). In educational contexts, educators are unaware of the mutually-reinforcing individual-level attitudes, interpersonal biases, politics, and intergenerational legacies that disserve students of color across all segments of education (see Vargas et al., 2021).

Ecosystemic concepts have become well-integrated into a “relational metatheory” that guides much of contemporary developmental science (Overton, 1998). Although reviews of the metatheory and developmental science are beyond this article’s scope, two concepts apply to the study of antiracist identity formation (see Lerner, 2007). First is the idea of recursive individual-context relations across integrated levels of organization (i.e., nested ecosystems). Individual-context relations reflect bidirectional processes between the person and the proximal and distal contexts comprising the ecology of human development (Overton, 2015). Identity formation is regulated via individual-level actions on the environment, as well as via multilevel contextual actions on the individual. Second, the relative plasticity of individual-context relations indicates that both people and environments are in continual states of change. Ecosystems are malleable rather than static, such that developmental regulation can either assist or hinder the formation of a productive identity (Spencer, 2008). Positive change is possible when people are in states of developmental openness to productive contextual conditions. It lies within humanity’s capacity to advance adaptive developmental regulations (i.e., constructive individual-context relations), positive human development, and social justice (Lerner, 2015). Within racist educational systems, individual- and contextual-level factors can be labeled and altered to stimulate antiracist identities and educational justice. To mete out this transformation, it is imperative to understand the life-courses of “journeys” (i.e., series of individual-context relations) that both impede and enable the process of race consciousness development.

Race consciousness development as “monomythic journey”

Implementations of antiracist pedagogy require that educators form productive antiracist identities. Productive identities develop across the life-course, through trial-and-error, and within nurturant contexts (see Lerner, 2007, 2015; Spencer, 2008). The journey to antiracist pedagogy implicates a lifelong social-psychological progression across individual-context relations, most of which exist outside the awareness of educators. During antiracist journeys, educators face both obstacles and social supports as they undergo iterations of epiphany, mourning, and self-liberation (see Pewewardy et al., 2018). The arduousness of antiracist journeys can be attributed to distinct individual-context relations. At the individual-level, race dysconsciousness is common; at the contextual-level, the interpersonal, institutional, and structural factors that nurture race consciousness are limited or nonexistent (see Saetermoe et al., 2017; Vargas et al., 2021). Race dysconsciousness reflects an uncritical and complacent mindset that justifies racially unjust systems (see King, 1991). Unlike intentionally racist thoughts, which lie within the scope of consciousness, race dysconsciousness epitomizes an absence of awareness regarding the severity of modern racism, one’s position in racialized hierarchies, and one’s complicity in the cultural reproduction of racism. Maladaptive developmental regulations, wherein educators lack the readiness to overcome race-dysconscious contexts, are the norm rather than the exception. Race consciousness, or a critical and pragmatic mindset that resists racism and desires to alter racist individual-contexts relations, is difficult to hone in the absence of antiracist knowledge and critical others.

Clues about the phenomenological and social-psychological motifs of a journey entailing race consciousness development can be found in the humanities. In narratology and comparative mythology, the idea of a monomythic journey describes a storytelling template found in various fictional and nonfictional stories in which a dysconscious protagonist awakens to an unknown realm, excels through momentous challenges, and emerges as a transformed individual capable of mentoring others and abetting positive societal change (see Campbell, 1949; Vogler, 2017). In the prototypic journey, protagonists are introduced to audiences as individuals who unwittingly or deliberately uphold a socially destructive state of affairs. Decades of social psychological studies have confirmed that dispositional and situational factors underlie people’s motivations to dismiss, defend, rationalize, or justify the status quo, even when such actions run against self- or group-interest (Jost, 2019; Jost & Banaji, 1994; Jost et al., 2004). For individuals, justification of the system serves a palliative function that reduces cognitive dissonance, guilt, and uncertainty engendered by the knowledge that the world is unfair and unpredictable (Jost & Hunyady, 2003). In context, justifications also guard personal stakes in the system when threats to the status quo materialize (Jost & Hunyady, 2005), culminating in collective inertia. Advocation for unjust systems is a robust global phenomenon enacted by members of dominant and subordinate social groups alike and across a multitude of situations (Vargas-Salfate et al., 2018). Critical others in the ecology of identity formation can assist race-dysconscious educators through the dissonant, guilt-laden, and uncertain phases of becoming antiracist (see Smith & Redington, 2010).

Liberational processes

Antiracism is a liberational social process. This poses notable theoretical considerations. Liberation psychology advances the principle that social theory must contextualize the lives of the oppressed, reject dualism and individualism, acknowledge social history, and locate human events in the dialectical links running across individuals, communities, and structures (see Martín-Baró, 1994). Akin to a relational metatheory (see Lerner, 2007, 2015), liberation psychology acknowledges the role of individual-context relations in the transformation of people and systems. The psychological-sociohistorical dialectic is central to all liberational processes. A liberational process refers to a critical form of personal and social change (Freire, 1970, 2006). The process frames personal problems of living in terms of their systemic etiologies and aims to expose, deconstruct, and replace the societal mythologies, ideological discourses, and social hypocrisies responsible for oppression (Harro, 2013). Liberational processes imply that, before educators are ready to transform themselves and their educational ecosystems, dominant belief systems of the culture must first be unveiled and unlearned.

Dominant ideologies are the overarching values of the majoritarian culture. In Western societies, ideologies like individualism and meritocracy convince people across all strata of a racial power hierarchy to defend unjust societal conditions. People who endorse individualism and meritocracy, for instance, locate racism within the individual and believe disadvantaged others are personally responsible for their life circumstances (see Augoustinos & Every, 2007). Other ideologies (e.g., equality) have similar system-justifying effects. Dominant ideological discourses within education are difficult to uncover and override for several reasons. Cultural values can serve palliative functions for race-dysconscious educators (see Jost, 2019; Jost & Hunyady, 2003; Jost et al., 2004). Moreover, educational contexts are spaces where the next generation is socialized into a blind acceptance of race-dysconscious values. Psychologists who examine the ecosystems of academic mentorship have assembled a typology of system-justifying discourses based on endemic race-dysconscious ideologies (Vargas et al., 2021). These scholars noted that educators rely on their attitudes in order to fulfill multiple social-psychological needs. From this perspective, educators are motivated to protect self-esteem, simplify complex social information, navigate interpersonal transactions, avoid social punishment, and communicate personal values. To balance and satisfy these needs within racialized contexts, educators deploy various system-justifying discourses. System-justifications infuse bad- and good-faith rhetoric intended to stigmatize marginalized groups, weaponize the victim-status, strip away the role of history in racism, or deny racial injustice. Discursive justifications also paint “innocent” frames of assimilation, color evasion, and other liberal ideologies. A consequence of these maladaptive developmental regulations is that educators and educational systems will mutually reproduce racist outcomes. To break the cycle of oppressive individual-context relations (see Harro, 2013; Lerner, 2015), and to bring about an antiracist pedagogy, educators must overcome the social forces that contribute to their own and others’ apathy, disillusionment, and disempowerment.

Key themes

Knowledge about ecosystemic racism

Ecosystemic and liberational approaches suggest that educators must reject reductionist characterizations of racism and unlearn race-dysconscious attitudes and beliefs about racialized individual-contexts relations. Alleviating systemic injustice partly requires that antiracists advance unequivocal definitions of racism (Kendi, 2019). Disputes about the enormity or facticity of modern-day racism are linked to misunderstandings about its individual- and systemic-level properties. Popular conceptualizations of racism conform to an individual-level prototype called interpersonal racism, or forms of prejudice and discrimination that occur among racially distinct individuals and that result from idiosyncratic attitudes, beliefs, conscious/unconscious cognitive processes, emotions, and active/passive behaviors. Few people conceptualize a systemic-level prototype. There is limited awareness or comprehension of the parameters of systemic racism, or forms of societal inequity that occur at the level of institutions and social structures and that are due to historical trajectories, ideologies, laws, and norms. In theory, neither prototype is inaccurate nor are the two phenomena mutually exclusive. Both prototypes are instructive, albeit imperfect. Antiracist theories should go beyond the disconnected individual- and systemic-level prototypes of racism in order to spotlight their bidirectionality.

