“Anti-oppressive theory and practice fundamentally changed a lot of things in my classroom practice”: Evaluating An Anti-oppressive Faculty Training Course

Achieving health equity remains an aspirational goal and collective responsibility. Twin epidemics of racial reckoning and COVID-19 drew increased attention to health disparities and to public health schools being ill-equipped to train their students to address them. Faculty often have limited understanding of how internalized power, privilege, colonial mindsets, and systems of oppression impact health across different populations. A grounding in anti-oppressive theory and practices offers an opportunity to address issues of power and privilege while emphasizing critical reflection and action for change. An innovative 18-month training course was developed and implemented for public health faculty. This paper presents the qualitative evaluation results of the training program alongside the impact of the training on the pedagogical practices of the participating faculty. Participants reported identifying oppressive behaviors, implicit biases, and increased self-efficacy to apply anti-oppressive theory and practices. Participants made changes in course content including syllabi, assignments, and their overall pedagogical approach. Partial institutional support was considered a facilitator to engaging in the training yet also a challenge for sustaining anti-oppressive practices. Anti-oppressive theory and practice add value to public health pedagogical development to effectively address complex health equity issues and influence shifts in policies and practices.