Sep 03

The five faces of Oppression

Young, I. (1990). Justice and the politics of difference (16-65). Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Violence
Against the spirit, body and soul… being censored – internally oppressed – it kills your spirit – being able to speak, not being able to say what they wanted to in the past — Yosso is an example of someone who writes about microaggression

Cultural Imperialism
Other – stereotyping, erasure, stigmatizing, foundational works across multiple disciplines to understand the topic — going through to take a look at authors – examples, and go back – we could not necessarily come up with something specific – how US history is taught in schools – and how it stigmatizes – who is in power – who is writing the books – buying the books – who engages in it. When you are being oppressed you cannot see it sometimes –

Sep 02

Problem, Purpose & Question

Developing the problem statement:
Beginning:

Problem:
The Impact of Compassion Fatigue on Social Justice Allies in Student Affairs
What is the impact of compassion fatigue on student affairs professionals social justice allies

Although,

Creswell, J. W. (2003). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

The problem
people get burnt out
people feel alone
people overwhelmed

PROBLEM:

  1. FIRST: Eurocentric higher educational systems within higher education do not meet the needs of diverse student populations. Student affairs professionals are often stretched between policy, people, and purpose while working towards creating an equitable environment.
  2. SECOND: The needs of diverse student populations are not being met due to the Eurocentric higher educational systems. Student affairs professionals are often stretched between policy, people, and purpose while working towards creating an equitable environment.
  3. THREE: FROM MY CAPSTONE WHICH MAY INFORM THE PROBLEM: Student affairs professionals are positioned between students and the university’s power structure. “Student affairs professionals, especially those at upper levels of the administration, have some level of power that students do not share” (Broido & Reason, 2005, p. 25). Because of this hierarchy, the informal out-of-classroom interactions students student affairs professionals are often rich with diverse experiences. Higher education is built upon Eurocentric roots tied to the hierarchal system instituted within the colonial foundation of higher education (Altbach, 2001). The current system continues to privilege Euro-American white students, and has not yet adapted to the steadily diversifying student body. Social justice is imperative for transforming institutional structures to better meet the needs of all students. Yet, support systems do not exist for student affairs professionals striving for social justice on their campuses.
  4. FOUR: Student affairs professionals are positioned between students and the university’s power structure. Because of this hierarchy, the informal out-of-classroom interactions between students and student affairs professionals are often rich with diverse experiences. Higher education is built upon Eurocentric roots tied to the hierarchal system instituted within the colonial foundation of higher education (Altbach, 2001). The current system continues to privilege Euro-American white students, and has not yet adapted to the steadily diversifying student body. Due to these structures student affairs professionals are often stretched between policy, people, and purpose while working towards creating an equitable environment.

PURPOSE:

  1. FIRST: The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore the impact of compassion fatigue on student affairs professionals working towards social justice in higher education through narrative inquiry.
  2. SECOND: The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore how compassion fatigue impacts student affairs professionals working towards social justice in higher education through narrative inquiry.
  3. ***THIRD: The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore what student affairs professionals experience while doing social justice work in higher education through narrative inquiry.

===================================
RESEARCH QUESTIONS: What I really want to know….

  • What is the impact of compassion fatigue on student affairs professionals working toward social justice on their campus?
  • How do student affairs professionals feel while breaking down barriers for social justice? Do these feelings effect their work?
  • How do student affairs professionals strive for social justice on their campuses?
  • How do student affairs professionals face the barriers in higher education?
  • Why do student affairs professionals work towards social justice? (Why do they do what they do?)
  • How do student affairs professionals feel when they have accomplished social justice on their campus?

====================================
Bloomberg & Volpe (2008)

The potential audience. Who would appreciate the worth of my study? Who would care enough to read it? Who would be interested?

The intellectual value and worth of the study. What, if any, is the wider significance of this research? Who would benefit by this study? Would a study in this area contribute to an ongoing conversation in a particular social science discipline or applied field? Would the study generate theoretical and/pr conceptual understanding? What, if anything, would be the significance for policy? Will the study contribute to the development of professional practice?