Scholarship outside psychology points to the individual-context relations that maintain racist ecosystems. The early sociological work of Bonilla-Silva (1997) emphasized a structuralist conceptualization of racism in which established “racialized social systems” serve to restrict the exercise of economic, political, and social power to white people. Racist structures sustain race-based power hierarchies by manipulating the social norms that guide interpersonal relationships between individuals who have been ascribed dominant/subordinate racial statuses and roles (see Almeida, 2016). Historically, race has always been used as a tool to overtly infuse inequity and exploitation into the ecology of Western societies. Modern racism is more covert and intertwined with how race is symbolically and behaviorally reified by individuals who are race-dysconscious (see Bonilla-Silva, 2022a, 2022b). Historical research asserts similar claims. Kendi (2019) and Battalora (2013) discussed how the idea of race emerged in colonial law as the primary method to impose and enforce white supremacy. Factually, “race” is a social construct—not a biological or physical phenomenon—created to maintain white supremacy. Any reference to the “race of individuals” will always, by default, make reference to a “system of racism”; race and racism, like individual and context, are fused constructs (see Lerner, 2007).

Self-liberation from dysconscious mindsets and unjust social systems is possible when educators are receptive to knowledge about racialized bidirectional ecosystems. To this point, educators may find utility in a comprehensive definition of racism that recognizes the dialectic relations that run across psychology, collective behavior, and social structures. We advance the term ecosystemic racism, defined as the multilevel and recursive human events that implicate phenomenology, interpersonal transactions, local institutions, social-political structures, and intergenerational processes in the reproduction of race-based power hierarchies (see Vargas et al., 2021). Racial power hierarchies socialize educators into dysconsciousness via relationships with dysconscious family and peers, the racist social institutions that disserve local communities, the laws and norms that uphold racist cultures, and the cultural myths that obstruct critical thought and action. Antiracists aim to normalize ecosystemic antiracism, or the multilevel-dialectical human events and solutions needed to eradicate ecosystemic racism. Of course, definitions alone do not disrupt racist ecosystems. Society assigns educators with different social statuses. Thus, educators of color and white educators require distinct race-conscious mindsets in order to recognize and critique the layers of ecosystemic racism.

Development of race consciousness

A crucial feature of an (anti)racist identity is race (dys)consciousness. The latter encapsulates the mental structures implicated in processes of (mal)adaptive identity formation (see Spencer, 2008). Antiracist contexts can open avenues for educators to form liberationist mindsets. A mindset describes the compilation of schemas, frames of reference, or mental representations that become active in social situations and that shape behavior (French II, 2016). King (1991) noted that mindsets are also mental habits based on acquired assumptions, attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions. We propose that educators’ mindsets fall along a cognitive-based continuum ranging from racist to race dysconscious to race conscious (Figure 2; see also Haynes, 2023).

Figure 2. Race consciousness continuum.

A racist mindset conceptualizes race-related matters in segregationist-eliminationist terms. It is founded on and fueled by fallacious notions about biological or religious supremacy. Racist mindsets result in the reification of racial hierarchy and support for distinction, cruelty, resource deprivation, and homicide toward “inferior races” (Jost et al., 2004; Jost & Hunyady, 2003; Kendi, 2019). Race-(dys)conscious mindsets conceptualize race-related matters in ways described by Titone et al. (2014). Their study—based on the work of King (1991)—uncovered three categories of (un)awareness. Category 1 mindsets reflect high dysconsciousness and operate from mental frames that cannot recognize modern racism and that blame minoritized people for their lived conditions. Category 2 mindsets reflect low-to-moderate dysconsciousness and operate from mental frames that recognize racism but perceive conformity to mainstream (white) culture as a reasonable solution. Category 1 and 2 mindsets are prevalent, meaning most people view race-related phenomena in individualist-assimilationist terms. Race-dysconscious mindsets reify hierarchy in terms of cultural supremacy and connect resource distribution to assimilation, meritocracy, and other system-justifying ideas. Category 3 mindsets perceive race-related phenomena in antiracist-liberationist terms. Mindsets in this class reflect varying levels of nascent or embodied race consciousness, whereby people reframe racial discrimination based on its connection to white supremacy and other systemic factors. Category 3 mindsets tease apart racist conditions and reimagine equitable and antiracist individual-context relations.

The internalization of mindsets at the individual-level is aided by socialization processes at the contextual-level. Race consciousness development entails a social psychological journey that ranges from a racist mindset at one extreme (hereafter termed “Category 0”) to an antiracist mindset at a higher-order class. Race-dysconscious contexts curtail opportunities for educators to self-critique their mental frames around issues of race/racism. Educators of color and white educators are uniquely impacted due to social status differences. Race-conscious socialization influences must be in place if educators are to commence, and commit to, a journey that nurtures the mental structures undergirding self-transformation and antiracist action.

Acquisition of an ecosystemic orientation

Under the right conditions, the ecology of human development can place educators on journeys toward antiracist pedagogies capable of toppling unjust arrangements that undermine the academic (and life) opportunities of students of color and their communities (see Saetermoe et al., 2017). Research from the social sciences and humanities (e.g., Heppner, 2017; Lerner, 2007; Neville, 2015; Spencer, 2008; Vogler, 2017) suggests that movement across the consciousness continuum is aided by developmental readiness (at the individual-level) and social supports encountered during the phases of antiracist identity formation (at the contextual-level). Adaptive developmental regulations—in the form of alignments between educators’ receptivity to self-change and antiracist contextual conditions—improve the likelihood that educators learn the actions needed to reconstruct ecosystemic racism into antiracist alternatives. To integrate this key theme into our framework, we rely on a potential “metalevel” relation between research on, and applications of, ecosystemic theories (see Lerner, 2015). With respect to antiracist identity formation, we postulate that scientific knowledge about ecosystems must be woven into the fabric of human socialization itself. Ecosystemic theories must be leveraged to help humans internalize ecosystemic ways of existing and coexisting.

The dismantlement of racist and race-dysconscious educational ecosystems requires that educators cultivate an “ecosystemic lens” or ecosystemic orientation, defined as race-conscious behavioral skill sets attuned to generating multilevel solutions for multilevel problems (see also Vargas et al., 2021). The ecosystemic lens is also a metaphor for the cultural sensitivity and acuity that emerge from the discontinuation of race-dysconscious communication patterns and related behavioral norms (see Tilki et al., 2007). Antiracist discourses are indispensable assets in the institutionalization of equitable educational practices and policies. Proponents of educational CRT assert that counter-narratives carry the power to invalidate racist societal myths, false histories, and system-serving ideologies (see Capper, 2015). Race-conscious discourses can help white educators decenter whiteness and educators of color center antiracism. Educators fluent in the “language” of antiracism are able to locate the self within its broader ecosystems, identify opportunities for self-improvement, create avenues for others to succeed, and achieve social justice (see Goodman, 2011). Ecosystemic orientations amount to behavioral events that put race consciousness into praxis.

Theoretical foundations

The antiracist educator’s journey describes the quest to obtain a critical consciousness and ecosystemic orientation capable of dismantling ecosystemic racism and creating ecosystemic antiracism. Antiracist identity formation within racist contexts is inherently complex. It is not possible for a single discipline to adequately capture how antiracist identities develop. In line with CRT, interdisciplinary work is merited (see Capper, 2015). Ecosystemic and liberational approaches describe how educators are socialized into race dysconsciousness. Monomythic concepts are reminders that educators are uninclined to relinquish the false security and material rewards of racist systems absent personal awareness, motivation, and guidance. In this section, we cover the theoretical foundations of the antiracist educator’s journey (Figure 3). Three frameworks are considered: phenomenological variant of ecological systems theory (Spencer, 2008), modern monomyth theory (Vogler, 2017), and the transformational indigenous praxis model (Pewewardy et al., 2018).

Figure 3. Parallels among race consciousness, monomythic components, liberation psychology phases, and the phenomenological variant of ecological systems theory (PVEST).

The ecosystems of antiracist identity formation

The phenomenological variant of ecological systems theory (PVEST) is a CRT-informed framework that emphasizes the individual-context relations that impact behavior, psychological coping, and identity formation (see Velez & Spencer, 2018). Central to PVEST is the influence of race/racism on human perception and behavioral responses to environmental challenges. In societies where race, sex, class, and similar social constructs hold kinetic authority and social-political sway, racism and intersecting forms of oppression (see also intersectionality; Crenshaw, 1989) generate tangible effects that cascade throughout the ecology of human development. Identities emerge from the habitus people use to appraise and make sense of their space and place within ecosystems that are external to, but intertwined with, the self (see Morton & Parsons, 2018; Spencer, 2008). Racialized contexts are determinative of nonrandom life-course trajectories. Western educational contexts are replete with educators who—due to their racial socialization—lack both knowledge about, and opportunities to identify with antiracist pedagogical values. This contributes to educators’ pessimism toward antiracist self-transformation and ecosystemic change.

