RACE IN PSYCHOLOGY - TEACHING THE SUBJECT

This article addresses the ways in which the subject of 'race' is disc ussed in psychology and the issues this raises for teaching. It argues that psychological work provides contrary possibilities. On the one h and, it helps to reproduce negative racialized constructions of those constructed as Other (particularly black people). On the other, it all ows challenges to such constructions. For example, the 'race' and IQ c ontroversy, and the periodic recurrence of racialized hereditarianism, place teachers and students within narratives that both assert and re but biological racism. The social psychology of prejudice and discrimi nation at times reifies culturally constructed racial difference and t acitly justifies subtle, cultural or 'new' forms of racism, while anal yses of racist discourses demystify practices of (de)racialization. As pects of wider social and institutional context, and different teacher and student positionings in the classroom, create fractures and ambig uities that further complicate the process of teaching the subject of 'race'.