Personal and professional goals. Will this study further my personal and professional interests? Will it enhance my career and/or career change? Will the research problem sustain my interest over the ensuing months and years?

Ethical considerations. Does the research involve practices or strategies that might embarrass or harm participants? Are there any political risks to others or me in reporting fairly and accurately the findings and outcomes of the potential study?

Research paradigm

  • Constructivist, critical theory/advocacy

Genre of inquiry

Narrative inquiry

Researcher role

  • Adopts an emic (insider) point of view
  • Seeks to discover and understand meaning of experience
  • Adopts a flexible stance and is open to change
  • Is reflective about own voice and perspective
  • Acknowledges personal values, and brings own experience to bear on the study
  • Is active and involved

Research design

  • Inductive: research is about “idea generation”
  • Design is proposed up front, but is open and emergent, rather than rigid and fixed to permit exploration
  • Small samples are selected purposefully

Aug 27

The start of a new blog

Here I go… I am starting a new blog space for me to let everyone in the world know what I am doing, where am I going, and more… How do I say this? who knows what will happen a year from now, and I have to be okay with it. I do know I have mini-deadlines right now – to get my Capstone done within the next few months, and to get 3 chapters of my dissertation done by December 9, 2009. Can you imagine?

I have been overwhelmed with what is happening in my out of academic life – so having to balance all of it is exhausting to think about -yet, I know I will be okay… you know?

Mar 11

Peobeus Discussion: March 11

Giddings Reading:

CH 6 —
** Throughout – women should be feminine — constructing women of colour this way — why was this?
Pushed – because Black men were put into power – therefore, to carry this out they had to treat Black women the same way – dainty the feminine ideal

** Is that construction still true today?
I don’t think this is true – it is more of a strong Black woman — this image — more so someone who is a single woman taking care of a family, etc.

** Are Black women made as matriarch? What are some of the issues surrounding this?
– take into account what happened during slavery
– they are constructed to be “head of household”
– they are not viewed as the same as white women

** Is there danger to calling Black women matriarchal?
– women dominating a system

Feb 25

Obama: Ty’Sheoma Bethea

“And I think about Ty’Sheoma Bethea, the young girl from that school I visited in Dillon, South Carolina – a place where the ceilings leak, the paint peels off the walls, and they have to stop teaching six times a day because the train barrels by their classroom. She has been told that her school is hopeless, but the other day after class she went to the public library and typed up a letter to the people sitting in this room. She even asked her principal for the money to buy a stamp. The letter asks us for help, and says, “We are just students trying to become lawyers, doctors, congressmen like yourself and one day president, so we can make a change to not just the state of South Carolina but also the world. We are not quitters.”

We are not quitters.”

Feb 11

Peobeus Discussion: Authors

E. Franken Frazier, Sociologist

Cornel West, Author of the Cornel West Reader & Race Matters

Tavis Smith interview Cornel West

The Making of An American Radical
Non-Marxist that believes in the necessity of Marxist thought p. 10-11
Inadequacies of Marxist Thought
Now what would CRT pedagogy or Black Feminist pedagogy look like?
Stance on epistemological issues’
Strategies, methods, role of teacher/student
Effect on curricula
Inclusive textbooks
Move the conversations to the foundations
Think about issues a different way
Change what is “worth” teaching

Feb 11

Peobeus Brainstorm: Final Project

Ideas for the Project

A Critical Race Theory Study: Online Social Networks as Cultural Capital

Deconstruct YouTube Through a Critical Race Theory Lens
A Critical Race Theory: Giving Voice through YouTube
Looking at a PWI Mission Statement through a Critical Race Theory
Using a CRT Epistemology in Voices from YouTube
Using a CRT Epistemology to Discover Voices on YouTube

The purpose of this virtual ethnographic study is to discover central themes within the user online commentary reacting to the Chris Crocker’s (2008) YouTube video titled, “Gay HATE on YouTube!”

