The Mighty Morphing Power Changers

Congratulations on surviving the first month of school! I wish you four more! I wanted to post this blog a lot earlier than this but I couldn't quite get around to it, my apologies. A theme that is reoccurring while talking with many you is the notion of how to negotiate power in the classroom. All nine of us are fairly new to the whole being the leader or the face of classroom/s of 20 students or more. I will assume that we are all familiar with the hegemonic masculinity power structure, that excludes women and people of color, in the very country we live in. And in my second semester as a TA, there are and has been some students who attempt to preserve and re-inscribe power from the concept of hegemonic masculinity. In this  blog I want to share with you all of my fears and how I continue to battle these fears as a Black man, by using Deanna Dannels, "How CAN I negotiate power?" chapter.

This struggle of power follows us in classrooms and continues to structure control and hierarchy towards systems, bodies, authorities, race, gender, and sexual orientation. In all my time being a TA, every semester, every time walking into a classroom, I wonder how I CAN establish some form power in spaces where I am still often the minority. The word power used in the last sentence refers to being the leader, facilitator, the authoritarian if needed, in classes I teach. How CAN I battle negative ideologies that are inscripted upon my material body by american society? Ideologies such as furtive, ghetto, untrustworthy, dangerous, violent, evil, and uneducated. I mean there are about 38,000 students from all over the world, that come from different backgrounds, that attend this university and there are still places in this world that those students come from where the color black is still not respected or human. If this power is teacher-student relationship in which the students delegate power power to the teacher(Dannels, 2015), then what are ways I CAN negotiate power, given the sociocultural influence my students already possess?

Despite the on going systemic hardships minorities face today: the events of Charloettesville, the aftermath of the acquittal of Jason Stockley in St. Louis, to President Trump calling a black athlete a "son of a bitch"my worries increase. I'll admit, when first reading this book I wondered who was my author. When looking up the author I found that the author is a white woman that teach at a university that has a 73% White student, 6% Black student, 5% Asian and Hispanic student population. So i wondered how relevant and effective is this book for a racialized teacher in times that we still dehumanize people of different ethnicity than the dominant. I told myself I would finish the book, hear Dannels out and it turned out to be a very good read. Dannels identifies 5 types of power reward, referent, legitimate, coercive, and expert power. Reward power and referent power help me the most with being concerned on how to negotiate power in the classroom. Reward power, the perception of  a potential reward is used to reach out to my students who are struggling with class content and my students who are grade orientated learners. When I have extra time in class I invite my students to ask for help on their assignments. Usually we are able to tackle the hard content and the reward that is given is a good grade. Lastly , I use referent power. Since I do not have a whole lot in common with my students I still try my best to be transparent and a site of support. I say things like "I was an undergrad too...", "You can do it", "You are all very smart", "I want this to be fun for you", "I feel the same way", and "You are not alone" to motivate them and let them know that I care; and when both powers are successful I then know that I CAN!

#Thosewhocan