Month: March 2017

Critical Political

Something that has been on my mind a bit lately was an encounter I had with a friend of mine several years ago.  When I had first moved to Hawaii to do my master’s degree, we had a friend of a friend who already lived there and so he showed us around town and taught us all about what it was like to live in Hawaii.  It may not have been a classroom environment, but he was a teacher to me and my wife because so much of living in a different culture was new to us.  At one point the conversation became political, and he talked about a senator (I don’t even remember who it was at this point) who was doing a good job.  And I remember taking that at face value that there was a senator in Hawaii who was doing good things for the state.  What happened to my critical thinking skills at that time?  Had I just seen an authority figure telling me information and regressed back to the banking model of education?  Politics of all subjects is one we can think critically about!

 

Reading this week about critical pedagogy has had me thinking about the way in which knowledge is constructed and not just information for teachers to graciously bestow upon students.  The “teacher” in this scenario was someone who was giving his political view (not fact) about a politician’s performance.  Especially nowadays, I’m finding that who you talk to can result in very different views of how a politician is improving or deteriorating the current state of affairs.  The world around us is constantly changing!  (hence the “current” state of affairs)  So who is to say that knowledge can be static?!  This is why learning being a collaborative effort (where knowledge is constructed) instead of a one way message (banking model) is so important.  How many times through your college career have you heard that education helps you use your critical thinking skills?  I remember hearing that message so many times that I’m surprised how I’ve ever again had a moment in which I didn’t think critically.

 

I think this week’s topic builds so well from last week’s focus on inclusive pedagogy.  Instead of education taking place only one direction, from teacher to student, learning can go both ways and even sideways.  Just as my friend (a teacher to me in that scenario) had information to pass along to me, his views came from the context of his culture.  He and I differed in socioeconomic status, age, race, where we grew up, etc.  This created a situation in which learning could go both ways because of the diversity between us.  Now imagine how much diversity exists in a class of over 40 students from multiple countries!  And this diversity happens in every educational environment, yet it is left stagnant in the traditional banking model of education.

 

This is part of what I love about being in the counseling field is that learning never ends.  As a counselor educator, my students can learn from my experiences, but I can also learn from what they have to offer.  By modeling that experience, they can remain open minded to learn from the diverse clients that they will see in their time counseling.  Being culturally aware can involve being open to the varying experiences of others.  This parallels how critical pedagogy involves multiple directions of learning as opposed to the one way direction of the banking model of education.  Hopefully we as educators can remain open to learning from our students just as much as we teach them.  And students can be open to multiple perspectives, unlike the experience I shared above.  But hopefully by me reflecting on this, it allows me to better embrace diversity and a critical pedagogy in the future.

Shut Up And Listen

When I was an undergrad, I often went back and forth between being irritated with classmates that argued with the professors and being irritated with professors that didn’t listen to their students. When it came to novel concepts or subjects, I often wanted to hear uninterrupted lectures from my professors without so-and-so starting a debate or bringing up an exception I could’t follow. I knew that the professors weren’t always going to be correct, but, without some knowledge of the basics (even if skewed or from one perspective), how was I going to understand the concept well enough to analyze it myself. All I wanted was to absorb the information, so I could dissect it later in my own time.

I always appreciated when professors “shot down” those students who wanted to debate or argue in an intro or lower level class. Maybe they had enough knowledge to challenge the professor, but I certainly didn’t and neither did many of my classmates. As my basic knowledge grew with both in-class lectures and personal research, I found that I now had fully formed opinions and a wide perspective of the subjects. I could start debates and point out exceptions myself. But I found that a few professors (thankfully not a majority) still treated their classes as lower level and intro classes. They wouldn’t listen to the students’ opinions when they countered professors’ own, and they certainly wouldn’t allow for debates among the students. This halted my and everyone else’s learning. We had the basics down; now we could think for ourselves.

 


It’s all about execution.

“Intellectuals who memorize everything, reading for hours on end… fearful of  taking a risk, speaking as if  they were reciting from memory, fail to make any concrete connections between what they have read and what is happening in the world, the country, or the local community. They repeat what has been read with precision but rarely teach anything of personal value.” – Paulo Freire

Have you ever had one of those weeks where you just feel like the universe has been sending you a message? That’s how my week has been. Here I was, just minding my own business, going through the motions, when BAM! The universe started throwing me all these signs. I started listening to podcasts I had never heard of and everyone I did spoke to me. Not only did they speak to me, but they got me excited about my future. Who would’ve thought that could happen in the middle of grad school? I’m pursuing my masters right now and it feels like every other week I have someone asking me whether or not I’ll pursue my PhD and I think I finally have the answer. Yes, but not in Communication. Assuming I can make it through my master’s program, I’m going to try and grit my teeth and get through a PhD program in Public Health.

