Many scholars within psychology are working to course correct the historical mistakes, abuses, and exclusionary practices of the field; however, much of the work done to date focuses on research practices. To diversify who participates in developmental science, both as participants and as researchers, we argue that more attention must be paid to how we teach developmental science. We propose that research methods courses offer an additional opportunity to: 1) intervene on the academic pipeline, which fails many students of color in the United States, and 2) arm students with the skills they need to address the social inequities that students of color in the U.S. will face in their careers and personal lives. In this essay, we discuss the principles of equity-mindedness and call for creating more culturally-relevant and affirming curricula in (developmental) research methods courses.
Decentering Whiteness: Calling for change in the instruction of (developmental) research methods