{"id":51,"date":"2024-07-21T15:14:44","date_gmt":"2024-07-21T22:14:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/antiracisttoolkit\/?page_id=51"},"modified":"2024-10-22T14:22:31","modified_gmt":"2024-10-22T21:22:31","slug":"shifting-your-mindset","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/antiracisttoolkit\/guidebook\/shifting-your-mindset\/","title":{"rendered":"Shifting Your Mindset"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Dr. Tara Lee<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In an interview with Guy Beauregard, Roy Miki\u2014academic, teacher, poet, activist\u2014talks about the liminal position he inhabits in relation to academic institutions. He stresses that \u201cknowledge production is not innocent and can be used against people\u201d (qtd. in Beauregard, 2009, p. 83). In response to these institutional threats, he speaks of his attempts<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>to develop modes of critical performance that can help students\u2014and me too\u2014work our way toward knowledge production that can generate ethical forms of interacting with each other. I enjoy seeing students becoming performing scholars\u2014in other words, scholars who can take control of but also be accountable for their research and their work, right down to the sentences they write.<br \/>\n(p. 83)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This is important to acknowledge because \u201cpeople\u2019s positionality, the power inherent in their immediate respective social positions, greatly influences the differences in what individuals have access to in society\u201d (Misawa, 2010, p. 26). In other words, your intersectional identities influence how you teach and interact with your students and their writing.<\/p>\n<p>While positionality can seem daunting, Sarah Hunt\/T\u0142ali\u0142ila\u2019ogwa (Kwagu\u2019\u0142 of the Kwakwaka\u2019wakw Nation) recommends starting with the question \u201cwhere are you?\u201d (qtd. in Webb, n.d.). In this way, responsibility is first grounded in the land on which you teach (Webb, n.d.).<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Keeping Hunt\u2019s question in mind, think about <span class=\"marker\">how your teaching practices are informed by the legacy and ongoing presence of colonialism.<\/span> In what ways do you reinscribe and\/or challenge colonial notions of territory, knowledge production, and power?<\/li>\n<li>Spend time thinking over your relationship to race, both within the classroom as well as outside of it. What does race mean to you? How does race intersect with other social locations of your identity?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Consider Your Relationship to Standardized English<\/h2>\n<p>Asao Inoue (2021) highlights the lack of \u201cgrammar or style guides that are written by BIPOC authors,\u201d as well as the decontextualized nature of writing handbooks. He argues, \u201cthis grammar book problem tricks us into believing that English standards are beyond culture and race, beyond history and location, beyond the people who came up with those language standards. But that ain\u2019t so.\u201d<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>As a teacher of writing, your relationship to standardized English informs your work in the classroom. <span class=\"marker\">What assumptions do you make about how this language should circulate within academia?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Examine the Structures<\/h2>\n<p>Leanne Betasamosake Simpson (2017) recounts that her \u201cexperience of education was one of continually being measured against a set of principles that required surrender to an assimilative colonial agenda in order to fulfill those principles (pp. 149-150). She resituates herself within a Nishnaabeg epistemology, advocating for the interconnection and diversity within \u201cland as pedagogy,\u201d as well as for a \u201ccoming face-to-face with settler colonial authority, surveillance, and violence\u201d (p. 166).<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>As you explore alternate ways of knowing, <span class=\"marker\">become more conscious of the dominant epistemologies within which you teach, and how they inform your teaching practices.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Commit to Being Anti-Racist<\/h2>\n<p>Ibram X. Kendi (2019) defines an anti-racist as \u201cone who is supporting an antiracist policy through their actions or expressing an antiracist idea\u201d (p. 14), arguing that anti-racism is premised on equality and a recognition that \u201cracist policies are the cause of racial inequities\u201d (p. 21). He calls being an anti-racist \u201ca radical choice\u201d that necessitates \u201ca radical reorientation of our consciousness\u201d (p. 23).<\/p>\n<p>In other words, decide if you wish to make a commitment to anti-racism in your teaching of writing, and be clear about what you are advocating for by doing so. Understand that engaging in anti-racist pedagogy is continuous active work requiring patience and perseverance.