The core premise behind PVEST proclaims that the “joint contribution” of protective and risk factors, or net vulnerability level, interacts with coping responses and both productive and unproductive developmental consequences (Spencer, 2008). In particular, PVEST proposes that human life-courses unfold within racialized ecosystems that yield distinct experiences with vulnerability, stress, coping, identity emergence, and life trajectories. Vulnerabilities and their impact on life outcomes are unavoidable but can be balanced when mediated and moderated by sensible levels of protection (e.g., personal safety) and risk (e.g., self-challenge), as well as by stable coping mechanisms (Spencer & Harpalani, 2004). The quality of net vulnerability feeds into the net stress level, which refers to the challenges and supportive factors that affect identity. Routine stressors brought on by discrete forms of vulnerability automatize attitudinal, cognitive, and behavioral responses. Net stress correlates with foreseeable reactive coping strategies, or (mal)adaptive psychological-behavioral patterns enacted in reaction to the challenges (e.g., racism) and social supports (e.g., inclusivity) encountered throughout the ecology of social life. Adaptive and maladaptive coping coexist and must coordinate in a manner whereby trial-and-error drives the embodiment of identity-stabilizing psychological processes. Adaptive coping enriches a positive emergent identity (e.g., antiracist) that is personally and socially constructive, in contrast to a negative emergent identity (e.g., race dysconscious) that is relatively destructive. Stable emergent identities may result in both productive and unproductive life stage outcomes, meaning the overall personal and ecosystemic effects that manifest when individuals exercise agency in their own identity construction and performance (see Morton & Parsons, 2018).

Unlike other theories in educational psychology, PVEST underscores the role of racism in identity development (see Morton & Parsons, 2018). As illustrated in Figure 3, the race consciousness continuum from Figure 2 can be superimposed onto generalized (unapplied) ecosystemic developmental processes posited by PVEST (see Spencer & Harpalani, 2004). Educators’ net vulnerabilities are a function of relative plasticity and the contextual (dis)advantages associated with racial status at different phases of identity formation. Shifts toward Category 3 mindsets involve tensions caused by net stress (e.g., knowledge about ecosystemic racism), constructive reactive coping patterns (e.g., self-reflexivity), positive/stable identification (e.g., embodied antiracism), and productive developmental outcomes (e.g., antiracist practices/policy). Applying PVEST to the study of antiracist identity formation, while tenable, is not without its shortcomings. Research on PVEST does not focus on educators’ racialized net vulnerabilities or progressions toward antiracist lifestyles. The remainder of this section addresses this drawback.

The monomyth of personal transformation

Antiracist self-transformation and antiracism are bidirectionally fused (see Lerner, 2015). Systemic change flows from self-reflexivity and liberation. When relative plasticity is optimal, racist ecosystems can be modified into antiracist alternatives. People must be developmentally ready to critique their own biases and behaviorally prepared to jettison race-dysconscious mindsets in exchange for race-conscious methods of engaging with the world. Germane to this point is the monomyth theory originated by mythologist Joseph Campbell (1949) and refined by multidisciplinary successors (e.g., Vogler, 2017).² Monomyth theory describes the archetypal “hero’s journey” as a psychological development cycle that involves a separation from the status quo, struggle, and personal growth (Ambasciano, 2020). The theory has been treated as a domain- and life-problem-solving tool due to its intuitive structure and applicability across divergent contexts, including personality development (Jones, 2014) and teacher socialization (Randles, 2012). We assert that monomythic concepts reflect aspects of self-liberation.

Monomyth theory echoes the three-act structure of many mythological and contemporary stories wherein a protagonist ascends to a higher consciousness through a process of separation, initiation, and return (Ambasciano, 2020). Separation symbolizes the events/actions that awaken protagonists to destructive status quos and that trigger journeys of self-transformation; initiation symbolizes the events/actions that both hinder and facilitate protagonists along their journeys; and return symbolizes the events/actions that flow from personal transformation and that ripple into broader consequences for the world. Different versions of the hero’s journey subdivide the three-act structure into smaller parts (varying between 7 and 31 components), meaning there is no singular version of the framework (see Campbell, 1949; Cooke, 2019). Vogler’s (2017) 12-part model has been one of the most widely-received variants of the theory (e.g., Randles, 2012). In the first act of Vogler’s model, protagonists display high levels of dysconsciousness toward the ordinary world (i.e., status quo) and psychological detachments between self, identity, and the problems of society. This state of affairs persists until protagonists experience a jarring event, or call to adventure, which forces a painful psychological confrontation between self and reality. Although initial responses to the call manifest as forms of avoidance or denial, the refusal of the call is averted when protagonists meet the mentor who guides them into the next phases of the journey. In the second act, as protagonists realize their roles in changing the status quo, mentors help them cross the threshold into unfamiliar and dangerous realms. In this “special world,” tests, allies, and enemies present obstacles and avenues that determine whether protagonists approach the inmost cave, or moment of greatest challenge or peril. Once inside the cave, if protagonists emerge from a decisive ordeal, they obtain a vital reward that places them on the road back to the ordinary world. In the final act, protagonists resurrect as psychologically transformed beings who return home with the elixir, or newfound wisdom and social consciousness, in the hopes of transforming the status quo into a more perfect society.

Parallels between the hero’s journey and race consciousness development are salient. Both concern personal transformations from dysconsciousness to consciousness, as well as social and psychological dynamics that define the transformational process itself. However, the three-act structure of the theory is insufficient given our social scientific purposes. We nest the antiracist educator’s journey within a quadripartite structure grounded in liberation psychology.

The psychological phases of liberation

Undisrupted ecosystemic racism (re)creates, sustains, and strengthens anti-liberational attitudes, beliefs, practices, and norms that are internalized by the majority of society (see also Harro, 2013). Psychologists and educators—the readership of this journal—reside within racist ecosystems and are not immune from its socializing influences. Psychologists and educators cannot solve the problem of ecosystemic racism if their own dysconscious biases and system-justifying actions continue to perpetuate dominant ideologies and practices (see Vargas et al., 2021). Ways of enhancing critical consciousness and antiracist engagement are needed. Because the antiracist educator’s journey combines educational and psychological research, it is important to theorize and formulate from a place of caution. Education and psychology are part and parcel of racist ecosystems. Historically, educational opportunities designed to foster literacy and other basic skills have been denied to black and indigenous people. For instance, illiteracy was used as a form of social control over the enslaved (Bartz, 2019) and indigenous boarding schools played prominent roles in cultural erasure and European (white) domination (Pewewardy et al., 2018). Psychology is equally culpable of perpetuating racism throughout its history. Early on the field was entangled in eugenics, intelligence testing, scientific racism, and research on “innate” racial differences (see Richards, 2012). Psychology has given undue scientific legitimacy to uncritical educational practices like standardized testing, deficit-based pedagogy, and grade-centered instruction (see Winfield, 2007). In contrast, liberational approaches in psychology (see Watkins & Shulman, 2008), education (see Love, 2000), and educational psychology (see Sánchez et al., 2021) offer methods to assist in the dissolution of system-sustaining blind spots, patterns of avoidance, and race-dysconscious mindsets.

Liberational concepts and themes reveal integral aspects of antiracist identity formation. Relevant to our framework is the transformational indigenous praxis model (TIPM; Pewewardy et al., 2018). The TIPM promotes critical awareness and cultural consciousness by exposing how educational systems are complicit in white supremacy and by reframing instruction in social justice terms. The model has four stages marked by increasing levels of social consciousness. At the lowest stage, practitioners of the contributions approach hold dysconscious mindsets and convey satisfaction (or do not convey dissatisfaction) with the system. Proponents of this pedagogy have not critiqued the racist content of their curriculum and instruction. The absence of critical awareness results in superficial multicultural practices and calls for assimilation. In the next stage, practitioners of the additive approach display moments of social awareness or bursts of critical thought. Yet, the development of social consciousness is slow, contradictory, and tenuous. Proponents of additive pedagogy see value in asset-based education but continue to equate Western curricula to a “superior” standard. Educators may feel overwhelmed by the idea of systemic transformation and revert to rote Eurocentric activities. In stage three, practitioners of the transformation approach are race-conscious and have begun to modify curricula and practices. Proponents of this pedagogy leverage personal privileges to devote resources toward the fruition of liberatory systems. At the highest stage, practitioners of the cultural/social justice action approach act upon race-conscious ideals that have become second nature. Educators at this level practice egalitarian mentorship, resist racism inside and outside academia, and help others navigate through the TIPM stages. Stage-four practitioners partner with marginalized people to direct efforts toward the attainment of mutual antiracist aims.

