2019 UOTeach Welcoming Schools
WORKSHOP SLIDES: Welcoming Schools UOTeach 2019
OBJECTIVE 1: Considering Gender Norms and Gender Identity:
* Related to other aspects of Identity
* Present in MY OWN sense of myself
* Informing how I interact as a learner and a Future teacher
OBJECTIVE 2: Interrogating how Gender Norms and Gender Identity Diversity are:
* Socially supported / Socially denied in schools
* Addressed in instruction / Ignored in instruction
* Opportunities for enrichment / Barriers to enrichment
The Welcoming Schools Workshop began with a panel of current education professionals sharing life stories. Each educator shared how their educational experiences have been shaped in relation to their identity.
ws 2019 Part i. Identity, Intersectionality, and Inequality
The Welcoming Schools panelists shared personal stories about how multiple aspects of identity have created opportunities as well as barriers for them within the education setting. Some of the critical identity based topics that were highlighted in the storytelling included:
- Intersectionality
- Code Switching
- Impression Management
- Gender Performativity
- Multiracial Navigation of Identities
- Social Class and Social Stratification
- Protected Classes (Oregon and Federal) Issues
- and the basics of Structural Inequality in the US in 2019
Each of the concepts above has an internet link for your further reading and self-education.
It is critical to note that our panel shared personal stories in order to make visible systems, structures, and experiences that are most often rendered invisible in our day-to-day interactions within an education setting. The only instruction given was to explicitly include how gender identity or gender expression was connected to the experiences each panelist choose to share in their storytelling.
Each panelist was limited to a five-minute window and only shared a very limited view of their experiences in school and in society related to their identities.
As with all personal stories we asked that you reflect upon, connect with, and learn from what you heard shared.
We also asked that you remember that each panel member’s story belongs to that person and can only be shared with that person’s explicit permission.
To find identity based stories made public (memoirs, blogs, videos etc.) you are encouraged to explore many diverse podcasts, published articles, books, movies, and blogs where people are offering public versions of their personal experiences for discussions and for learning.
ws 2019 Part 2. (UOTeach) equity and DIVERSITY DISCUSSION PROTOCOLS
After the panel discussion we went through a review of the UOTeach Learning Community discussion protocols. Protocols are a critical tool for each new teacher to consider in order to support students in a classroom community.
You can read this article, Starting With Ourselves: Preparing for Tough Classroom Conversations, to get more ideas about how you will develop your own classroom protocols for engaging in equity and diversity dialogues.
UOTeach Dialogue Protocols:
-
Stay engaged.
Listen deeply and ask with curiosity. -
Speak what is true for you.
Beginning with I statements can be helpful -
Experience discomfort.
Reflections on your own discomfort are rich with new information -
Have an appreciative inquiry stance.
Assume good intent and be attentive to negative impacts -
Expect and accept non-closure.
Be open to unexpected outcomes as well as to ambiguity
ws 2019 part 3. BINARY GENDER FRAMEWORK — GENDER STEREOTYPES — and GENDER INEQUALITY
For this discussion we considered fundamental issues related to normative gender in curriculum, instruction, and performance in the classroom. For further reading on this topic you can follow this EDUTOPIA link: Gender Equity in the Classroom
We looked at how gender stereotypes, gender norms, and gender bias prevent people of all genders from full and affirmed participation in society.
Here are a few videos on the challenges of Masculinity and Femininity to developing youth:
- Be A Man: Joe Ehrmann at TEDxBaltimore 2013
- (Masculinity) The Mask You Live In
- Miss Representation
- Kimberlé Crenshaw . | TEDWomen 2016 The urgency of intersectionality
- What You Can Do to Reduce Gender Bias And Why You Should | Susan Fleming | TEDxCornellUniversity
- Teens and Dating Violence
ws 2019 part 4. INCLUSIVE GENDER FRAMEWORK — GENDER IDENTITY STEREOTYPES — and GENDER IDENTITY INEQUALITY
For this discussion we used materials from Gender Spectrum, HRC Welcoming Schools, and Oregon Safe Schools and Communities Coalition. Critical topics related to having a gender inclusive framework are linked below:
- Teaching Tolerance – The Gender Spectrum
- Understanding Gender
- Sex? Sexual Orientation? Gender Identity? Gender Expression?
- The Language of Gender
- RACE and Gender Identity: QPOC Safe Spaces
- Supporting Our Gender Expansive Youth
- Gender Inclusive Signage
- Gender Inclusive Classrooms: Concepts and Lessons
- Gender Across the Grades
- Rethinking Schools – It’s OK to be Neither
- Rethinking Schools – When the Gender Boxes Don’t Fit
- Harsh Realities – The Experiences of Transgender Youth in Our Nation’s Schools
ws 2019 part 5. homework — critical pedagogy — reflexivity and doing my own work
Equity and diversity work in education is endless. Developing your own tools for both reflection and for resilience are critical to sustaining your momentum as a teacher. I recommend you explore some of these excellent authors and resource homes as spaces that may give you personal ideas for how you will intentionally cultivate and care for your own heart and mind.
The Courage to Teach: Courage Renewal Center
Ask What Matters – Self-Reflection Cycle
Onward: Cultivating Emotional Resilience
The Trauma Stewardship Institute
Courageous Conversations About Race
Engaging in Difficult Dialogues: Alaska Native Frameworks UAA
Racial Justice and Real Talk About Burnout
ws 2019 part 6. further reading / watching / listening
Additional related readings:
Reference Materials
- REF – 2016-Oregon-Transgender-student-guidance
- REF – 2009-Oregon-safe-schools-act
- REF – 2010-AAUW-Why-So-Few-Gender-and-STEM
- REF – 2011-Sexual-Harassment-at-School-AAUW
Reports
- Rethinking Sexism, Gender, and Sexuality 2016, Ingram
- From-Teasing-to-Torment, School Climate in America, GLSEN
- Sexual-Orientation_GI-Toolkit, Baum
- Oregon State of Safe Schools (OSSCC) Report-2016
- Oregon Safe Schools and Communities Coalition
Videos
- Diversity across the Community is part of your story – Zootopia DMV video
- Moving the Race Conversation Forward – Jay Smooth, video
- Redraw The Balance – Education Employers
- Beyond the Binary – The Light by Holly Siz, video
- LGBT High School Students Share Their Experiences – GLSEN video
Additional Resources:
- Welcoming Schools lesson plans and additional resources
- Gender Spectrum: Issues in Education
- Oregon Healthy Teens Survey
- Anti-bullying research based on Oregon Healthy Teens survey results
- 2013 Oregon Healthy Teens Lane County Results
- LGBT UOut Center
- Campus Gender Inclusive Restroom Map
- “What Do You Know? Six to Twelve Year-olds Talk about Gays and Lesbians” video
- “What can we do? Bias, Bullying, and Bystanders” video
- “Put This on the Map” video
-
A Hidden History, reveals the stories and struggles of Oregon’s African American communities by Walidah Imarisha
- Welcoming Schools Workshop Makeup