{"id":268,"date":"2018-05-29T13:16:38","date_gmt":"2018-05-29T20:16:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/bcapalad\/?p=268"},"modified":"2018-05-29T13:18:53","modified_gmt":"2018-05-29T20:18:53","slug":"inquiry-proposal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/bcapalad\/inquiry-proposal\/","title":{"rendered":"Inquiry Proposal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ms. Capalad\u2019s Inquiry Proposal<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Index:
\n<\/span><\/span>Inquiry Question
\n<\/span>Resources
\n<\/span>Reflection<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>INQUIRY QUESTION<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAs a foundation to talk about uncomfortable subject matter, how do we introduce the topic of white privilege in a predominantly white classroom?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Sub Questions:
\n<\/span><\/span>\u2022 <\/span>What makes a subject uncomfortable? What is going on emotionally, when discomfort is involved?
\n<\/span>\u2022 <\/span>What activities can we use to scaffold the understanding privilege?
\n<\/span>\u2022 <\/span>How can I as a person of colour, be vulnerable with my students to create a meaningful discussion without getting too personal?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

RESOURCES<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2022 <\/span>Defining \u201cWhite Privilege\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Kendall, Francis E. \u201cUnderstanding White Privilege .\u201d https:\/\/www.cpt.org\/files\/Undoing%20Racism%20-%20Understanding%20White%20Privilege%20-%20Kendall.pdf<\/span><\/a> \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For this inquiry question, it is important to identify the term, white privilege. This article starts by stating that it is difficult to understand this term, especially for those who it is addressing. Privilege is a concept that revolves around the feeling of power, which can offend people who do not notice their status in society. The definition provided in the article states that it is institutional, and not a personal term. I think this acknowledging it is institutional, already eliminates a lot of problems or drawback when discussing this term in a classroom environment. \u201cGreater access to power and resources\u201d (1) is mentioned when defining privilege. However, how is \u201cpower\u201d determined? Does power refer to monetary power or social power, or both?<\/span><\/p>\n

The article continues with a section on the history of White Privilege and focuses on the concept that this term comes from a system that is created. Again, this emphasizes that it is institutional rather than a person to person based term. The article bullet points key moments in history where people of colour were suppressed for their race or when opportunities for only white people were created.<\/span><\/p>\n

The next few sections define the various ways on how to use the knowledge of white privilege to eliminate the myths that white people might have around the term. This part is useful because it provides ways to counter these myths and why these arguments are not valid in regards to the definition of the term or given the history. This might be extremely useful for the drawback or comments that students might have when discussing this topic.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Another section of the article exclaims the need to take the idea of race seriously.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2022 <\/span>Delano-Oriaran, Omobolade O. and Marguerite W. Parks. \u201cOne Black, One White: Power, White Privilege, & Creating Safe Spaces.\u201d Multicultural Education, vol. 22, no. 3-4, 01 Mar. 2015, pp. 15-19. EBSCOhost, ezproxy.library.ubc.ca\/login?url=http:\/\/search.ebscohost.com\/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1078762&login.asp&site=ehost-live&scope=site<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The article is about two professors who taught white privilege in white institutions. This resource is helpful because it provides a very clear example of when the topics were discussed within the school. I think this is incredibly useful because the article also focuses on the classroom climate, and emphasizing on the ideas of safe spaces. The article also discusses the resistance of students with the discussion of the topic. I found that this article is useful because of the personal stories from the teachers.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u2022 <\/span>Scheid, Anna Floerke and Elisabeth T. Vasko. \u201cTeaching Race: Pedagogical Challenges in Predominantly White Undergraduate Theology Classrooms.\u201d Teaching Theology & Religion, vol. 17, no. 1, 01 Jan. 2014, pp. 27-45. EBSCOhost, ezproxy.library.ubc.ca\/login?url=http:\/\/search.ebscohost.com\/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1029554&login.asp&site=ehost-live&scope=site<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

This article is about teachers addressing the issue of race and white privilege in theology classrooms. The article starts with acknowledging that many students come to university without knowing their racial identity or anything about racial hierarchy. It states the the classrooms they studied were predominantly white\/caucasian.<\/span><\/p>\n