Feb 03

Without Sanctuary & Strange Fruit

http://www.withoutsanctuary.org/

Strange Fruit by Billie Holiday
Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

Pastoral scene of the gallant south,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.

Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.

Feb 03

You Get Proud by Practicing by Laura Hershey

Opening Reflection shared by: Val Erwin

If you are not proud
For who you are, for what you say, for how you look;
If every time you stop
To think of yourself, you do not see yourself glowing
With golden light; do not, therefore, give up on yourself.

You can get proud.
You do not need
A better body, a purer spirit, or a Ph.D.
To be proud.
You do not need
A lot of money, a handsome boyfriend, or a nice car.
You do not need
To be able to walk, or see, or hear,
Or use big, complicated words,
Or do any of those things that you just can’t do
To be proud. A caseworker
Cannot make you proud, Or a doctor.
You only need more practice.
You get proud by practicing.

There are many many ways to get proud.
You can try riding a horse, or skiing on one leg,
Or playing guitar,
And do well or not so well,
And be glad you tried
Either way.
You can show
Something you’ve made
To someone you respect

And be happy with it no matter

What they say.
You can say
What you think, though you know
Other people do not think the same way, and you can keep saying it, even if they tell you
You are crazy.

You can add your voice

All night to the voices
Of a hundred and fifty others
In a circle
Around a jailhouse
Where your brothers and sisters are being held
For blocking buses with no lifts,
Or you can be one of the ones
Inside the jailhouse,
Knowing of the circle outside.
You can speak your love
To a friend
Without fear.
You can find someone who will listen to you
Without judging you or doubting you or being
Afraid of you
And let you hear yourself perhaps
For the very first time.
These are all ways
Of getting proud.
None of them
Are easy, but all of them
Are possible. You can do all of these things,
Or just one of them again and again.
You get proud
By practicing.

Power makes you proud, and power
Comes in many fine forms
Supple and rich as butterfly wings.
It is music when you practice opening your mouth
And liking what you hear
Because it is the sound of your own
True voice.

It is sunlight 

When you practice seeing
Strength and beauty in everyone,
Including yourself.
It is dance when you practice knowing
That what you do
And the way you do it
Is the right way for you
And cannot be called wrong.
All these hold
More power than weapons or money
Or lies.
All these practices bring power, and power
Makes you proud.
You get proud
By practicing.
Remember, you weren’t the one
Who made you ashamed,
But you are the one
Who can make you proud.
Just practice,
Practice until you get proud, and once you are proud,
Keep practicing so you won’t forget.
You get proud
By practicing.

http://www.disabilitypride.com/

Feb 03

Dr. Rendon: Creating an Integrative, Consonant Pedagogy Rooted in Social Justice — Dr. Laura Rendon

Exemplary Portrait: Barbara Jaffe

  • Teaches English in California’s Puente Project, El Camino College
  • Puente (Bridge) works with low-income, first generation community college students
  • Familia writing model
  • Employs writing as a contemplative practice tool
  • Faculty member becomes a change agent, liberator and healer

Agreements Professor Jaffe Broke

  • Writing is a stand-alone activity disconnected from student lives
  • Only a few can learn and be successful college students
  • All that poor, first-generation students come to college with are deficits that are most likely insurmountable
  • The teacher’s role is to be the expert detached from students
  • Putting down students is tough love that can result in real learning
  • English professors need not emphasize the culture of the students
  • The student’s voice and whatever is personal is unimportant in the classroom

New Pedagogical Dreamfield

  • Writing can be employed as a contemplative practice tool, allowing students to express themselves and to reflect meaningfully on themes that are important to them
  • All can learn if given the tools and the opportunity to learn
  • Students from low-income backgrounds have strengths. They bring resilience, having overcome many difficult challenges in life. They bring their culture and their life experiences, which can be used as a base to foster learning.
  • The teacher can and should engage in positive working relationships with students
  • Encouragement and validation are key to student learning and growth
  • Students can learn when exposed to an inclusive curriculum that includes their cultural perspectives
  • Students can develop self-confidence if given voice in the classroom
Exemplary Portrait:Carlos Silveira