The TIPM offers ideas about how race consciousness, ecosystemic orientations, and antiracist identities are fettered by maladaptive individual-context relations that normalize alienation, apathy, and racial hierarchy. Educators find psychological comfort in familiar contributions- or additive-based approaches that do little to solve the problem of ecosystemic racism in education. Further, the social consequences of resistance become more pronounced and violent as educators reach higher-order levels of awareness (see Pewewardy et al., 2018). Educators maneuvering across racially hostile contexts encounter risk and protective factors similar to those outlined in the TIPM and theorized by frameworks like PVEST. Liberation psychology and our prior research (Saetermoe et al., in prep.) lead us to postulate that the antiracist educator’s journey entails a four-facet process of awareness, deconstruction, reconstruction, and praxis (Figure 3).

How to be an antiracist educator: a theoretical framework

The antiracist educator’s journey points to a collection of distinct and interactive social-psychological processes that make the development of enduring antiracist identities possible. We mapped 15 monomythic components onto 4 phases of liberational self-transformation. Each component underscores unique bidirectional processes that shift educators in and out of specific liberational phases. Antiracist identity formation differs for those with dominant/subordinate social statuses. We indicate how the journey manifests differently for educators of color and white educators. Race/racism uniquely disadvantage educators of color, leading to isolation, marginalization, and discrimination (see Museus et al., 2011). Educators of color working in predominantly-white contexts also face routine forms of racism that adversely impact their physiological and psychological well-being (Pizarro & Kohli, 2020). Alternatively, white educators experience a history of privilege that has reinforced white normalcy (see Bonilla-Silva, 2022a). The task for white educators is to evaluate their own positionality and eschew unearned privileges as they come to understand, adopt, and carry out critical perspectives (see Haynes, 2023). Fundamentally, the character of the journey for a given educator varies as a function of idiosyncratic individual-context relations that take place within racialized human ecologies.

Liberation psychology phase 1: awareness

Five components comprise the awareness phase (Figure 4). The components illustrate the nuances of mindsets on the “uncritical” anchor of the race consciousness continuum. Category 0 and 1 mindsets held by white educators endorse ecosystemically racist conditions or are unaware of the gravity of ecosystemic racism, respectively; educators of color on this part of the spectrum are more likely to display varying levels of internalized racism (see Pyke, 2010; Shim, 2018).³ Although we do not focus on remedies for addressing Category 0 mindsets, as they require intensive interventions (see Picciolini, 2017; Simi et al., 2017), progressions toward higher-order mindset categories likely follow trajectories akin to the antiracist educator’s journey regardless of which mindset may be active. This subsection focuses on the phenomenology of people held captive by Category 1 mindsets.

Figure 4. Journey components of the awareness phase. Boldface: applicable to educators of color. Italics: applicable to white educators. Regular Text: applicable to all educators.

Component 1: stasis

Educators in stasis are unaware of or unmoved by the severity of ecosystemic racism, which means that white supremacy routinely goes unchallenged across all segments of education. Dominant ideologies encourage educators to defend unjust educational arrangements (see Augoustinos & Every, 2007). Social psychological studies have found that support for the status quo provides a sense of security, favorable social identity, and reduced need for openness to novel experiences, which collectively offer a false sense of bliss (Jost & Hunyady, 2005). People are motivated to perceive society as legitimate in order to rationalize unfounded beliefs in personal responsibility and an inherently just world (Jost & Banaji, 1994). Beliefs in personal responsibility and a just world interact to produce victim-blame behavior toward targets of injustice (Jost et al., 2004). System-justifying actions serve palliative functions that reduce guilt, cognitive dissonance, uncertainty, and the discomfort that arises when the unpalatable reality that life is unfair and unjust enters consciousness (see Jost & Hunyady, 2003). Color evasion, individualism, meritocracy, and other ideologies lead to fallacies about racial inequity that detach the self from ecosystemic racism (see Aquino, 2020; Vargas et al., 2021). Stasis is a state of developmental regulation in which racialized contexts and the personal “benefits” of ecosystemic racism are mutually sustained (see Lerner, 2015).

Educators from dominant/subordinate groups defend the status quo from the standpoint of their racialized net vulnerabilities. Although white educators justify the system because their personal, social, and societal identities are typically in alignment, educators of color engage in system-justification as a coping strategy designed to mitigate the negative effects of managing discordant personal-, social-, and system-level identities. Educators of color also face pressures to assimilate to white social norms and may internalize racist stereotypes as a means of surviving white-dominated spaces and places (see Hwang, 2021). Among white educators, racist ecosystems promote a preoccupation with self-interest that also correlates with a restrictive view of educational equity (Haynes, 2023). The incentives for leaving the presumed safety of the status quo may not be sufficient or desirable enough to initiate race consciousness development if the perceived “costs” are personal stakes in the system. Educators of color fear ostracism or retaliation while white educators prefer acting through a white habitus (Buenavista et al., 2023). Socially- or personally-driven ruptures in race-dysconscious thinking are required to commence a transition away from a Category 1 mindset.

Component 2: call to the antiracist journey

Events that disrupt ingrained forms of race dysconsciousness manifest in countless scenarios. Contextual-level phenomena of a jarring nature can jolt people out of stasis, albeit briefly (Ambasciano, 2020; Vogler, 2017). Instances of police violence directed at people of color exemplify how social events trigger temporary shifts in race dysconsciousness. After the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, it was found that internet search engines across over 100 nations saw increases in words like “race,” “racism,” and similar themes (Barrie, 2020). Social media platforms had declines in negative black sentiment and increases in awareness of structural racism (Nguyen et al., 2021). Unsurprisingly, the effects were superficial and temporary. Applebaum (2010) argued that white people require an event of great magnitude to recognize racist acts. In the aftermath of similar police-involved murders (e.g., Breonna Taylor), white people who were once moved to join antiracist movements reduced their involvement, suggesting their dedication to antiracism was neither deeply held nor focused on systemic change and, in turn, was unsustainable (Onwuachi-Willig, 2021; Teixeira et al., 2022). For people of color, antiracist actions are hampered when recurrent acts of racial violence lead to psychological fatigue/numbing (see Carter, 2007; Gorski, 2019; Pizarro & Kohli, 2020). These racialized net vulnerabilities impede antiracist identity formation.

Individual-level racist events can disrupt race dysconsciousness as much as, or more so than, contextual-level analogues (see Smith & Redington, 2010). Racism experienced personally or vicariously is psychologically traumatic (Carter, 2007). Exposure to microaggressions and other humiliations decrease social cohesion and threaten trust, but they also challenge just world ideological thinking. Calls to the antiracist educator’s journey should elicit discontent with the system and produce perceptions of systemic illegitimacy (see Keefer et al., 2015). Skepticism toward the status quo enhances the relevance of antiracism (Teixeira et al., 2022). At the same time, systems provide pseudo-safety and pseudo-security, which override race-conscious reasoning. Educators may revert to forms of stasis, especially within racialized contexts. Absent certain protective factors (e.g., mentors), jarring events alone will never outweigh the temptations of stasis. System-justification will appear rational and tenable.

Component 3: refusal of the call

System-justifications guard the self-concept and separate the self from accusations of racism and a moral responsibility to alleviate inequities (Augoustinos & Every, 2007; Jost & Hunyady, 2005). Penchants for neutrality and bystanderism are understandable given the psychologically painful process of awareness (Love, 2000). In efforts to present a “nonracist” and “neutral” self-image, people may rely on self-censorship or humor when issues of ecosystemic racism become personally or socially salient (Barnes et al., 2001). People also engage in color evasion by claiming that they “don’t see color” (to avoid racial topics) or power evasion by minimizing/denying the severity of racism (Bonilla-Silva, 2022a; Mekawi et al., 2020). In other instances, denial/avoidance tactics embroil appeals to liberal principles like equality and individualism (see Vargas et al., 2021). System-justifications provide ontological security, rationalize inaction in the face of injustice, and are executed by dominant/subordinate groups based on their racialized net vulnerabilities. In racialized contexts, white educators refuse antiracist calls in order to protect familiar stakes and recenter antiracist discourses back onto whiteness (see Bonilla-Silva, 2022b). Educators of color are more susceptible than white educators and, as such, decline calls in order to defend limited stakes and elude repercussions in a hostile status quo (Turner et al., 2008). Overall, antiracist calls may go unanswered if dysconscious educators lack the guidance of antiracist and critical others who possess counter-knowledge and related skill sets.