This article may be a little difficult to attain information because the classrooms are in the United States, where the politics of race is quite different from a Canadian classroom. However, it does provide a narrative to what happens in a politically driven space.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>This article covers these topics:<\/span><\/p>\n

(1) <\/span>the \u201ccommon sense understanding of racism\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

(2) <\/span>\u201cculturally entrenched racism.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>The reactions of the students within the classroom are split into two categories; \u201cEmotional Responses,\u201d and \u201cCognitive Dissonance.\u201d In the Emotional Responses section, the article states \u201cStudents used words like \u201cfear,\u201d \u201canger,\u201d \u201cguilt,\u201d \u201cshock,\u201d and \u201csurprise\u201d across a variety of assignments that asked them to respond to films or readings\u201d \u00a0From this plethora of emotional language, we distilled two emotional motifs that seem characteristic of a wide swath of students\u2019 experiences: feelings of insecurity and feelings of frustration (31-2).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>I think this article can speak on how difficult it is to bring up this topic, especially if they are feeling sensitive about the issue, or feel like it is an attack.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u2022 <\/span>\u201cHow Legos helped build a classroom lesson on white privilege.\u201d The Globe and Mail, 17 Oct. 2017, www.theglobeandmail.com\/news\/national\/how-legos-helped-build-a-classroom-lesson-on-white-privilege\/article36610854\/<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

This article is about a grade 8 teacher who asked the students to brainstorm most important jobs and who in media (real or fictional) had those jobs. The teacher starred all the names on the board that were caucasian. This was her hook in order to talk about how society revolves around white privilege. The article continues on speaking about a student who thought the \u201cUnpacking the Invisible Knapsack\u201d activity, an activity addressing white privilege as offensive. This student stated how he\u2019s encountered the term before, but believes it is used to \u201cshut people down\u201d and make people \u201cfeel bad for being white\u201d (Lum).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>The BCTF has been trying to develop a plan to be able to address issues like white privilege but has received some pushback from parents as well as other teachers. The article also mentioned universities like UBC, that address white privilege in their education classrooms and how uncomfortable students can feel when the topic is brought up.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>This article was really useful in the way that it addresses a very large and difficult topic, with something familiar to the students. The article covered the high school students opinions, the pushback with other educators, UBC education students, and parents.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 <\/span>\u201cConfronting White Privilege.\u201d Teaching Tolerance, 31 July 2017, www.tolerance.org\/magazine\/fall-2012\/confronting-white-privilege<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhite Flight\u201d is addresses in this article and the ideas the racial segregation. \u201cBursting the Bubble\u201d is one of the sub headers of this article. This part talks about the study of Vernon Sloan, a teacher who wants to influence his students to see the \u201cartificial line that separates the poor form the affluent\u201d (Swalwell). The article talks about the students who are sheltered and only live within the suburbs. This article talks a lot about the gap between affluent people and people who live below the poverty line.<\/span><\/p>\n

The second header of \u201cDisturbing the Comfortable\u201d talks more about a teachers approach to the privilege issue. She teaches the \u201chistoric and contemporary injustices\u201d (Swalwell) and inspires her students with \u201csocial-action projects\u201d (Swalwell).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The article concludes with stating that it is not easy to address these issues and that the reaction from the students depends on how the teachers frame their method of teaching the issue. The article states \u201c Students from a public school in a middle-class, majority-white suburb demonstrate significantly different thinking about themselves than do kids in a big city attending an expensive private school that serves a mostly upper-class white population\u201d (Swalwell).<\/span><\/p>\n

The article even has a \u201cdo\u2019s and don\u2019ts\u201d list in the end, including the advice of \u201cDo offer opportunities for students to \u201cre-network\u201d their diverse privileges with people from marginalized groups. (Provide time for students to participate in community projects related to issues of injustice.)\u201d (Swalwell). \u00a0I think this was the most important to remember in my opinion, because no mater what you teach, you have the provide an opportunity for your students to continue what they learn and interact with that concept.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhite skin privilege is not something that white people necessarily do, create or enjoy on purpose. Unlike the more overt individual and institutional manifestations of racism described above, white skin privilege is a transparent preference for whiteness that saturates our society. \u201c<\/span><\/p>\n

