Inquiry on Inquiry: Designing Anti-Bias and Anti-Racist Professional Development for Early Career Teachers

In this conceptual paper, we argue that anti-bias and anti-racist professional development should be understood as distinct yet interconnected inquiries that support novice teachers in moving from critically reflecting on their personal bias to taking action against systemic racism. Drawing from our “inquiry on inquiry” process as a diverse group of facilitators in a two-year teacher formation program, we examine how engaging in collaborative inquiry around our own facilitation practices enabled us to iteratively respond to novice teachers’ developing questions related to the goals of anti-bias and anti-racist teaching. Through this reflective collaboration, we illustrate how facilitator inquiry shaped the design of our anti-bias and anti-racist (AB&AR) professional learning and simultaneously supported teachers’ progression from anti-bias reflection toward anti-racist practice. We conclude by offering two contributions for those supporting new educators: (1) a two-step framework for AB&AR professional development and (2) a model of collaborative facilitator inquiry that supports the distinct demands of anti-bias and anti-racist teacher learning.