Component 4: meeting the antiracist mentor

In the ecology of antiracist identity formation, social psychological connections with others who are farther along the journey can serve as turning points among educators who carry the promise to surpass the challenges ahead (see Smith & Redington, 2010). Educators form these bonds passively or actively. Exposure to the antiracist works of diverse writers is one way that educators (and white educators, especially) can develop a passive connection to the authors and others in social justice movements. Books by renowned experts—Battalora’s (2013) Birth of a White Nation or Kendi’s (2019) How to Be an Antiracist—can build an initial foundation for nascent race-conscious mindsets. Film and other media also serve similar inspirational functions. Still, active connections between educators and antiracist mentors do better to foster a passion for social justice work (Heppner, 2017) and to account for racialized net vulnerabilities. All-white antiracist affinity groups provide safe spaces white educators need to examine the meaning of white identity, critique their own actions, and develop ecosystemic orientations (see Michael et al., 2009). To avoid reinforcing dysconscious system-justifications within all-white contexts, it is imperative that white educators find affinity groups that provide ample opportunities to learn about antiracism from people of color (see Howard, 2016). Educators of color can challenge internalized racism and other risk factors by finding similar communities (see Samuel & Wane, 2005). Support from members who encourage one another in challenging the status quo can be instrumental for educators of color.

Antiracist mentors are able to navigate difficult conversations about ecosystemic racism and offer personal feedback as they instill hope for a better future (see Neville, 2015). They also attend to many aspects of their protégés’ race consciousness development. This includes helping protégés locate their own privileges and positionality within a racial hierarchy (McGeorge & Carlson, 2010). As educators begin to link the self with previously depersonalized antiracist information, apprehension and system-justifying tendencies will become heightened. Reversions toward race dysconsciousness are real possibilities. Mentors are indispensable human resources who can keep educators committed to the journey (see Duckworth & Maxwell, 2015). Educators are better equipped to trek through the more unsettling phases of self-liberation when they have guidance and when they know they are not alone.

Component 5: crossing the threshold

Educators who have reached this part of the journey begin to consider the abandonment of the status quo, the “old self,” pseudo-safety, and pseudo-security. Yet, as educators become emersed in counter-ideological discourses and open to self-change, hesitation and reversions to lower-order journey components can occur. Despite self-awareness about how cultural ideologies, values, beliefs, and popular discourses influence perceptions of and relationships with others, educators may lack the mettle to tackle sensitive and emotive conversations around ecosystemic racism, especially when topics implicate the self-concept (see McGeorge & Carlson, 2010; Tilki et al., 2007). Antiracist mentors have the power to open avenues for deeper critical reflection (see Duckworth & Maxwell, 2015). Mentors may have educators practice mental and/or written self-reflection activities that critique notions of race/racial identity (Jackson et al., 2021; Saetermoe et al., in prep.). Self-reflection is a potent and readily accessible psychological resource known to improve critical enlightenment, acknowledgment of cultural loss (especially among educators of color), and the identification of personal biases (see Bender et al., 2010). Mentors can also help educators find ways to navigate cultural borders or enter networks with likeminded others (see Heppner, 2017; Neville, 2015). This involves maneuvering educators outside their comfort zones and into justice-themed realms that could include on-campus dialogues, conferences, or meetings that critically examine multiculturalism and the social equity principle (Riley & Solic, 2017).

The mechanisms that underlie threshold-crossing have less to do with the particulars of antiracist knowledge and more to do with the self-transformational potential of this knowledge during this component of the journey. Key to raising awareness are adaptive developmental regulations made possible through alignments between developmentally-ready educators and nurturant antiracist contexts. Educators on the verge of deconstruction will express trepidation. Ways to counter this stress will differ based on dominant/subordinate social statuses and educators’ racialized net vulnerabilities. Threshold-crossing requires white educators to self-reflect and confront their internalized white supremacy and collusion in ecosystemic racism (see DiAngelo, 2018; Watkins & Shulman, 2008). Educators of color must confront their system-justification, internalized racism, and devotion to the dominant culture (see Jackson et al., 2021; Jost, 2019; Jost & Banaji, 1994; Jost et al., 2004). Racialized net vulnerabilities will recur to varying degrees throughout the entire journey. Educators need more-powerful and equally-recurrent social supports to navigate the ensuing phases.

Liberation psychology phase 2: deconstruction

Three components comprise the deconstruction phase (Figure 5). The components illustrate the nuances of mindsets moving toward the “critical anchor” of the race consciousness continuum. We discuss the phenomenologies of educators held captive by Category 2 mindsets. Educators in this phase begin to realize how their racial socialization cultivates an internalization of implicit biases and racist ideologies (see Tilki et al., 2007). The degree of self-reflexivity is amplified and generates threats to the self-concept. Educators require the phenomenological fortitude to confront the pains incurred from the commission of prior racist acts.

Figure 5. Journey components of the deconstruction phase. Boldface: applicable to educators of color. Italics: applicable to white educators. Regular Text: applicable to all educators.

Component 6: challenges, allies, and foes

Educators aware of how ecosystemic racism operates and who have reached the initial phase of deconstruction must develop the skills that aid in guiding self-review and integrating ecosystemic-based knowledge with the self. Environments can both impede and facilitate the deconstruction process. Challenges result from forces that pull educators in opposite directions; one toward race dysconsciousness and one toward antiracism. Obstacles arise from contextual- and individual-level racialized net vulnerabilities. In encounters where race dysconscious individuals are legitimately critiqued for perpetuating racist behavior, there is a tendency to dismiss the observer, perceive a personal slight, or view the self as morally bad (see DiAngelo, 2018). Among educators, these unpleasant but unavoidable interactions may elicit self-paralysis or desires to abandon the self-transformation project. Other external obstacles include interpersonal conflicts. Research on white antiracist activists has found that discordances with family members, valued friends, and colleagues are common (Smith & Redington, 2010). As educators expand their antiracist skills and knowledge, their ability to communicate and relate with those not on the journey will be tested and their relationships may change appreciably (see Riley & Solic, 2017). Relatedly, miscommunication makes educators targets of parent and politician hostility (Heffernan, 2021; Kingkade et al., 2021), producing educator stress and fear. Internal sources of conflict are also challenging. Among white educators, linking aspects of the self to racism prompts racial stress. Spanierman and Cabrera (2014) identified a constellation of emotional reactions that arise among white people in racialized situations. These reactions include apathy, fear, melancholia/nostalgia, rage, guilt, and shame. Among educators of color, internal obstacles involve conflicts between ego-, group-, and system-justification, internalized racism, and imposterism (see Dancy & Jean-Marie, 2014; Jackson et al., 2021; Jost & Banaji, 1994; Vargas et al., 2021). Educators of color also have concerns about retaliation over their race-focused justice work (see Kohli & Pizarro, 2022). To progress through the self-reflexive phases of deconstruction, antiracist change agents (e.g., mentors; affinity groups) must continue to play supportive roles that prepare educators to “unstick” themselves from ingrained dominant/subordinate roles (see Love, 2000; Pewewardy et al., 2018).

Component 7: approach

Self-reflection work and confronting racism yield personal costs (see McGeorge & Carlson, 2010). As educators advance on pivotable self-transformational events, temptations to adhere to race-dysconscious roles arise and may terminate the journey temporarily or permanently. Educators may engage in foreclosure and prematurely believe they have “become” antiracist while continuing to participate in additive approaches (see Pewewardy et al., 2018). Educators may also become exhausted with the journey itself (Horwege, 2020). The notion of social justice fatigue implies that people undergo physical and psychological tolls as a consequence of doing justice work (Furr, 2018). Exhaustion creates the illusion that antiracist work mirrors professional work, wherein frames like “clocking out,” “checking out,” or “taking a break” make sense (see Flynn, 2015). The fact is that no person can ever extricate themselves—even momentarily—from an omnipresent racialized power structure adept at mutating itself so as to uphold ecosystemic racism. Extrication will be attempted due to racialized net vulnerabilities. Flynn found that white people experience white fatigue, in which they become tired of learning and talking about issues of race/racism, even though they comprehend the severity of racial injustice. Though qualitatively different, educators of color who infuse justice-oriented approaches to their instruction experience racial battle fatigue, or the psychological and physical stresses that result from microaggressions, the minimization of their credentials and scholarship, or retaliation for challenging racist power structures (Gorski, 2019). Critical communities or antiracist entities can serve as buffers against various forms of fatigue, hopelessness, or complacency (see Pizarro & Kohli, 2020). Social supports are essential as the next aspect of the journey requires the use of adaptive reactive coping strategies that not only combat foreclosure or fatigue but also prepare the journey-taker for a decisive confrontation between the old self and a now-emerging antiracist identity. The task for educators of color is to utilize knowledge and skill sets acquired along the journey to combat false inferiority and internalized racism (Hwang, 2021); for white educators, the task is to combat false superiority and a white habitus that readily erases racism in defense of racist norms and white comfort (see Bonilla-Silva, 2022a, 2022b).