This article provides a very clear definition of white privilege in the first few paragraphs (quoted above). It states the advantages that white people have within society and states that \u201cWhite privilege is a hidden and transparent preference that is often difficult to address. Only on closer inspection do we see how it creates a sense of entitlement, generates perks and advantages for white people and elevates our status in the world.\u201d The article talks about the drawback and why white people might feel offended with the term. The article mentions that the feeling of entitlement and how that gets in the way of understanding the concept of white privilege. The article also provides multiple questions and ideas that students can think about, when trying to understand race.<\/span><\/p>\n

This article is by Katy Swalwell who addresses the multiple ways that teachers have addressed white privilege in the classroom. One method was \u201cbursting the bubble\u201d which entails exposing privilege within society. The bubble refers to the suburbs, which is void from exposure of poverty, race, and the \u201crest of the world\u201d (Swalwell).<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2022 <\/span>\u201cAll Activities.\u201d Social Justice Toolbox, www.socialjusticetoolbox.com\/all-activities\/<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

This resource is an entire website of ways to bring up social justice topics in the classroom. Each activity is listed in alphabetical order and the activities list the learning outcomes and goals for the activity. What I really thought was useful with this, is the reflection questions for the activities. I think this is probably the most important part about introducing a social justice topic. Furthermore, there is a tab on the side for \u201cfurther learning\u201d which links to other resources that you can use, depending on the activity you have clicked. When I chose an activity about race, it led me to a video that was titled \u201cA conversation with White People about Race.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>This resource toolbox is quite useful in terms of that it is quite easily accessible. It is a simple website to use and browse through. I think what it might lack is more resources and tools for teachers. However, it is overall, a fairly good resource for this inquiry question.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2022 <\/span>Pimentel, Octavio, Charise Pimentel, and John Dean. “The Myth of the Colorblind Writing Classroom: White Instructors Confront White Privilege in Their Classrooms.” Performing Antiracist Pedagogy in Rhetoric, Writing, and Communication: 109.<\/span><\/p>\n

The colour-blind classroom is a classroom that does not address any diversity. The article talks about the diversity approaching when teaching students writing skills. The diversity approach is compared to the colour-blind approach. The main difference is that diversity approach is about the understanding of differences. More specifically, it is about how everyone is different, and therefore the same. Being different, is what people have in common with one another. However, the article states that the diversity approach is not effective without the \u201cdeconstruction of race and white privilege\u201d (111). The main reason to why this is necessary, according to the article, is that race becomes \u201ca biological term,\u201d rather than \u201ca social construct\u201d (111). This definition of race as a social construct, provides reference to how to talk about it within a classroom.<\/span><\/p>\n

The article continues to address an approach to teaching writing from an antiracist point of view. Pimentel et. al, states that teachers \u201cmust avoid the common assumption that racism is a set of beliefs and practices that only \u2018racist\u2019 individuals participate in\u201d (112) because it creates the assumption that racism is easily blamed by certain individuals.<\/span><\/p>\n

The article is really useful with facts to consider when speaking about race. One important take-away I got from this article was about how the classroom is a place where students \u201cdo not leave their race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender or class\u201d outside the classroom\u201d (112).<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2022 <\/span>McIntosh, Peggy. \u201cUnpacking the Invisible Backpack.\u201d http:\/\/www.winnipeg.ca\/clerks\/boards\/citizenequity\/pdfs\/white_privilege.pdf<\/span><\/a> \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This activity was popping up in various articles that I found. This is the lesson plan that has made \u201cunpacking privilege\u201d quite famous. The lesson activity\u2019s objective is to allow the students to have a personal understanding of where they are in relation to their classmates and also their place in society. What backfires with this, is that if the teacher does not know how to deal with the emotional support that some students might need, it can go pretty badly. It also isolates people and puts them on the spot. The students might feel attacked for being labeled as privilege or feel shaken by realizing that they are oppressed. The main reason for this is because the activity is very public. Everyone can see what everyone else is showing, and this opens up feelings of shame, guilt etc. where students might shut down and not contribute to the conversation any longer. I do like activities like this, that might allow my students to strongly think about who they are. However, there might be other ways to teach them this, but still feel like they are emotionally safe in my classroom.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2022 <\/span>Crosley-Corcoran, Gina. \u201cExplaining White Privilege To A Broke White Person.\u201d The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 8 May 2014, www.huffingtonpost.com\/gina-crosleycorcoran\/explaining-white-privilege-to-a-broke-white-person_b_5269255.html<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

