Despite decades of social, political, and legal activism and advocacy around educational equity and diversity, classrooms today are still persistently segregated and racial discrimination continues to effect educational outcomes. So while scholars in a variety of disciplines have recognized that race is socially constructed, minorities continue to experience the impact of racialist thinking in schools, colleges, and universities across the nation. How can progressive teachers understand these dual trends towards increasing local and national diversity alongside persistent racial and ethnic discrimination? What impact has the entry of immigrants and minorities as students and teachers had on classroom theory and practice?

This issue of Radical Teacher seeks to understand and analyze the teaching of race and ethnicity in secondary and post-secondary education, particularly the ways in which teachers explain the current complexities of race and racism in American culture. How do we teach about racial, ethnic, and linguistic diversity in our classrooms? How do we teach the specific social and material consequences of racial identity beyond a black-white model? How do we think about coalitions among and between students of different races, ethnicities, and nationalities? How do we teach students to form such alliances?

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