<\/p>\n<h2>Three Things to Try for Now<\/h2>\n<ol>\n<li>\u200bCome up with a <span class=\"marker\">positionality statement<\/span> to include in your course syllabus, as well as one that you could use to introduce yourself and your pedagogy to your students. Positionality statements are complex and evolving, so think of your first one as a step towards understanding how your social identities inform your pedagogy. The following resources may help you:\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/intheclass.arts.ubc.ca\/renewed-project\/discussion-topics-prompts\/discussion-prompts-positionality\/\">What I Learned in Class Today: Positionality (The \u201cI\u201d in Relation\u2014Everyone Has a Role to Play)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lib.sfu.ca\/help\/academic-integrity\/indigenous-initiatives\/icrc\/land-acknowledgement-workshop#positionality\">SFU Positionality statement and land acknowledgement workshop<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.queensu.ca\/ctl\/resources\/equity-diversity-inclusivity\/positionality-statement\">Queen\u2019s University Positionality Statement<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"marker\">Critically examine your syllabus, assignments, and teaching practices for a course.<\/span> Make a list of any implicit assumptions, expectations, or beliefs that guide your teaching (e.g., \u201cOnly articles that adhere to conventional academic discourse in their discipline should be included on my reading list\u201d). Try rewriting them to explore alternate ways of viewing your teaching and your students (e.g., \u201cStudents should be exposed to scholars\u2019 work that reimagines the norms of academic discourse within their disciplines\u201d).<\/li>\n<li>Commit to three actionable ways (e.g., specific readings, workshops, meeting with expert colleagues) that will <span class=\"marker\">expand your understanding of anti-racist pedagogy in writing.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2>References &amp; Recommended Readings<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"apa-reference\">Beauregard, G. (2009). After Redress: A conversation with Roy Miki. <em>Canadian Literature: A Quarterly of Criticism and Review 201<\/em>, 71-86.<\/li>\n<li class=\"apa-reference\">Inoue, A. B. (2021, November 10). The circular logic of standardized English. <em>Asao B. Inoue\u2019s Infrequent Words.<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/asaobinoue.blogspot.com\/2021\/11\/blogbook-circular-logic-of-standardized.html\">https:\/\/asaobinoue.blogspot.com\/2021\/11\/blogbook-circular-logic-of-standardized.html<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"apa-reference\">Kendi, I. X. (2019). <em>How to be an antiracist.<\/em> One World.<\/li>\n<li class=\"apa-reference\">Misawa, M. Queer race pedagogy for educators in higher education: Dealing with power dynamics and<br \/>\npositionality of LGBTQ students of color. <em>International Journal of Critical Pedagogy 3<\/em>(1), 26-35. <a href=\"http:\/\/libjournal.uncg.edu\/ijcp\/article\/view\/68\/53\">http:\/\/libjournal.uncg.edu\/ijcp\/article\/view\/68\/53<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"apa-reference\">Simpson, L. B. (2017). <em>As we have always done.<\/em> University of Minnesota Press.<\/li>\n<li class=\"apa-reference\">Webb, K. <em>Positionality.<\/em> UBC: What we learned in class today. <a href=\"https:\/\/intheclass.arts.ubc.ca\/renewed-project\/discussion-topics-prompts\/discussion-prompts-positionality\/\">https:\/\/intheclass.arts.ubc.ca\/renewed-project\/discussion-topics-prompts\/discussion-prompts-positionality\/<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Dr. Tara Lee In an interview with Guy Beauregard, Roy Miki\u2014academic, teacher, poet, activist\u2014talks about the liminal position he inhabits in relation to academic institutions. He stresses that \u201cknowledge production is not innocent and can be used against people\u201d (qtd. in Beauregard, 2009, p. 83). In response to these institutional threats, he speaks of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101866,"featured_media":178,"parent":49,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"templates\/template-full-width.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-51","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/antiracisttoolkit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/51","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/antiracisttoolkit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/antiracisttoolkit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/antiracisttoolkit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/101866"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/antiracisttoolkit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/antiracisttoolkit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/51\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":285,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/antiracisttoolkit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/51\/revisions\/285"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/antiracisttoolkit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/49"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/antiracisttoolkit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/antiracisttoolkit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}