This article is about the personal experience of an author in how she was taught white privilege, while living in poverty. This article focuses a lot on how privilege is a intersectionality and how that is important in addressing white privilege so that it doesn\u2019t provide so much drawback and offense from the privileged person you are teaching. I was drawn to the title and its humour. However, I find that this article is just another article on how a white person dealt with their understanding of their white privilege. It does not speak about people of colour. I think this article speaks more to people who are having a hard time explaining to their friends about race rather than addressing it in a more educational manner. It was a fun read, but it wasn\u2019t as useful as I would have liked it to be in terms of teaching privilege in a classroom environment.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 <\/span>Pike, Graham, and David Selby. In the Global Classroom. Pippin, 2001.<\/span><\/p>\n

This book has provided me with a lot of resources on activities I can change and manipulate to meet my learning standards. I found this to be one of the most useful resources that I found during this inquiry proposal. It is a book of various worksheets and activities that introduce different kinds of topics that are difficult to discuss in a classroom. It scaffolds the ideas slowly to any age group. One activity I am wanting to implement, as an alternative to the previous resource stated above ( Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack), is the flower worksheet. The worksheet has a flower with various petals. The student would put their name in the middle and provide some information about their race, class, etc. and determine for themselves (based on their prior knowledge) if they have more or less privilege than others in society and why. I would probably want to repeat this exercise again either on the same day, after the lesson. Or closer to the end of the unit. This way, they can see and assess themselves in what has changed since they started the unit. I like this resource because it is practical and flexible. It also has a chart in each chapter so you can easily check what kind of social justice topics overlap in which activity and why it is useful to use these activities. It shows how you can further the conversation with your students, depending on how old the students are.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 <\/span>Capalad, Pamela. \u201cWhite privilege doesn’t mean you’ve never had to struggle.\u201d Medium, Medium, 27 Aug. 2017, medium.com\/@brunchandbudget\/white-privilege-doesnt-mean-you-ve-never-had-to-struggle-5b2633cbb151<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

This resource has helped me in the past define privilege. Pamela Capalad is a writer, blogger, and financial consultant. She is also a person of colour living in America. I was hesitant on providing this as a resource, as yes, I am related to her. However, I have referenced and looked back at this blog multiple times when trying to discuss privilege with people who are sensitive to the topic. The most useful part is the understanding of the term of privilege. More specifically, the definition that \u201cPrivilege means there are a lot of things you\u2019ve never had to think twice about that other people have to think about every day\u201d (Capalad). I think this is the most powerful way to describe that discussing privilege is not about attacking and blaming someone or a group of people. This article helps with the understanding of empathy and how it is the main reason to why we bring up the term white privilege in the first place because everyone requires and needs empathy from others. <\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span>\u2022 <\/span>TEDtalksDirector. \u201cListening to shame | Bren\u00e9 Brown.\u201d YouTube, YouTube, 16 Mar. 2012, www.youtube.com\/watch?v=psN1DORYYV0&feature=youtu.be.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As a bonus resource, Tiffany shared this video with me. At 10 minute Bren\u00e9 Brown, describes the importance of shame. She says \u201cwe can\u2019t talk about race without talking about privilege, and when people start talking about privilege, they get paralyzed by shame.\u201d She makes a really great argument about shame throughout the entire Ted Talk about how in order to be vulnerable, we need to address shame. I think during the privilege exercises that I choose to do with my students, I have to address the feelings of shame and really understand what that might feel like for my students. This is a great resource for understanding the social and emotional learning of shame and vulnerability.<\/span><\/p>\n

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REFLECTION<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In the Inquiry 2 course, I learned a lot more about my question and found a lot of really interesting resources. This is my summary of the course.<\/span><\/p>\n