  • Professor of Art–CSU-Long Beach
  • Teaching philosophy based on Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed
  • Engages students in service learning
  • Worked with poor children in the favelas of Brazil
Agreements Silveira Broke

  • Art is a thing of beauty with little or no connection to sociopolitical, multicultural themes or to human healing
  • The classroom is race/gender/sexuality-neutral
  • Content can be learned only through academic forms—read a book, develop a theory
  • Real learning occurs only inside the classroom
  • Feelings/compassion are unimportant in pedagogical practice
  • Poor students cannot learn
  • Cognitive development is the only thing that matters
Silviera’s New Pedagogical Dream
New Agreements:

  • Art can transform; art has healing power. Art can be used to create socio-political awareness
  • Real learning occurs not just in the classroom, but also in a field setting in a community. This is where theory meets humanitarianism, compassion and critical consciousness
  • Professor can be a social activist—a change agent 
  • Poor students can learn when allowed to express their voice, to work on projects that reflect what they know and what they represent
  • Emotions can be a part of the curriculum

Exemplary Portrait: 
Professor J. Herman Blake


  • Carnegie Foundation Teacher of the Year
  • Retired Professor of African American Studies at Iowa State University
  • Believes firmly that there are no known limits to learning
  • Believes in engaging with students on multiple projects–multicultural learning community, conference on race and ethnicity

Strange Fruit

  • Without Sanctuary

Agreements Blake Broke

  • Professor is the only expert in class
  • Reflection is unnecessary
  • Learning ends once the class is over
  • We should not talk about disturbing issues related to race in the classroom
  • There are limits to learning, especially for students of color

New Agreements Blake Created

  • Contemplative Practice is critical–allows for students to reflect and engage more deeply with the material
  • Issues of race create tension, but we must work through them–disruption “wakes up” neutrality
  • There are no limits to learning; levels of expectation should remain high, especially for students of color
  • Liberating students from self-limiting views and fostering a passion to learn and to recognize and take action against societal inequities is the work of social justice in the classroom.

What Do We Call a Pedagogy

  • Rooted in ancient wisdom–nonduality, wholeness, complimentarity between two opposites
  • Decenters Western epistemology and ontology
  • Views individuals as whole human beings
  • Individuals can transform the world by acting on it
  • In all that we do, there is a greater purpose than what appears before us
  • Is unitive–connects inner and outer learning; unites the student with the subject matter; employs contemplative practice to deeply engage the learner in the material
  • Promotes the acquisition of both knowledge and wisdom
  • Emphasizes activism, liberation, healing and social change
Celebration of the Marriage of Heart and Mind

MultiHuman Curriculum

  • Is multicultural and humanistic in nature
  • Affirms dignity and worth of all people
  • Respects diverse ways of accessing truth (i.e., scientific paradigm & full range of qualitative methods that honor the human experience).
  • Engages diverse perspectives–ancestral teachings, Western views of knowledge, Third-World & Indigenous Knowledge, etc.
  • Rejects a monocultural framework that exclusively privileges a White race, a male gender and Western perspectives
The Liberating, Socially Just Classroom

  • Emphasizes relationships and the betterment of the collective whole
  • Promotes self-reflexivity and emergence of critically aware, socially responsible individual
  • Curriculum is democratic, inclusive and reflective of student backgrounds and needs
  • Students develop intellectual capacities and develop themselves as human beings–identity, path in life, critical consciousness
  • Professor models social activism (service learning, working with poor students, etc.)
  • Professor promotes an ethic of care, compassion and validation
  • Fosters transformation–students find self-worth, purpose, and voice
  • Western paradigm which over-privileges mental knowing, monoculturalism, and separation is decentered. Emphasis is on wholeness