Adult Education Theories & Tools
Branch Out by Vrindy Spencer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
|
Branch Out by Vrindy Spencer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
|
It is impossible to see the air we breathe until we have an alternative. Similarly, privilege pervades our lenses if we do not know people who do not fit the 'norm' of society. Here are some graphics of levels of oppression that exist: In the book The Skillful Teacher, Brooksfield talks about the value of sharing narrative when delving into these complex subjects (p.116). I have attempted a brief sliver of my personal narrative. I have only in the last few years begun a deeper investigation into oppressions, privilege, and power. I did not accept for most of my life that I was any different from others I was around, although I experienced many micro-aggressions throughout my childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. I remember people asking me if I am from Surrey, because of my dark skin and the assumption that all Indians live in Surrey. I had a teacher in grade 8 ask me, after we watched Bride and Prejudice, whether we have cheorographed dance like that at Indian weddings. I cannot count the amount of times I've been asked my 'background,' 'nationality,' or 'ethnicity' within minutes of meeting someone. I have also lost track of the amount of times I've been asked what language I speak or if I speak 'Indian.' I have a distinct memory of the feeling of disbelief and perception of dismissal when, in a conversation at work, I mentioned that after coming back from exchange in India I felt the most disconnected I ever have from my classmates, because when I compared my skin colour to others in the classrooms in India, I finally matched them, and my supervisor at the time said she had never noticed my skin colour. When I hear remarks like that, I can only shake my head and question our societal structure, where someone, particularly someone in power, does not understand her implicit biases. On the other hand, I also have distinct memories of thinking of women professors as "motherly," of assuming people's sexuality and gender as straight and cys, of ignoring people that could not speak english well, and of walking faster and avoiding eye contact when I passed by a man of colour on the street. I am SO GRATEFUL conversations about privilege and power are increasing and infiltrating the education system and I am in enough of a position of security to question my way of being in the world and sort through the discomfort of my own past experiences on both sides of oppressive structures. I believe these understandings are vital to greater individual, relational, community, societal, and world well-being. Reference Brookfield, S. D. (2015). The Skillful Teacher: On technique, trust, and responsiveness in the classroom (3rd ed.). San Fransisco: John Wiley & Sons.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorI am passionate about creating experiences of personal growth for adults through self-reflection and connection with others in groups. Archives
March 2018
Categories |