Ultimately, everything went very well. My media arts class seemed to understand the concepts, and thought reflectively of where they stood in the privilege walk (I was totally right, they were all clumped together at the front of the room. This did ask another important question, though. One of my students, who is black, made the comment that he expected to be at the front of the class, but was surprised to be in the middle with a few others. Apparently, his family basically owns an entire town in Arkansas. He came to the conclusion that the list of questions I asked focused more on race than socioeconomic status. I wanted him to know that in no way did I mean for him to feel singled out, and we had a great conversation about how there are several layers of privileges that put us all across the spectrum. I will most likely change the questions next semester, and add a few statistics in there so each question has some backing. And based on my student's suggestion, I'll probably include a few more questions related to socioeconomic status.
I wanted to briefly mention this concept of agency that I learned from chapter 11 last week. Cooks argued the importance of discussing the relationship between discourse and being aware of how problems as well as solutions directed towards agents and targets. In class we mentioned understanding the importance of agency, especially in terms of interracial interaction. In this specific instance, my student went on to tell me that he has never felt like he's been oppressed, and he thought his higher socioeconomic status had something to do with these feelings. He felt like the privilege walk, although lacking depth in some questions, was a great way for him to come to the conclusion of understanding many privileges within our society. Overall, I'm pleased with how everything went!
Cotton, I am really glad things went well in your class. I liked the way you divided your post into two sections. I can sense your anxiety in the first post and your relief in the second post. A similar situation happened to me in my second class. I have a mix of students however that day there were a lot of people late/absent resulting in one group being clumped together at the front. Overall, I really enjoyed hearing about the conversation you had and what your plans for next semester are.
ReplyDeleteIt's great to hear that your privilege walk activity inspired some reflexive conversation - it sounds like it happened in your classes moreso than it did for mine. I've also been considering more socioeconomic questions for the privilege walk - truth be told, I added a question about rural spaces at the last minute as my class passed yours outside Wooten and I heard you ask it. Good looking out.
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