Scholars, (Cooks & Simpson, 2007) stated, "My primary learning objective for today's class is to center race as a topic with which we will all struggle for several class sessions. We will spend the entire fifty minutes focused on race, which will be a first for many students" (p.249). This quote really stuck out to me because it is a reminder to me. A reminder that for a lot of students, this will be the first conversation that some of them will be having about race. This reminder also scares me because I forget that some students are new to this topic area. I want to educate them however I do not want to make my students uncomfortable. Another concern I also have is sounding like I am on a soap box or portraying my narrative as a "well I have white parents so it's okay for me to say this" type of conversation. Last semester, my conversations in class were vastly different from one another. It was my first semester so I felt very nervous about having these conversations. In one class, I had a bunch of minority students who shared their opinions and narratives with the class and another where none of my minority students spoke up. It was hard for me because I wanted to encourage the rest of the class to share however I also did not want to call anyone out. I facilitated the conversation to move throughout different social issues that were happening today however I struggled with getting other class members to participate. This semester I am taking what I've learned and using it to better facilitate class and really get the discussion going. This topic area is my personal favorite because I love sharing my narrative and hearing my students narratives as well. Overall, I hope to facilitate a good discussion that gets my students thinking more critically.
#youdoyou
That meme is to accurate right now!!! This week’s readings struck the same cord with me. I have become so use to talking about culture, race, power, whiteness, and all the -isms, that I never gave much thought to how this will most likely be the first time my students have had this talk in a classroom. This may even be the only time my students get a chance to address these issues in a classroom. I am nervous and excited. Like you, I am worried that I may come off as on my soap box but these are my favorite types of conversations. My classes briefly touched on these subjects while discussing performance and the discussion went well. So, this gives me hope that the discussion will be productive and that I may even help them understand privilege better. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, this is an interesting perspective to hear. Talking about race within my classroom has always been a very tricky subject because my complexion resembles that of Elmer's Glue. On a real note, I actually switched it up this year and opened with discussion, so I took a note from your book. It went really well, so I guess I just wanted to say thanks. You rock, boo.
ReplyDeleteLike Cotton, I also have a safety glue-adjacent aesthetic, and had some problems in one of my classes when it came to figuring out what I could say that would inspire minority students to speak. I led with the privilege walk this time, and I'm interested with experimenting with a discussion-first approach next semester.
ReplyDeleteWe had some productive conversation in my classes(we did the penny exercise). We sat in groups and I had each group study a section in the CIA first. Most of the conversation was productive, and some students who had rarely contributed were very insightful. I was also pretty surprised by how strong neoliberal logic is in some students, and how some students obviously disagree that we live in a post-racist, post-sexist world(they will roll their eyes, sigh, smirk, shake their heads... etc.)but aren't nearly as willing to speak up. I'm sure if I played back the discussion, there are things I could have done better, but it was an okay first try!
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