It all started when I listened to a podcast from a not-so-popular bikini bodybuilder competitor, Lacey Dunn. The episode, which you can find here, is a short interview with another bodybuilder who did her master’s thesis on macros vs. meal-prepping. I know most of you probably don’t know what that is but it’s a big debate in the fitness industry. Listening to this, a light bulb went off. If Laurin Conlin did her master’s thesis on something like IIFYM and meal-prepping, so can I. And this got me excited. I can actually take things I’m passionate about and dod on my own time anyways and apply it to my graduate studies? Heck yes! This all happened on Monday.

Then Wednesday hit and the universe decided a nudge wasn’t enough and shoved me harder. I went out on a limb and listened to another podcast that I had never listened to before. The podcast, which you can find here was an interview conducted with Quest Nutrition Co-Founder and Impact Theory CEO, Tom Bilyeu. If you’ve never heard of Impact Theory, I highly suggest you check it out. This podcast has three of my favorite things: fitness, business, and human behavior. A lightbulb didn’t just go off this time, there were fireworks.

I’m sure by now you’re all like, “what does this have to do with critical pedagogy and Paulo Freire?” Well, while I was reading this week I kept coming back to a theme shared by both Freire and Bilyeu: it’s all about execution. You can read all you want about facts, theories, concepts, and opinions within your field or pedagogy but what it really comes down to is what you do with that information. If you’re not creating a sense of community where ideas are shared and acknowledged, then change will never take place. Knowledge doesn’t mean s*** unless you use and share it. It’s really hard for me to put into words how much of a brain-gasm I had while putting these three concepts together so I highly encourage you guys to look at them. If you’re not into fitness or health or anything, Tom Bilyeu has a lot to say when it comes to “igniting human potential”.

 


Stereotypes and The Double Negative that Does Not Make a Positive

This week’s reading assignments hit really close to home for me. The chapters from the book on “How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do” by Claude Steele resonated with me from my own experiences as a Hispanic/Latino female student in engineering. The “stereotype threat” I have experienced has been, by far, strongest during my graduate degree at Virginia Tech. Even though my undergraduate degree was also in engineering and I had some of the stereotypical experiences of someone who identifies as a woman in this “male-dominated field”, these experiences were no challenge compared to my time in graduate school. Naturally, there are stark differences between the schools and within the specific departments when it comes to race/ethnic diversity. Florida International University, my undergraduate institution, has a student body comprised in its majority by Hispanics/Latinos (66.9%) compared to the 5.3% of the population for Virginia Tech (3.3% of the total graduate students). I don’t have the specific numbers for the department but it follows a similar trend for FIU which has an undergraduate and graduate program in my field, compared to the sole graduate program at VT where the total number of Hispanics has been fluctuating between 1 and 2 during my time here. I realize that my experience was made even more unique by my citizenship status. I am a naturalized citizen and I moved to the U.S. after my high school graduation which, in that sense, makes my experience more similar to that of international students. But since my legal status was that of “citizen”, I did not receive as many opportunities to interact with groups of people with whom I would have probably found a higher affinity based on our backgrounds. I was left out of the school’s targeted notices about certain events and the notices I did come across, which specifically stated “for international students”, I excluded myself following my identification as a citizen. This all meant that my social network, for a period of time during my graduate career, was confined to my specific school program in which I felt like I was a minority of one as a Hispanic woman who moved to the U.S. in her late teens. Add to the mix that my physical appearance clearly wears those labels “Latina” “woman” “short”, that I have English as a second language and an accent that proves it; and you get a recipe for strong feelings that “you do not belong”. In one of the chapters of the book by Steele mentioned above, the following footnote appears as the authors comments whether to make women and minorities aware of the “stereotype threat” they might face at different stages of their life, or even all throughout: I would argue that there is value in making people aware of the potential situations that might trigger feelings of inadequacy in these target populations. Looking back at my experience in Blacksburg during my first few years at Virginia Tech, I keep thinking about how different my reaction to encountering certain feelings could have been, had I been made aware beforehand of all the stereotypes I was carrying with me and the role they could play in my career. And I definitely agree with the author that it would be even more important to equip people with the tools to mitigate the negative feelings that eventually drive certain populations away from STEM fields. I didn’t know that some of the experiences I have had were “textbook” microaggressions towards women in my field until I saw them play out in videos and read them in stories that clearly identified them as such. I once thought that those attitudes were particular to the characters in my story and that my feelings were only my own. The awareness of a more general problem and the specific framework for it marks the first step in being able to properly address it.

