Research has shown that Black parents are more likely than White parents to have conversations about race with their children, but few studies have directly compared the frequency and content of these conversations and how they change in response to national events. Here we examine such conversations in the United States before and after the killing of George Floyd. Black parents had conversations more often than White parents, and they had more frequent conversations post-Floyd. White parents remained mostly unchanged and, if anything, were less likely to talk about being White and more likely to send colorblind messages. Black parents were also more worried than White parents—both that their children would experience racial bias and that their children would perpetrate racial bias, a finding that held both pre- and post-Floyd. Thus, even in the midst of a national moment on race, White parents remained relatively silent and unconcerned about the topic.

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This article describes a Cooperative Inquiry (CI) undertaken by seven transformative educators who set out to explore how they could better walk with the authority inherent in their professional roles so as to avoid unconsciously replicating unhealthy power dynamics. Their process revealed the insidious and cyclical nature of hegemony, enabling co-inquirers to uncover deeply ingrained patterns vis-a-vis power. Action/reflection cycles highlighted the role of self-policing, vulnerability, hegemonic traps, interruption practices, and the significance of wholeheartedness. Furthermore, the CI process itself was found to be empowering, as presentational knowledge and collective meaning-making supported the dismantling of isolation and shame that often accompanied and perpetuated feelings of disempowerment. Co-inquirers more effectively identified when and how cultural constructs affected them, thereby claiming greater agency in both personal and professional lives. The need for ongoing individual and collaborative reflexivity to reinforce and affirm positive, wholesome power dynamics was also shown.

The ability to consider multiple possibilities forms the basis for a wide variety of human-unique cognitive capacities. When does this skill develop? Previous studies have narrowly focused on children's ability to prepare for incompatible future outcomes. Here, we investigate this capacity in a causal learning context. Adults (N = 109) and 18-to 30-month olds (N = 104) observed evidence that was consistent with two hypotheses, each occupying a different level of abstraction (individual vs. relational causation). Results suggest that adults and toddlers identified multiple candidate causes for an effect, held these possibilities in mind, and flexibly applied the appropriate hypothesis to inform subsequent inferences. These findings challenge previous suggestions that the ability to consider multiple alternatives does not emerge until much later in development.

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