Component 8: ordeal and facing the shadow self

Shifts from Category 2 mindsets to a higher-order critical consciousness are brought forth via the deliberate annihilation of the race-dysconscious shadow self and, by default, a symbolic death of the old self. Much like a memento mori, thoughts of symbolic mortality produce anxieties, fears, and denials (see Becker, 1973). People may feel a sense of betrayal, loss, or mourning when they relinquish additive pedagogical styles that have been comfortable, habituated, and self-defining (see Pewewardy et al., 2018). Research on personal development has revealed how uncomfortable psychological dynamics facilitate the creation of new mental structures and means of connecting to the self, others, and society (Jones, 2014). Decades ago, Cienin (aka Dąbrowski, 1972) presented the idea of positive disintegration to discuss how new values become embodied via “inner anxiety, inner conflicts, maladjustments, sorrows, and disruptions—everything that demeans our position in the scale of human values” (p. 7). For race-dysconscious educators, race consciousness requires more than combating social justice fatigue; dissolution of the Category 2 mindset (with all attendant psychological corollaries) is the ultimate price of self-liberation. In these decisive moments, journey-takers have the privilege of choice: regression to a life of perpetual ecosystemic racism after all that has transpired along the journey, or progression toward a self who is capable of reconstruction. Given the temptations of the status quo, it is reasonable to choose regression or abandonment. The privilege of this choice—regardless of racialized net vulnerability—is not consequence-free.

Educators of color who regress to a Category 1 mindset face a life of perpetual racialized injury. To unravel internalized racism, educators of color must deconstruct the racist stereotypes and narratives that promote inferiorization (see Hwang, 2021). This can be accomplished through rehumanizing interpersonal relationships that foster empowerment, ethnic pride, and progression toward socially conscious mindsets. The costs for white educators are multifold (see Goodman, 2011). Those who regress experience lifelong psychological costs (e.g., superiority complex; maladaptive coping), social costs (e.g., isolation), and moral costs (e.g., dissonance; guilt). They also face intellectual costs (e.g., stereotypic reasoning), material costs (e.g., reduced quality of life), and abstract costs (e.g., loss of humanity). Fortunately, there is a path by which to avoid regression. If educators are willing to endure and excise the old self in exchange for continual growth opportunities, then new experiences and rewards await the antiracist educator.

Liberation psychology phase 3: reconstruction

Four components comprise the reconstruction phase (Figure 6). The components capture nuances of mindsets on the “nascent antiracist” portion of the race consciousness continuum. This phase represents a regeneration period when emergent identities can stabilize (see Spencer, 2008; Watkins & Shulman, 2008). Having shed the burden of internalized racism or white superiority, educators find themselves in a renaissance of new ideas about curricula, classroom management, and relationships with supervisors, colleagues, and students (see Jackson et al., 2021). The rewards of self-transformation are numerous and involve experiences with previously untapped emotions and the construction of novel knowledge structures. Still, new challenges arise that must be surmounted if educators expect to effect ecosystemic change.

Figure 6. Journey components of the reconstruction phase. Boldface: applicable to educators of color. Italics: applicable to white educators. Regular Text: applicable to all educators.

Component 9: apotheosis

Symbolic rebirth promotes a cascade of emotions, thoughts, and actions that rejuvenate the new self and provide a sense of relief following a confrontation with the shadow self. Educators in this phase begin to embrace an activist orientation consistent with the principles of transformational pedagogy (see Pewewardy et al., 2018). Activism eases racialized net vulnerability. Activism is associated with improvements in positive affect, life satisfaction, personal growth, and subjective vitality (Klar & Kasser, 2009). Among those in the dominant group, antiracist activism and white humility foster empathy, compassion, hope, peace of mind, moral fulfillment, and self-integrity (see Smith & Redington, 2010; Spanierman & Cabrera, 2014). Educators of color can embark on a new path to activism with the assistance of networks that inspire interest in community cultural wealth and systemic change (see Heppner, 2017; Yosso, 2005). Goodman (2011) has identified several benefits associated with social justice work. Benefits are knowledge-based (e.g., antiracist reasoning), psychological (e.g., life purpose), and self-conceptual (e.g., sense of humanity). Mentors and critical experts can assist journey-takers in further trusting the process of unlearning oppression (see also McGeorge & Carlson, 2010). Adaptive individual-context relations exist to place educators in psychological states that are receptive to the journey’s prime reward: the ecosystemic lens.

Component 10: treasure

Ecosystemic lenses take on many forms and are not restricted to a single conceptualization. For parsimony, we propose one operationalization. Referenced earlier was a typology of 10 system-justifying discourses known to reinforce race-dysconscious actions (see Vargas et al., 2021). We argue that for every system-justifying discourse, there is a counter-discourse. Table 1 provides a non-exhaustive typology of 10 antiracist discursive themes. The typology lists critical behavioral-communicative strategies capable of satisfying the same needs met via system-justification. First, self-esteem maintenance can be satisfied through actions that reject pathologization and that are amenable to critical self-criticism. Second, acknowledgement of historical and ecosystemic racism builds new mental structures that inform knowledge-management processes in antiracist contexts. Third, inclusive and race-conscious communicative styles nurture mental schemas that serve a social-adjustive function and assist educators in navigating racialized interpersonal transactions. Fourth, social rewards follow when educators approach minoritized people without apprehension and learn to collaborate with marginalized groups toward common aims. Lastly, educators can internalize and express race-conscious values like equity and contextualization in lieu of race-dysconscious ideologies.

Table 1. Typology of system-justifying mechanisms and their respective attitudinal functions and counter-discourses.

Attitudinal function	System-justifying mechanism	Counter-discourse theme
Ego-defensive:	Pathologization:	Destigmatization: Educators can destigmatize people who appear to act in ways that do not match the social expectations of the dominant group. Educators can appreciate things that go against their notions of “normal.”
	Victimization:	Redemption: Educators can accept criticism with openness and grace. Educators can acknowledge that they may have engaged in discriminatory acts and, with this knowledge, can change their behavior.
Knowledge-management:	Ahistoricization:	Historicization: Educators can learn about the historical roots of structural racism and learn how prior acts of racism produce consequences that ripple into the present.
	Denialism:	Acceptance: Educators can accept that structural racism is a modern-day reality. Coming from a place of acceptance is necessary to effectively change racist institutional and cultural practices.
Social-adjustive:	Assimilationism:	Inclusivity: Through humility, educators can be non-judgmental, open to the contributions of minoritized groups, and intentional in personal efforts to create truly inclusive and accepting relationships.
	Color Evasion:	Race Consciousness: Educators can see race not as a biological reality but rather as a “divide-and-conquer” social construction designed to elevate “white” people above all others.
Utilitarian/Instrumental:	Avoidance/Aversive Racism:	Approach: Educators can lean on their discomfort and vulnerability. By approaching others who generate apprehension, educators can gain new insights and begin to see others as dignified human beings with value.
	Meritocracy/Symbolic Racism:	Collaboration: Educators can see people in ways that go beyond competitive ideas about worth and achievement. Educators can consider how racist social-political structures impact minoritized people and work together to change those structures.
Value-expressive:	Equality/Sameness:	Equity: Educators can value fairness. Unlike equality, or the principle of “to each the same,” equity, or the principle of “to each by need,” is much more likely to address the unique challenges of minoritized people.
	Individualization:	Contextualization: Educators can place human behavior in social-historical (ecosystemic) contexts. Educators can see how cultural legacies of racism continue to impede efforts toward realizing equity.

Note. Counter-discourses function in ways that are additive, interactive, and context-dependent. The 10 counter-discourses represent one possible set of critical behavioral-communicative strategies designed to assist in the development of race consciousness.

Counter-discourses modulate racialized net vulnerability. Educators of color have the power to elevate community cultural wealth (see Yosso, 2005). Counter-discourses afford marginalized educators chances to leverage their cultural capital (e.g., bilingualism) in their own pedagogical practices. Conversely, counter-discourses provide white educators with new rhetorical devices that arouse humility, active listening, and the decentering of whiteness (see DiAngelo, 2018, DiAngelo & Sensoy, 2014). Initially, the use of counter-discourses is unfamiliar and error-prone because they have not been fully internalized. Educators can habitualize critical behavioral-communicative strategies through repetition and refinement. Yet, discourses alone will not produce ecosystemic change. As novel challenges within the ecology of antiracist identity formation arise, educators must determine what to do with their new ecosystemic orientations.

