Chapter 11: Teaching Race and Qualitative Research

There are courses that everyone would love to teach, but scholars often defer the experience due to the difficult nature of the content. Teaching Introduction to Qualitative Research holds a certain allure, but is actually strenuous academic work. Why? More than an introduction to forms of research, the class is an invitation for students to shift paradigms and reconceptualize the very nature of research and what it means to be a researcher. Additionally, when the dimension of race-ing research is added to the course, teaching it becomes an effort in patience and understanding. In this chapter, I share my experiences teaching qualitative research courses from a race-based perspective to help other instructors to better facilitate similar classes.