Critical Pedagogy – Week 9 Guidelines

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After the Bath

Next week we will continue to explore inclusive pedagogy with a focus on the tenets of critical pedagogy and work of Paulo Freire. Before seminar, please read the Kincheloe article and go through Dr. Fowler’s PowerPoint slides (on Canvas) to familiarize yourself with Paulo Freire’s pedagogy. Many of you are likely familiar with the often-anthologized chapter two from Pedagogy of the Oppressed, but please read or review that chapter as well as the selections from Pedagogy of Freedom, and come to class ready to talk about them – perhaps armed with a good nugget (or two). If at all possible, please also have a look at Freire’s video on curiosity and June Jordon’s Report from the Bahamas.

As usual you may post about whatever resonates with you.

Questions to keep in mind as you read and prepare for class next week:

  • What does Freire’s approach to teaching and learning emphasize and why?
  • How does Freire define dialogic engagement?
  • What would a critical pedagogical praxis look like in your discipline?
  • What is the difference, for Freire, between being an “authority” vs. being “authoritarian”?

Image: After the bath (Efter badet’), 1971-76, limestone, by Swedish artist Pye Engström, Västertorp, Stockholm, Sweden. From left to right: Elise Ottesen-Jensen, Paulo Freire, Sara Lidman, Mao Tse-Dong, Angela Davis, Georg Borgström and Pablo Neruda. By Boberger. Photo: Bengt Oberger (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

I’m Tired….

I’m all over the place this week… Hence why this post is late… This is actually the week I was the most excited about when I first looked at the syllabus. But honestly… I’m just tired. I think that’s one of the reasons this post is late. I think another, that is strongly related to this tired feelings, is that I was expecting myself to have something profound to say about this. And really…

I don’t.

A lot of the time when this topic comes up in class, I feel this pressure to represent my people, speak up, and say something deeply profound. Most of the time, this pressure isn’t coming from anyone other than myself. I want to represent myself, my people, and my culture well. People are well meaning. They’re curious and they honestly don’t know so most of the time, I actually love to answer their questions. But right now,

I’m just tired.

I don’t say this to take away from anything we’ve read or talked about this week. I am actually really passionate about this topic as you might be able to tell from class. I really resonated with the “Reducing Identity and Stereotyping Threat” chapter. I think that’s because I’m still creating my narrative like the author mentioned towards the beginning. I did find it interesting that once again, the native experience is forgotten even in this article. Because of where I’m personally at right now, this actually hurts today. Because I feel like it reiterates the idea that it’s okay for us to have to endure this threat… I mean we’re the one race that it’s okay to characterize with stereotypical cartoons & sports mascots despite our continuing disapproval. As a group that gets forgotten, I’ve actually really started looking at making sure I include and look at everything in my classroom especially groups that I think continually get forgotten. Lately that has been in my work to make sure my classroom is accessible to everyone regardless of their abilities or capabilities and that my wording is welcoming. That’s why I used the word “Accessibility” in my syllabus instead of “Accommodations”. Accommodations has a more negative connotation and it is really just my goal for my class to be accessible. I’ve also been looking into Active Learning techniques and have been reading about how these activities are actually a nightmare for students with ADHD and other disorders that make it difficult to process information right away. I’m really disappointed I’m going to miss class this week… I know the discussion is going to be really good. But I’m actually going to be at the Tribal Leaders Summit here on campus with Virginia’s tribal leaders. I need to be there. Especially right now, with my state of mind. But I’m looking forward to being with you again next week. And I’ll leave you with this gif because I found it during my writing and just had to include it.

A deserved pain?