Component 11: refusal of the return

Once in possession of an ecosystemic lens, many educators hesitate to share their knowledge due to concerns about how the information will be received by others or for fear of reprisals (see Gorski, 2019; Kohli & Pizarro, 2022). Educators face discomfort at the thought of returning to their ordinary lives with new attitudes and ideas (Riley & Solic, 2017). With critical perceptions and multilevel-dialectical comprehension come new racialized net vulnerabilities. Maladaptive developmental regulations create impediments to action (see Lerner, 2015). Psychological manifestations of refusal include feeling overwhelmed or paralyzed by the enormity of ecosystemic injustice or feeling incapable of doing justice work, especially if risks are possible and protective factors are scarce (see Goodman, 2011). The road back to the ordinary world requires overcoming these barriers. Critical others can offer relevant feedback (Thorne et al., 2021). Adaptive individual-context relations between educators and antiracist support systems deepen commitment to antiracism by providing opportunities to reimagine the world while placing personal struggles and triumphs in context.

Component 12: road back home

Transitioning from apprentice antiracist to actual antiracist engenders its own difficulties (see Randles, 2012). Becoming fluent in a critical “language” can be frustrating and unsettling (Riley & Solic, 2017). To retain antiracist educators under such conditions, they must be aided by mentors who know how to embolden their protégés to discuss multiple perspectives and “taboo talk” regarding social injustice (Picower, 2011). Critical mentors can instill an enthusiasm to draw from lived experiences, which is notably helpful to educators of color (Cantor, 2002). Critical educator networks assist nascent antiracists identify plans for sustaining critical pedagogy within educational environments (see Ritchie, 2012). Plans may incorporate methods that increase awareness through the personalization of social justice issues, foster critical thinking through normative practices, or inform the development of didactic and experiential learning materials (see Odegard & Vereen, 2010). Educators may employ personal actions to overcome barriers to antiracist praxis. Goodman (2011) has offered 12 recommendations: (1) know that change takes time and that progress is nonlinear, (2) identify examples of successful social justice efforts, (3) view the self as part of a community of change agents, (4) begin with small steps, (5) set up opportunities for success and positive experiences, (6) address social justice issues that generate passion, (7) choose appropriate levels of risk, (8) identify ways to grow as a change agent, (9) shift negative emotions into constructive actions, (10) find sources of personal and social support, (11) consider the benefits of social justice work, and (12) engage in self-care. The fusion of individual- and contextual-level support systems can help antiracist educators unleash the transformational power of the ecosystemic lens and, in turn, the actualization of a productive antiracist identity.

Educators nearing praxis must embody new habits to regulate their net vulnerabilities. Educators of color can use their ecosystemic lenses to lead institutional change and coalition-building efforts (see Campbell et al., 2019). Moreover, white educators should always assume a humble stance when facilitating social actions while using self-reflexive skills to bring other educators into antiracist movements (see Goodman, 2011). Becoming involved in antiracist actions by assuming leadership and mentorship responsibilities is a considerable endeavor; only in community can educators realize social change at their own institutions.

Liberation psychology phase 4: praxis

Three components comprise the praxis phase (Figure 7).⁴ The components illustrate the nuances of mindsets on the “embodied antiracist” anchor of the race consciousness continuum. Embodied Category 3 mindsets are syntheses of earlier phases and result in natural inclinations to identify and fight ecosystemic racism (see Tilki et al., 2007). The routine and public nature of antiracist action is a distinguishing feature of praxis.

Figure 7. Journey components of the praxis phase. Boldface: applicable to educators of color. Italics: applicable to white educators. Regular Text: applicable to all educators.

Component 13: master of two worlds

Educators who reach this phase are capable of labeling and correcting instances of ecosystem racism with relative ease. Educators understand what characterizes the status quo and are able to conceive antiracist alternatives (see Pewewardy et al., 2018). Sustaining race consciousness depends on educators’ capacity to continually label their intersecting social positions within racist ecosystems that are always in states of flux (see Almeida, 2016). Stabilized race consciousness rests on mental structures that can identify, name, and challenge the actions, norms, and social-political structures that buttress ecosystemic racism (see DiAngelo & Sensoy, 2014). Bearers of the ecosystemic lens have also internalized critical behavioral-communicative strategies and, thus, are in powerful social positions. These positions come with a duty to mentor others farther behind the journey and to enact antiracist values inside and outside formal educational settings.

Educators venturing into praxis modulate their racialized net vulnerabilities. Educators of color are “outsiders within” who traverse across dominant/subordinate spaces and obtain insider knowledge and resources (Williams et al., 2021). Marginalized educators capitalize community cultural wealth and identify approaches that bridge traditional pedagogy and social justice work (see Yosso, 2005). Correspondingly, white educators take advantage of their privileged social status and—through affinity groups, mentorship, and other social supports—mobilize other white people to begin the process of awareness and antiracist identity formation (see Goodman, 2011). Majoritarian educators are positioned to decenter whiteness, avoid white saviorism, and uplift antiracism (see Whitaker, 2020).

Component 14: antiracist educator’s return

Actions toward antiracist change are avenues for a fuller reconciliation between older and newer knowledge structures. Antiracism emulates “a state of mind, feeling, political commitment and action to eradicate racial oppression and transform unequal social relations” (Dominelli, 2008, p. 28). Several actions can be taken to educate dysconscious others about ecosystemic racism, including actions involved in a journey-taker’s own personal development. Actions can also be indirect or direct. Disseminating antiracist scholarship like this article can have indirect transformative impacts both inside and outside educational contexts (see also Grant, 2012; Vargas et al., 2021). More direct actions include the use of silence breakers, analogies, and vignettes when educating others in antiracism (DiAngelo & Sensoy, 2014). The particulars of these actions are not as central as the methods by which they are implemented. Effective antiracist mentorship requires having a sense of care and an ability to see others holistically while engaging in egalitarian relationships (see Essed, 2013). To mentor others in antiracism, Goodman (2011) has offered seven recommendations: (1) view the full humanity of others, (2) affirm the positive qualities of others, (3) listen without judgment, (4) consider the feelings, experiences, and perspectives of others, (5) empathize with the experiences of others, (6) validate others’ feelings, and (7) respect others’ commitment. Antiracist educators who embody effective critical mentorship have reached an ecosystemic orientation level that is self-sustaining and sufficient to resist everyday racism (see Aquino, 2016).

Praxis-oriented educators are meta-cognizant of their racialized net vulnerabilities. Educators of color who engage in praxis use insider knowledge and community cultural wealth to support other marginalized educators and students (see Yosso, 2005). They also resist social pressures from institutional agents that seek to preserve the status quo. Although educators of color risk penalties for their justice-oriented educational agendas (see Kohli & Pizarro, 2022), their levels of race consciousness, ecosystemic orientation, and identity stabilization yield productive outcomes for themselves and others (see Spencer, 2008). Arguably, white educators must remain mindful of the relatively greater risks of their colleagues of color and should not place onto them the burden of eradicating ecosystemic racism (Vargas et al., 2021). In praxis, white educators interact and work with people of color and animate other white educators to take antiracist journeys. They also champion expansive views of educational equity that restructure classrooms and other educational contexts (see Haynes, 2023; Pewewardy et al., 2018).

Component 15: ascension

Embodied race consciousness results in the enactment of antiracist values and practices across professional and personal domains of life. Educators openly promote behaviors that push back against racism (see Kendi, 2019). Educators also oppose racist power by modeling reciprocal mentorship (see Pewewardy et al., 2018; Vargas et al., 2021). The degree of devotion to social justice is sufficient to automatize everyday antiracism, a set of quotidian actions that fight ecosystemic racism at the micro-spheres of interpersonal contexts and which tear through larger meso- and macro-spheres (see Aquino, 2016; Lerner, 2015; Spencer, 2008). Everyday antiracism includes grass-roots mobilization, the introduction of antiracism into institutional/organizational contexts, antiracist bystanderism (aka “calling out”), engagement with group differences, and unabashed rejections of system-justifying discourses (see Aquino, 2020; Essed, 2013). The greater aim of antiracist educators is to cultivate flourishing lives. Grant (2012) has offered five recommendations to meet this feat: (1) Self-assessment: teach others how to self-identify, (2) Critical Questioning: pose debatable questions, (3) Practicing Democracy: teach others about their rights, (4) Social Action: bring people together to fight racism, (5) Adjudication: monitor fidelity to antiracist principles.

Antiracist work in education is unavoidably public and requires self-assessments of net vulnerability. Educators should exercise reasonable levels of risk that can be outweighed by stable protective factors in the ecology of antiracist identity formation (see Goodman, 2011; Lerner, 2007, 2015; Spencer, 2008). Educators of color who have solid communities and who are less vulnerable to institutional racism (e.g., tenure status) have the power to support and institutionalize the ideas of more vulnerable educators and students of color. Educators who have rejected whiteness will always risk less retribution than educators, students, and people of color (Buenavista et al., 2023). By working critically with communities of color, white educators can support agendas that alter ecosystems to better serve students of color and all of society.

