Closer examination of my skills in helping students to meet a TESC expectation

Participate collaboratively and responsibly in our diverse society.   A successful Evergreen graduate will understand that by giving of yourself you make the success of others possible. A thriving community is crucial to your own well-being. The study of diverse worldviews and experiences will help you to develop the skills to act effectively as a local citizen within a complex global framework.

Working on questions of equity and dealing with issues that accompany people’s lack of experience with diversity has been an area of significant growth for me.  It used to be a discussion that provoked much anxiety in me.  I remember describing many seminar experiences with the words “there’s something going on in the room, I can feel it, but I can’t quite name it.”  The analogy I played with was that of the MagicEye pictures.  I knew that people could look at these images and actually see something.  I didn’t see anything.  It was painful to learn about students of color who didn’t see programs providing a productive learning environment that served all students.  The experiences in seminar, the Day of Presence fishbowl seminar,  and the CooperPoint journal article were really seminal in  pushing me into developing a better understanding of the concepts of power and privilege and how they play out in the classroom.  I’ve had ideas for how to pursue this education. 

In 1993, while teaching MIT with Jan and Betsy, I wrote a proposal for a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning project.  I named several learning objectives for myself: 

·        Examine students understanding of race and racism

·        Examine my own understanding

·        Plan a way to explicitly invite a curious and self-reflective investigation of racism into next program.

·        Envision ways to respond to discussions that reflect racist analyses/interactions

·        Develop better strategies for working with students of color in the programs

·        Get over my own awkwardness

While I never completed this project in the form I proposed, I feel that I’ve made some progress in meeting some of these goals.   My teaching teams have built in useful readings that have helped me develop my understanding.  I’ve participated in many anti-oppression workshops both on an off campus.  I organized an institute around “facilitating hot topics” with the aim of furthering my understanding of how to discuss themes that involve race and how address those moments of silence and tension in class.  I’ve been a member of the diversity DTF for the last two years in which we worked to inform our selves about how the institution could become more aware of the way equity plays out on campus and what structures need to be in place for the institution to create a culture where inequities are addressed and the expectation and resources exist for community members to become culturally competent.   

I have no illusions that there is still significant room for growth in me as a person and as a teacher.  Nonetheless, the shift over these last few years is from one of shame/anxiety/curiosity to one of interest and challenge.  In seminar I am less deer-caught-in-headlights and am developing more strategies for managing the discussion.  Some students pointed out in the faculty evaluations that I ask them to address and check in on their assumptions during discussions.   I still have a ways to go.  One student of color this year asked to leave my seminar because she didn’t like the way issues of equity were discussed in the group.  She didn’t feel that we were addressing the hard topics. 

One very concrete way in which my schema have shifted, is that for the first time I understand that addressing inequity doesn’t mean I need to be talking about ‘isms all the time.  In one of our Diversity DTF meetings Alan Parker drew my attention to the curriculum of victimization that pervades several program syllabi.  The dtf recommendation for a program that address the learning needs and interests of students of color, helped me to see that addressing ‘isms is far bigger than defining and identifying instances of the ‘ism.  It’s really about shifting focus and addressing needs (Moses, Freire , Myles Horten speak to this I believe).  This year Anita led our class in unpacking the nature of culturally responsive and transformative multicultural pedagogy.  So exciting.  From Anita I learned that teaching for social justice is a stance as much as it is about content.  Making sure that all the students in the classroom have access to learning opportunities.  Terry Ford does this - keeping high standards and building in scaffolding for those who need extra support.  

There are two areas where I am growing in this stance:  

  1. My reflection in this portfolio on learning opportunities vs. activities, addresses some ways in which I continue to become more purposeful in teaching group skills and structuring dialogue in seminar.  Seminar is a place where I have the opportunity to help students develop a range of group skills, skills in deliberation and dialogue,  skills in exploring and negotiating multiple view points, skills in noticing how life experience influences assumptions and often the need for investigation rather than premature conclusions. 

  2. Through Sherry’s quarter long overview of differentiating instruction and developing appropriate accommodations for students with special needs, I feel like have an emerging framework and resources in place now for better supporting students who come to my classroom with such a range in skills and learning needs.

As I learn more, I become more aware of what I need to do.  Practice, assessment, evaluation, gathering resources/information and revision will be part of the next steps.  Other areas that I need to really think about are tied to the literature I build in to programs and to my understanding of the concept of democracy. 

From looking at the kinds of readings my programs have built in over the last few years, I’ve noticed there is no dearth of readings that raise issues of equity or authors of from multiethnic backgrounds.  There are still some very important things missing though.   I’m coming to understand that having a multicultural curriculum, doesn’t just mean asking students to read texts about or by authors of color

I notice that the authors of color are often those who present information about equity and racism (e.g. hooks, Tatum, Moses, Nieto, Cortes, Shiva, Hogan etc).  In not so subtle ways I communicate that the place for people of color in academia is around studying questions of equity and race. Big problem.  What I need to do is broaden my knowledge of the contributions that scholars of color have made to the field of psychology and education.   I may already know about some of the contributions, but I only pay attention to the ethnic and cultural diversity of the authors I tap when I build in content that has to do with race and equity.    

Another area that I need to attend to is what it means to bring in multiple perspectives and have students actually deliberate over different perspectives on an issue.

In regards to democracy, I’m becoming increasingly perplexed about the principle of balancing individual rights with social responsibility.  I find it confusing as a faculty member on the Evergreen campus to understand how these democratic principles play out in areas such as curriculum planning and faculty development.  I often wonder and worry whether the individual rights and academic freedom parts of the equation outweigh what the community needs to function in an equitable way.  I want to become more aware and knowledgeable about the nature of democratic practice so that I engage my colleagues in meaningful dialogue and examination of existing practices. 

Likewise, I notice that many of my students equate a democratic classroom with having choice.  It’s not necessarily about making decisions in a social context of diverse needs.   I really want to understand better how to develop an environment in my programs in which (i) the complexity of this principle is alive,  and (ii) students skills for deliberating issues in a way that address the principle.  


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