After attending the 2018 Race and Pedagogy National Conference, participants may be curious about where they can find more reading material related to the conference themes.
Along with hosting the quadrennial national conference, the Race and Pedagogy Institute at the University of Puget Sound also publishes the Race and Pedagogy Journal (RPJ). Founded in 2015 to support the work of the Institute and the Conference, the Journal publishes three issues per year including work from a wide variety of authors.
Associate Director for User Services at Collins Memorial Library and Managing Editor of the Race and Pedagogy Journal Lori Ricigliano shared the importance of the Journal to the Institute and Conference’s work.
“The mission of RPJ is to provide a platform for critical discussions around the issues of teaching and race in an effort to improve education for all students by reducing the effects of discrimination and structural racism,” Ricigliano said.
Past issues of the Journal have included authors and editors from multiple universities across the country, contributing to the diversity of article topics that have been published. Ricigliano explained how the Journal’s inclusion of a variety of topics relating to race and racism in education promotes the work of the conference.
The journal is “diverse in voice and content and includes scholarly articles and creative works by faculty, student scholars, practitioners and the general public,” Ricigliano said. “The most popular articles cover a wide range of issues, from critical race parenting, to black student female alienation in predominantly white schools, and the school-to-prison pipeline.”
A Special Student Issue of the Race and Pedagogy Journal titled “Undoing Miseducation: Centering Race and Unlearning Racism in Teacher Education” was recently published in September with collaboration from Puget Sound’s School of Education. Ricigliano explained that this issue showcases work from the 2018 Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) class focusing on race and racism during their student teaching.
“Their reflections are represented in alternative formats ranging from visuals and artist books to unit plans and resource binders. The idea for this issue was suggested by Jane Carlin, Library Director, who attended the MAT students’ presentations,” Ricigliano said. “I thought it was a great idea and worked in partnership with Amy Ryken to plan the issue.” Ryken is the Dean of the School of Education.
The Race and Pedagogy Institute and School of Education, along with African American studies, have been working closely together to center race in teacher preparation at Puget Sound.
The Journal’s far-reaching readership can be tracked on the Collins Memorial Library’s Sound Ideas website. At the date of writing this article, there had been 2,117 article downloads this past year and 138 in the past week.
“Since the journal’s inception in 2015, there have been 4,724 downloaded articles from 88 countries. While most of the downloads are from the United States, others are as far away as Australia and Zimbabwe,” Ricigliano said.
The next issue will focus on the 2018 conference and is expected to be published in spring. To have an article considered for publication, authors can submit their work for review on the Journal’s Sound Ideas website. They will be required to provide some information about themselves along with a title and abstract.
All past issues of the Race and Pedagogy Journal can be accessed at soundideas.pugetsound.edu/rpj/.
