Affective Learning in Racism Courses with an Experiential Component

Courses in racism are designed to provide opportunities for social work students to learn to practice nonracist social work and contribute to the eradication of racism in society. The most effective racism courses achieve affective learning through the provision of an experiential component, usually a behavioral learning assignment that involves students in direct interaction with people who are racially different from themselves. This article presents a conceptual analysis of affective learning in racism courses that include such an experiential component based on both theoretical and empirical research into curriculum development in the area of racism.