Once I saw a question on ZhiHu (a Chinese website, similar to Quora), “How much will poverty affect people’s mind and body?” There are over 9 thousands of answers and most of them have over thousands of upvotes. I read most of the answers and fell into musings. Poverty is crucially related to inequality, minority, and diversity – those topics that are of great importance in the context of education. Move from the ZhiHu question that I put up in front, today I want to discuss how I come up with my inclusive pedagogy in a seemingly implicit point of view through the poverty question. There are many reasons that can lead to poverty. One possible reason is that one is born with poverty. In other words, one is born in a poor family. Because of the “disadvantage”, this person may unconsciously develop his/her outlook on the world, life, and values that are inevitably tied up with money. There never exists equality. If you understand why people want to immigrate to Western countries or North America countries from middle east countries or African countries, you may understand inequality somehow.  Inequality is the fundamental reason for poverty in that there is no alternative choice where one can choose to be born in a rich or poor family. Due to this irresistible inequality, one may suffer from poverty in all cases of life. Such as education, which is naturally lean to those who are not restricted by poverty. The fact is, however, how can education be so unfairly distributed to treat these poor people just because there is no choice left for them besides poverty? Do they deserve the poor education, poor teachers, or poor facilities? According to the most recent estimates, in 2013, 10.7 percent of the world’s population lived on less than US$1.90 a day (World Bank). By comparison, we may call these 10.7 percent of the world’s population minority, those who may rarely meet their daily subsistence. This “poor” minority is mainly measured by income (or consumption). They may live in a different way as most of them are concerned about being alive instead of being living. Think about other minority that defined by race, color, religion, ethnicity, gender identity, sex orientation, etc. They all be possible to live in a so-called “absurd” way (in the perspective of the majority) as they just take great care of their meaningful way of living. Do they deserve the vicious abuse, the weird scan-looking, the cruel denial? The existence of poverty and minority is one proof of diversity. We can’t ignore diversity, and we actually never ignore it. As is pointed out in Shankar Vedantam’s book “How ‘The Hidden Brain’ Does The Thinking For Us“, besides the conscious conversation, we sometimes are heavily dominated by their unconscious mind of thinking. We tend to define people by their appearances even though we are reluctant to admit it. We tend to underrate the minority population even though we may not realize it at all. We tend to express that we love diversity even though we, in fact, disrespect its existence. We unconsciously show our priority when facing those who are in poverty, defined as minority, or just merely different from the universal definition. We unconsciously put them in pain. However, do they deserve the pain? Do we really care about poverty, minority, and diversity? Do we really take them into consideration when we talk about education? Yes, we do. However, care and consideration are not even close to enough. Pain is still there for them. What we need to do is to invite them to expose it, to examine it, and then to really heal it. We can’t just discuss inclusive pedagogy within the majorities. We should hear from their voices and let them express their concerns. We should bring the contradictory arguments to the table so that we can understand their underlying rationale. We should nurture and express our inclusive attitude in a sincere way that all of us truly believe in (consciously and unconsciously). We should understand that inclusive pedagogy is a collaborative effort of everyone.          
Citation: Shankar Vedantam. How ‘The Hidden Brain’ Does The Thinking For Us Katherine W. Phillips. How Diversity Makes Us Smarter Brian Arao and Kristi Clemens. From Safe Places to Brave Spaces Brittany Ford. Cyberbullying must be prevented at its roots

Review old things with a new eye

Inclusive pedagogy is a huge topic and I am going to reflect some changes during my learning process when my classmates have different background, culture, and point of view and the classroom environment is completely strange. Studying abroad gives me the chance to expose to people I would not otherwise meet and to the culture that I am very unfamiliar to. Especially, it gives me a new look at things that have not been questioned before.

I am adjusting my view about subjects

Before, my classes were divided by two main categories “primary classes” (science classes) and “secondary classes” (social science classes). Therefore, I spent most of the studying time for those science classes (same as other students), which was encouraged by my parents and my schools. Now, I still enjoy math and chemistry classes a lot and they have helped me a lot for other classes as well as my research. But I see two new things. First, I might remember the definition or a chemical formula better than my friends but they seem to know how to apply that piece of information into a real life problem much better than me. Second, my fellows know a lot about history, art, geography, and much more. And they care a lot of current social events that might affect the community. I am so embarrassed to say that I should have known much more about my home history and culture. No class should be classified as “secondary” compared to other classes.    

I am changing my learning habit

In general, I am a product of a passive education system. I was taught in a way that students get all knowledge from teachers, listen to teacher’s lecture as a truth and without questions, take note, memorize information, and reproduce memorized information in exams. Now, I am trying to become an active learner since I am the one who plays the major role in my learning process, instead of the teacher. I have always preferred to study by myself. But this semester, I start trying to study with others in a small group. Beginning feedbacks seem to be positive.  

I have learned some very new concepts. For example,

“Privilege”: for the first time, I understand the meaning of this word and clearly see my privilege in different contexts. I am so surprised that I might not experience the same environment as others. Then I think about my country, yes, I had seen how a city teacher and a countryside teacher received different reactions from students and their parents. Privilege exists in my country too. It just has not been defined in my home or I just do not realize it.     

“Microaggression”: the same word, the same sentence, but for different people, it might have very different meaning. Suddenly, I think about an international instructor or an instructor of a multicultural classroom, who might face microaggression more frequently. Since they are in a powered position, their saying and action might have more effects on students.    

