Regarding Race

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The Regarding Race project uses documentary photography and writing as catalysts for dialogue about race and identity, working with future teachers who immerse themselves in diverse aspects of children's experiences that impact interactions in the classroom. The project provides a framework for teachers to structure explorations of race and identity in interactive, creative, and productive ways as they develop the personal knowledge, professional skills, and cultural competence needed to teach diverse learners.

The project, based at the Center for Documentary Studies, works with Teaching Fellows at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill and at North Carolina Central University, a historically black college in Durham. These Teaching Fellows receive financial support for college as they gain their degrees and then commit to teaching in North Carolina schools for at least four years.

Participants in Regarding Race explore their perceptions of race and identity by making images depicting dual selves, one as they see themselves and the second envisioning themselves as an "other," however they choose to define this concept. The process is influenced by photographer Wendy Ewald's Black Self/White Self project, part of the Center for Documentary Studies' Literacy Through Photography program in the Durham Public Schools.

Teaching Fellows make their own dual portraits at the beginning and end of their participation in the project, as a way of documenting their evolution. They work in pairs over the course of a school year with clusters of diverse middle-school students who engage in their own exploration of race and identity through images and writing, group discussion, and interpretation. The Fellows record their reflections in journals and meet regularly as a group with project staff to examine their experiences as learners and critique their practice as teachers. The Fellows also organize an annual public forum, attended by parents, teachers, and members of the wider community, to showcase the students' and their own work. With the documentary process at its center, Regarding Race helps future teachers increase their understanding about racial perspectives that they (and their students) bring to their interactions while providing tools for opening dialogue about race in increasingly diverse classrooms.

Since its inception in 2001, Regarding Race has trained forty-five Teaching Fellows who, in turn, have worked with more than three hundred middle-school students. The project works with art teacher Robert Hunter at Shepard Middle School in Durham and students in the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades.

Regarding Race began as a pilot project funded by the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation's Race Will Not Divide Us initiative. Additional funding has been provided by the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation and the Warner Foundation.

For more information on Regarding Race, telephone Alexandra Lightfoot, project director, at 919-660-3694, send E-mail to alight@duke.edu, or write to Center for Documentary Studies, Regarding Race, 1317 W. Pettigrew Street, Durham, NC 27705.

banner image:

Photograph by Shenetta J. Loftin, Shepard Middle School. School Year 2002–2003.

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