There are a number of different approaches that instructors can take to encourage equality and diversity in the classroom. For example, they can revise their curriculum, facilitate discussion, and promote intercultural sensitivity amongst their students. At the 2013 CTLT Summer Institute workshop, Privilege and Beyond: Engaging With Diversity in Your Classroom, the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology’s (CTLT) Professional Development Coordinator, Hanae Tsukada, and Educational Resources Developer, Zack Lee, discussed ways to address classroom conversations around politically and culturally sensitive issues. The workshop explored ideas of privilege and discrimination through a series of interactive activities. The session, however, was not about providing solutions to these issues, but rather about coming up with strategies for creating and fostering inclusive and equitable classroom spaces.
Hanae and Zack noted that in order to gain a better understanding of the implicit aspects that make us who we are, we must reflect on what we think defines where we are from, and how our personal experiences have shaped who we are. Such reflections can provide insight into how we view ourselves in society and how we are affected by those around us. The pragmatics of framing our personal identity demonstrates how we should consider ways we can stop defining ourselves by social and cultural boundaries. “The intention of the session is to provide a space to think deeper about our own privilege and generate ways to engage students about their own privileges and responsibilities, and how that plays out in our classroom responsibilities,” Hanae explained.
Hanae and Zack also introduced the idea of a privilege walk to think about who we are as individuals, and as part of the UBC community. The purpose of a privilege walk is to examine our own judgments and privileges, and to look at how we are or are not discriminated upon. The privilege walk also acknowledges how these factors affect our lives, our experiences, and the experiences of others, even when we may not initially realize it. In other words, a privilege walk looks at how past experiences can influence our perception of ourselves and of others around us.
In order to demonstrate how a privilege walk takes place, Hanae and Zack invited the session participants to take part in the activity. To begin, privilege walk participants are lined up, in a single line, facing a wall. A facilitator then reads out a series of statements that speak to various sensitive topics, for example, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexuality, and class. Thinking about their current and past experiences, participants respond after each statement by stepping forward, stepping back, or not responding at all in the cases where they feel uncomfortable. By the end of the activity, participants are no longer standing in a straight line; instead, they are usually standing in different places compared to others in the room. By completing a privilege walk, participants are able to see a very powerful visual representation of the differences within a group of people.
A privilege walk helps participants be more critically aware of some of the personal privileges that might have been associated with their identity in relation to the people around them. One participant observed how everyone takes different paths and privileges to get to where they are today. Zack spoke about how the privilege walk helps highlight and identify the gaps and barriers that might exist within a diverse group of participants. “There are privileges we take for granted and don’t think about,” he explained.
However, Hanae pointed out that discrimination does not necessarily come from the intention to harm others. It is important that we understand why discrimination happens in order to come up with strategies to prevent it. Hanae and Zack agreed that steps need to be taken to change prejudices and promote inclusion at UBC by creating a welcoming environment for students. But what is preventing us from taking these steps?
To help identify what paralyzes us from engaging in these classroom conversations, Hanae and Zack asked the session participants to recall difficult moments where discrimination took place in their classrooms. What stopped them from responding to the situation? What made them feel like they couldn’t respond? What were they afraid of? What made them angry?
The facilitators asked the participants to share their responses on sticky notes before identifying some of the emotions that are often felt when dealing with sensitive issues. Fear is a common response, such as the fear of not saying the right thing. Guilt is another common response, particularly the guilt of not taking the opportunity to immediately respond or say something after an uninformed comment was said. There is also the guilt of knowing what to say but not knowing how to articulate that in an appropriate way. Hanae and Zack emphasized that we should recognize and address our hesitancies so that we can fully engage in the process of promoting open and safe classroom discussions.
Serving as a basis for developing strategies that can be used in the classroom, Hanae and Zack discussed a number of different case studies. With case studies, individuals try to come up with solutions for how they would facilitate the hypothetical issues and emotions emerging from the given scenario, taking into consideration the factors that are involved in that situation. Case studies are effective in the sense that afterwards, individuals are able to identify ways they can approach similar situations based on the ideas they brainstormed. In the cases where political and cultural mindfulness is required, Zack wanted to acknowledge the value of silence and discomfort as a learning opportunity for students. “Students can feel uncomfortable [in these situations], but help them understand why they feel that way.”
For those interested in continuing the conversation, Hanae and Zack recommend CTLT’s Classroom Climate Series. The series is an opportunity for faculty, teaching assistants, researchers, graduate students, and staff from all over the University to challenge their own assumptions about what they have learned about Aboriginal people, become more critically aware of their teaching and research practices, and learn more about how they engage with topics that challenge their own social location within the institution.