The Hidden Brain Also Has Hidden Bias

I have personally noticed a trend regarding the idea of inclusivity. It seems that whenever inclusivity is discussed at Virginia Tech, it typically surrounds the discussion of race, gender, and sexual identity. Discussion of disabilities tends to be excluded. Maybe it’s not a trend and is instead a result of a personal bias due to my wife’s background in working amongst individuals with disabilities. Another misconception is that the term disability do not always refer to a disability that manifests in a physical manner either. I’m now getting down from my soap box to continue this post.

Reading about Shankar Vedantam’s The Hidden Brain reminded me of a battery of online tests that I have taken on several occasions. Psychologists at Harvard, the University of Virginia and the University of Washington created “Project Implicit” to develop Hidden Bias Tests — called Implicit Association Tests, or IATs, in the academic world — to measure unconscious bias. These tests allow you to find out your implicit associations about race, gender, sexual orientation, and other topics. Scientific research has demonstrated that biases thought to be absent or extinguished remain as “mental residue” in most of us. Studies show people can be consciously committed to egalitarianism, and deliberately work to behave without prejudice, yet still possess hidden negative prejudices or stereotypes. Therefore, I know I have implicit biases and it is a daily task to make sure I remind myself that I have them. Go ahead and try one of them….the results will surely surprise you.

Now I want to tell a story that relates to inclusivity in the classroom.

It was 2006, one year after Hurricane Katrina left its mark on New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. I was working for the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office in the patrol division and was told by my supervisor that I was scheduled to attend diversity training in the upcoming week.

Now, before I go any further, I would like to point out that the entire sheriff’s office was required to attend diversity training at this time. We were never told why everyone had to attend, but they were some mutterings that the department had been the subject of a civil rights investigation by the United States Department of Justice.

So, the day of diversity training came and I walked into a room of 50 deputies from across the entire department. As I looked across the room for a place to sit, I saw that there were 45 white male deputies, four white female deputies and one African-American male deputy. An outside organization sent the facilitators for the training that day: a white female, a hispanic female, and an African-American female. Every person in the room introduced themselves and then the facilitators began the training.

White female facilitator: Today we will be discussing race at great length. Who has heard the term racism before? [every deputy in the room raises a hand] Good. You can put down your hands.

Hispanic female facilitator: Raise your hand if you believe there is such a thing as reverse racism? [48 deputies raise a hand] Okay. Hands down. Hmmm. [she looks at the other facilitators] 48 out of 50. [deputies bgin looking around to attempt to figure out who didn’t raise their hand]

African-American female facilitator: Two of you don’t agree with your colleagues and I took a mental note of who they were. [makes eye contact with the African-American male deputy and a solitary white male deputy] You. [gestures at the solitary white male deputy] Why did you not agree with your colleagues?

Me: It doesn’t matter who’s doing it, racism is racism.

Improving Classroom Performance through Diversity

The articles this week about how unconscious bias and diversity effect our performance came as a bit of a shock to me. I never felt that I act any different when I’m working in a diverse group of people versus a group of people with similar race, gender, and background. Personally, I like to think that I don’t act any different around diverse people, but I would be interested in finding out if I do. When it comes to unconscious bias, since I heard this term in a seminar about a year ago. Since then I have been working on identifying unconscious bias that I have and making myself aware of them. Coming from the engineering world I found the seminar a refreshing change of pace. It was interesting to learn how a person (i.e. me) could jump to a bias conclusion about an individual based on one or more of their characteristics. During the presentation the presenter did a test that involved relating words and pictures to either Chicago or Boston (this presentation was given in Boston where many of the people have lived for a long time). It was interesting to see that even when a crowd was used when nice/happy things were related to Boston the crowd was much quicker to form the relationship versus when they had to related bad things to Boston. As more of a bystander than a participant since I’m not from either city I found it interesting that people can have unconscious bias purely based on where they are from. Thinking about all of this in a classroom setting. When it comes to projects I always like the idea of letting students pick who they want to work with because I enjoyed this more when I was an undergraduate student. When working in groups I find that I work better when I already know the other people and have had experience working with them. I felt that when I was put with a new group of people we would have to spend a sizable amount of time getting use to each other, figuring out how each of us worked in a group, and everyone’s strengths/weaknesses which I felt made group projects tougher. But, after reading “The Hidden Brain” by Shankar Vendantam and “How Diversity Makes us Smarter” by Katherine W. Phillips it got me thinking that maybe assigning groups and using the diversity in the classroom can be advantageous to producing quality results from group projects. This is defiantly an idea that I might try to mess around with in the classroom depending on the course, the size of the class, and the students in the class.  
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