Tools for Inclusive & Antiracist Teaching and Learning-Guide for Developing Anti-Racism Educational Materials

Pdf Summary

This guide by Meghan O’Brien, Rachel Fields, and Andrea Jackson from UC San Francisco School of Medicine provides key principles for developing anti-racism educational materials in healthcare education. The primary aim is to eliminate racial and other biases that impact clinical reasoning, diagnosis, and treatment, and to promote equitable healthcare education.

1. <strong>Representation:</strong> Materials should include diverse racial, gender, age, sexual orientation, and ability representations in case examples, images, and speakers. Avoid reinforcing whiteness as the default or norm, and contextualize any limitations in representation to prevent bias affecting learners’ clinical reasoning and their views of communities.

2. <strong>Contextualizing Race:</strong> When race is mentioned, it must be clearly distinguished from biology or genetics. Race is a sociopolitical category and should not be conflated with genetic predisposition, which relates to ancestry. Educational content should emphasize structural and social determinants (e.g., poverty, access to healthcare, discriminatory policies) as root causes of health disparities rather than attributing them to biological differences.

3. <strong>Eliminating Stereotypes:</strong> Educational materials should avoid stereotyping through language, physical traits, names, roles, behaviors, and medical eponyms that reinforce racial or gender biases. Active review by colleagues or learners is recommended to uncover blind spots.

4. <strong>Addressing Health Disparities and Racism:</strong> Discussions about health disparities should explicitly focus on racism and sexism as drivers of inequities, rather than presenting disparities as isolated or natural phenomena. Materials should challenge the status quo, highlight systemic factors, and encourage critical evaluation of research quality and the structural causes behind inequities.

5. <strong>Invitation for Feedback:</strong> Educators should welcome and reflect on feedback regarding bias in their materials or teaching, viewing it as an opportunity for continual learning and growth.

This guide encourages self-evaluation and reflection to create respectful, evidence-based, and equitable educational content that improves healthcare outcomes for all.

Asset Subtitle

Presented as an Acrobat PDF form that you can fill out to evaluate your existing educational materials for designing new materials. Adapted by CPL, from the University of California at San Francisco. The guide is engaged during the CPL workshop, Teaching that Promotes Antiracism for Health Equity: It's Easier than You May Think

Keywords

anti-racism education

healthcare equity

racial bias elimination

clinical reasoning

representation diversity

structural determinants of health

health disparities

stereotype avoidance

medical education reform

feedback and reflection