Discussion

Individual- and interpersonal-level efforts toward antiracist pedagogies

The antiracist educator’s journey is a prescriptive model that describes how critical mindsets, behaviors, and identities emerge from particular individual-context relations within the ecology of social life. Educators’ antiracist identities develop through awareness of ecosystemic racism and social truths, the deconstruction and reconstruction of internalized race-dysconscious habits, and from actions grounded in new antiracist worldviews. Our framework provides a path toward antiracist pedagogies that educators may find relatable and applicable to their own life circumstances, racial statuses, and educational contexts. Antiracist identity formation varies based on educators’ dominant/subordinate statuses (see Almeida, 2016; Kendi, 2019). Educators of color who engage in awareness and deconstruction work must overcome experiences with interpersonal racism while untying the binds of internalized racism (see Dancy & Jean-Marie, 2014; Hwang, 2021; Jackson et al., 2021). Many white educators have internalized a white habitus, meaning they must come a long way to learn about the mutable nature of racism while deconstructing a lifetime of color evasion and system-justification (see Bonilla-Silva, 2022b; Jost, 2019). The key concepts and themes of the antiracist educator’s journey are invaluable in defining the parameters of effective individual-level change actions.

Educators can collaborate across racial lines to confront white supremacy and transform maladaptive developmental regulations that spur ecosystemic racism in education and beyond. Change agents can role model antiracism as they build enduring interpersonal relationships that help educational constituencies and other entities normalize ecosystemic antiracism. Multiracial collaborative groups should be aware of the unequal distribution of risk and protective factors among their membership. Educators of color who resist educational racism and who advocate for antiracist pedagogies may be seen as “playing the race card” and are at risk of professional and personal retaliation (see Gorski, 2019; Kohli & Pizarro, 2022). The antiracist efforts of white educators may be considered safer and less suspect. Task forces/ad hoc groups may be required to ensure constituent inclusivity, equitable distribution of risks, a sense of collective purpose, and successful institutional transformation. Our model exposes the bidirectional individual-context relations that can guide educators and institutions through painful though worthwhile journeys.

Institutional support for the antiracist educator’s journey

The four phases of self-liberation offer insights into how educational institutions can promote adaptive developmental regulations. We propose four broad actions (see Saetermoe et al., in prep.). First, awareness-raising can begin through institutional-level transparency and accountability. This requires that institutional leaders remain humble, vulnerable, and ready for uncomfortable change. Initially, campuses can explore their student and faculty equity outcomes by hiring data ambassadors who can explore institutional data through ecosystemic and critical race lenses (see also Gillborn et al., 2018; Vargas & Peet, in prep.). Additionally, antiracist institutions can be fortified via learning communities, book clubs, guest speakers, and workshops that provide entree into the antiracist educator’s journey.

Second, deconstructing acquired system-justifying discourses around race is one of the most challenging tasks for race-dysconscious educators. Digging deep into personal histories and experiences with race/racism can be facilitated through storytelling. One effective deconstruction program is Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity (SEED). The SEED Project is a national program that partners with educational entities to train institutional change agents (SEED, 2022). According to SEED, storytelling evokes painful or traumatizing topics that can be remembered and mourned as a collective (see also Yosso, 2005). Deconstruction programs are mechanism that permit for positive disintegration and reconstruction.

Third, institutions can draw on existing equity models (e.g., Equity Scorecard; Bensimon & Malcolm, 2012). Reconstruction requires a thorough inspection, reconsideration, and rewriting of policies and practices. To reject traditional pedagogy and academic capitalism, which center on external rewards (e.g., campus rankings), campus leaders can employ models of egalitarian humanism that ensure the inclusion of all campus voices. Fourth and lastly, noting that praxis is neither small nor performative, academic institutions must commit to sufficient structural reform (including funding) while acknowledging that the process of innovation is uncomfortable, messy, and demands vulnerability and patience. Praxis draws from a coordinated reconstruction among all members of the academic community and synthesizes local knowledge and strengths. Praxis is a trial-and-error process fueled by a reimagined vision of education and humanity that does not exist. To realize this vision, antiracist leaders can author grants that contribute resources beyond standard operational expenses, collaborate across units, conduct experiments to test new policies, advocate for tenure policies that weigh and reward critical mentorship, and/or develop critical masses of student-centered decision-making bodies.

Recommendations and future directions

Social psychological factors implicated in the antiracist educator’s journey are multifold and complex.⁵ As the nomenclature and theorizing in antiracist education changes in relation to the accumulation of critical race knowledge, work must be done to imagine inclusive and novel views of education. These views must integrate a different aim of education, which is to promote wisdom and critical thought about the common good (see Freire, 1970, 2006). Research on how ecosystemic antiracism can be realized is pivotal. Effective methodologies include QuantCrit and constructivist grounded theory (see Gillborn et al., 2018; Haynes, 2023; Vargas & Peet, in prep.). Areas that warrant scholarly attention deal with understudied aspects of the model and, relatedly, their differential applications across racially-distinct educators. Compared to the literature on awareness raising and praxis (see Pewewardy et al., 2018), little is known about how educators engage in deconstruction and reconstruction. For example, white educators tend to feel adverse emotions in response to antiracism (Spanierman & Cabrera, 2014). Effective interventions that prevent white educators from reverting to familiar and comfortable system-justifying ideologies are not well-studied (cf. Haynes, 2023). Even less is known regarding comparable interventions for educators of color. This knowledge gap is due to unspoken taboos about studying internalized oppression among racially subordinated groups and their role in reproducing inequality (see Pyke, 2010). Educational psychology researchers should be vigilant and not reinforce racist ideas but the field cannot shy away from domains of social scientific knowledge that benefit antiracist movements. Scholars can rebuff traditional research programs that were initiated and supported by whitestream ideologies (see Bartz, 2019; Pewewardy et al., 2018; Richards, 2012; Winfield, 2007). Research grounded in our framework could streamline the creation of antiracist P-12 schools and universities.

Conclusion

The cultural zeitgeist has reinvigorated conversations about systemic racism and its longstanding impact on education. Educators confronting racism face challenges that stifle antiracist efforts. Challenges are unavoidable facets of race consciousness development. Absent antiracist mentors and roadmaps, educators seeking to transform racist institutions are unprepared for the painful journey of self-liberation. Under these conditions, reversions toward uncritical race-dysconscious thought and action are expected. Critical tools must be employed to materialize ecosystemic antiracism. The antiracist educator’s journey is a consciousness-raising tool that prepares educators for a painful process of self-transformation and the responsibility that comes with possessing an ecosystemic lens. The model is a validation-tool that proposes a fair, realistic, and hopeful representation of race consciousness development and antiracist identity formation. Importantly, the model describes a life-transforming experience and embodied outlook about the multilayered and recursive relationships between phenomenology, interpersonal transactions, institutions, social-political structures, and intergenerational events that reproduce race-based power hierarchies. Educators are socialized to be dysconscious of the antidemocratic and ecosystemically racist forces that govern their own lives and the lives of their students. Yet, democracy and humanity need not die in darkness. The antiracist educator’s journey illuminates a path toward a more perfect pedagogy, society, and world.

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the Health Equity Research and Education (HERE) Center for their support of this research. The HERE Center is an antiracist organization that works to diversify research and education. We also acknowledge the four anonymous reviewers of this article and appreciate their immense expertise.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work is supported by NIH BUILD PODER (Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity; Promoting Opportunities for Diversity in Education and Research), at California State University, Northridge (RL5GM118975, UL1GM118976, and TL4GM118977).

Notes

1 The term educator of color refers to personnel within educational systems who are Asian, black, indigenous, Latina/o, multiracial, or part of a marginalized ethnic group.

2 Ambasciano (2020) documents evidence of Campbell’s ultraconservative and racist views. We appreciate the irony that while Campbell may not have been in a position to value antiracism, his valuable insights are being utilized in the service of antiracist aims.

3 We reserve the term internalized racism for educators of color and racist for white educators. Ecosystemic racism is upheld by a white dominant group that actively or passively accepts a system of micro- to macro-level violence against persons of color, the latter of who cannot be racist because they are not members of the dominant group.

4 Our model describes identity formation associated with praxis and does not discuss specific educational practices. For information on critical practices, see Saetermoe and colleagues (in prep.).

5 Our model does not discuss how other social statuses (e.g., gender- or LGBTQ-based statuses) and groupings (e.g., non-educators; overt racists) influence the process of antiracist identity formation. Relatedly, intersectional social statuses are not addressed. Also, antiracist identity formation in racist non-Western cultures is not covered. These discussions go beyond the article’s scope, although we acknowledge they highlight ideas for future research.