Pasque, Penny A., et al. “Pedagogical Approaches to Student Racial Conflict in the Classroom.” Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, vol. 6, no. 1, 2013, 1-16.

In the article “Pedagogical Approaches to Student Racial Conflict in the Classroom,” Penny A. Pasque et al. explore “some of the ways faculty address student conflict mind and around racial diversity in the classroom” (1). Pasque et al. support their exploration with a survey of 66 faculty members of diverse backgrounds, with analyses of the answers from their interviews. Their purpose is to discover the different ways that faculty address racial conflict in their classrooms in order to show the efficacy (and failures) of different pedagogical approaches to help teachers develop more effective strategies when addressing racial conflict. They direct their article to teachers who are concerned with diversity in the classroom and who would like to integrate racially-aware methods of teaching. As a student and possible future teacher, their conclusion was generalized but it was helpful to recognize which methods were seemingly ineffective and clearly ignorant, such as the “Let’s Not Make a Scene” and “Not in My Classroom” approaches. Although the conclusion basically said “it depends” it does ring true given the complexities and variables of every classroom setting, and it is up to the teacher to have an awareness of each environment.