Addressing anti-black racism in child and youth care education

Canada has a deep-seated history of anti-Black racism (ABR) embedded within its social services, education, government and child protection systems. The field of Child and Youth Care (CYC) is no exception; CYC is built upon Eurocentric ideologies founded by predominantly white and male practitioners, theorists and researchers. In this paper, I explore the lack of intentional and specific discourse on anti-Black racism in the CYC classroom and the unique needs of Black children, youth and families. The purpose of this paper is to explore the gaps in curriculum pertaining to Black youth and ABR within CYC, and the impact of those gaps on CYC practitioners and subsequently, the Black children, youth and families they seek to serve. This paper is guided by the following research questions: (1) How does the lack of required curriculum on ABR impact practitioner’s abilities to co-construct relationships that don’t reinforce systemic whiteness and oppression? (2) How is ABR addressed within Douglas College’s CYC program, what limitations exist and what improvements can be made? This study reviews existing literature on ABR and CYC curriculum, drawing on my own experiences as a Douglas College student to identify gaps and provide recommendations for Douglas College CYC faculty to implement anti-oppressive and anti-racist frameworks on an institutional and educational level. The anticipated findings propose the generalization of blackness and the exclusion of ABR in CYC education negatively impacts a practitioner’s ability to engage in anti-racist and anti-oppressive practice, contributing to the further marginalization of Black individuals. Essay submission was sponsored by Meaghan Dougherty (Applied Community Studies) and was presented at the Coquitlam campus on April 8, 2025, for Student Research Day 2025.