Oklahoma’s largest university may be at odds with the state’s governor by requiring future educators to complete racially sensitive coursework, according to documents obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

In December 2023, Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt signed an executive order prohibiting higher education institutions from mandating any educational activities or training that provide preference based on race, color, sex, ethnicity, or national origin. However, the University of Oklahoma reportedly requires undergraduates pursuing an education degree to take a course that characterizes white individuals as complicit in institutional racism.

The syllabus for the class, obtained by the DCNF, also directs students to give special consideration to minority students.

“Our universities need to be preparing students for the workforce, not indoctrinating them with liberal ideology,” a spokesperson for the governor’s office told the DCNF. “It’s insane that this is a required course. It’s time to look at the accreditation entities that are pushing courses like this and bring common sense back to the classroom.”

The course, titled “Schools and American Culture,” accounts for roughly one-third of students’ total grade through the development of a “social justice curriculum.” The syllabus encourages students to reflect on how they can prioritize “the needs, histories, and realities of marginalized and minority populations” in their educational practices, the Caller reported.

During the fourth week of the class, students are required to learn about “critical whiteness in education” as well as critical race theory, the outlet said. Critical whiteness is a field of study that aims to “reveal the invisible structures that produce and reproduce white supremacy and privilege” and “examines the meaning of white privilege and white privilege pedagogy, as well as how white privilege is connected to complicity in racism,” according to the Oxford Research Encyclopedia.

The “Handbook of Critical Race Theory in Education,” which students must read for class that week, states that “white people will seek racial justice only to the extent that there is something in it for them.”

In addition to Stitt’s order, Oklahoma state law also prohibits colleges from imposing “any orientation or requirement that presents any form of race or sex stereotyping.”

In the fifth week of the course, students are introduced to applying critical race theory in the classroom. To facilitate this, they are assigned a 2017 academic paper titled “Critical Race Theory and the Whiteness of Teacher Education,” which critiques the concept of “color blindness.” The paper argues that seemingly “neutral” structures, such as teacher testing, actually reinforce “whiteness and white interests.”

Public school teachers in Oklahoma are prohibited under state law from teaching that “members of one race or sex cannot and should not attempt to treat others without respect to race or sex.” That essentially means teachers are not permitted to tell their students that race-blind policies are bad.

“The University of Oklahoma is committed to ensuring its courses meet and follow applicable laws,” a university spokesperson told the DCNF. “OU never shies away from complex or difficult topics. We are committed to the presentation of materials that are viewpoint-neutral and non-discriminatory and we continue to be dedicated to teaching our students how to think, not what to think. The rich history of the United States is complicated and unique, and it’s appropriate that coursework reflects that.”

Stitt defended his executive order at the time by stating that “Oklahomans deserve a merit-based system that ensures equal opportunities for everyone.”