Conference session

This session offers an alternative view to current iterations of anti-racism, calling for a model of relational anti-racist education (RARE)—an approach that understands racial justice as dependent on rejecting White supremacy/authoritarianism and critiquing whiteness to defend, strengthen, and decolonize democratic institutions. Grounded in critical race theory (CRT), RARE counters digital anti-democratic disinformation (DADD), which circulates through political extremist illiberalism, anti-intellectualism, and anti-rights (human, Indigenous, environmental, international) ideologies. This session presents findings from a RARE project with 40 anti-racist teacher candidates and practicing teachers of diverse racial and gender identities who participated in four lesson-planning workshops (January to March 2026). The project examined whether creating a grade five to 12 RARE lesson plan, connected with the provincial curriculum, could deepen teachers’ comprehension of—and confidence to teach about—DADD. Data were gathered through four online surveys and analyzed within a CRT framework using NVivo thematic coding. Participants designed lesson on topics including climate change and residential school denialism, financial illiteracy, anti-library and book bans, anti-Trans, anti-journalism, anti-immigration, and anti-science disinformation. Findings indicated creating a RARE lesson with nonpartisan mentorship enhanced comprehension and confidence; however, this was dependent on explicit instruction and detailed feedback. Specifically, participants struggled to differentiate whiteness from white supremacy/authoritarianism and to understand how Canadian students can use their rights and freedoms to strengthen and decolonize democratic institutions as core elements of racial justice. The session underscores why anti-racism must prioritize interdisciplinary research, nonpartisan mentorship, and trust in democratic processes as essential responses to current disorienting political conditions.