Modeling the Way: Adopting the Role As a Change Agent

E-Portfolio Entry

Activity Name & Description

Modeling the Way: Adopting the Role As a Change Agent

1.     Course Paper (Outcomes 2 & 7)

By the end of the course each student is expected to submit a paper (no more than eight pages in length; doubled spaced) using APA guidelines that 1.) Identifies his/her future or current role as an educator, describing the context and functions of this role; 2.) Provide an overview of the themes outlined in class that are relevant to this role; 3.) Provide a synthesis of the themes in the course and analyze how the themes have affected policies and practices relevant to this role on a campus with which you have familiarity; 4) How you will apply what you have learned to being responsive to all students in the educational pipeline.  Consider both curricular and programmatic issues.  Comment specifically on how you can and will be a change agent for equality and access in education.

In July, I was asked to write a paper where I would describe my role as a Social Justice Educator.

Date/Semester

Summer Semester, 2013

Learning Domains Addressed (Labels)

o Leadership

X Social Justice & Advocacy

X Education

o Assessment & Evaluation

X Personal Development

Learning Outcomes

 SWiBAT understand personal role as Social Justice Educator.

SWiBAT  understand actions Social Justice Educators can take as they transition into Higher Education.

SWiBAT to describe future and current goals as a professional.

Assessment Rubric

Rubric: Modeling the Way: Adopting the Role As a Change Agent

	SLO #1 – Personal Role as Social Justice Educator	SLO #2 – 3 Actions Social Justice Educators can take as they transition into Higher Education.	SLO #3 – Future and Current Goals as a Professional
Advanced	I will be able to articulate multiple personal roles as a Social Justice Educator. (4)	I will be able to understand 4 actions Social Justice Educators can take as they transition into Higher Education.	I will be able to describe future and current goals as a professional. (4)
Competent	I will be able to articulate multiple personal roles as a Social Justice Educator. (3)	I will be able to understand 3 actions Social Justice Educators can take as they transition into Higher Education.	I will be able to describe future and current goals as a professional. (3)
Basic	I will be able to articulate multiple personal roles as a Social Justice Educator. (2)	I will be able understand 2 actions Social Justice Educators can take as they transition into Higher Education.	I will be able to describe future and current goals as a professional. (2)
Poor	I will be unable to articulate multiple personal roles as a Social Justice Educator.	I will be unable to understand any actions Social Justice Educators can take as they transition into Higher Education.	I will be unable to describe future and current goals as a professional.

 

Evidence: See Paper Below, highlighting portions that resonate with Student Learning Outcomes

Modeling the Way: Adopting the Role As a Change Agent

California State University, Fullerton

Darrell (Deejay) Brown Jr.

Summer 2013

Introduction

My favorite Black, Queer, lesbian poet, Audre Lourde once said “ that which is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood. That speaking profits me, beyond any other effect.” Initially, I must understand my own personhood and positionality. When I reflect on who I am, I can begin to look inward into what I’m bringing in to my conception of social justice. This paper will describe not only my current roles as a social justice educator, but examine themes that affect my role as an educator and how I plan to use what I’ve learned in class to be a more beneficial social justice educator.

My Roles as a Social Justice Educator

I am currently transitioning between roles in my Higher Education Career. I am currently being hired as the LGBTRC Program Coordinator at University of California, Irvine. I am leaving my position from being a graduate assistant at the ASI LGBTQ Resource Center. In this new position, I am responsible for coordinating campus-wide programs, networking with campus offices and community resources, as well as the daily management of programs and services at the LGBTR Center.

Not only am I developing campus-wide programs, but also I will coordinate, design, and evaluate LGBTRC sponsored workshops and presentations. This new role has me select, train and supervise student interns, peers, office volunteers, as well as safe zone facilitators. When I reflect on my functions in this role, I not only have the opportunity to train others on diversity and social justice I have to be vigilant in the way that I work with people of difference. As I train safe zone facilitators, staff, faculty and students and other stakeholders, we must examine spaces where we are privileged and oppressed and how we enact our power and agency. My main purpose in this position as social justice educator is to provide student support, advocacy, crisis intervention, and referrals to campus and community resources. I am to assist campus departments in the development of supportive and safe environments for all students.

Reflection and Analysis

As I reflect on this position, I have to consider how my own empathy. Using Delgado & Stefanic’s Critical Race theory (2012), I must immediately look inward on how I plan to practice what I have learned about social justice. I must immediately reflect that I too have my baggage that I bring into my role as a social justice educator. Delgado & Stefanic (2012) question how “how can one talk back to messages, scripts, and stereotypes that are embedded in the minds of one’s fellow citizens and, indeed the national psyche?”

 I must also remember to not embody the empathetic fallacy and remember that I am “stock full of narratives-the terms, preconceptions, scripts and understandings that [I] use to make sense of the world. They constitute who [I am], the basis on which [I] judge new narratives”(Delgado &Stefanic, 2012). I must look inward, but I also must be aware of the company I keep, where I get my ideas and knowledge and recognize that I too am apart of two very different cycles that keep certain narratives alive.

There are many considerations that I have reflected on that are shaping my practice.  I am aware and fortunate to have a role where I realize I have a great deal of power in how I enact my role. I have a responsibility as a social justice educator to consider other student’s experiences. I have to listen to their voices, where they come from, what they articulate their needs to be.  I need to check my bias, examine the lenses I use to create programming. In this position, I have to not only be intentional in how I understand and articulate those needs into programs but I must be honest and vulnerable in my understanding.

             Manning (2009) describes that when we examine society from a social justice perspective, we must look at power and privilege holistically and intersectionally. “Although other perspectives focus on issues of ethnicity, classism, or sexism, a social justice perspective includes all of these as well as other discriminatory practices that involve unequal power distributions (for example, those related to age, language, immigrant status, and disabilities”(Manning, p6, 2009). In my day-to-day practice, my role as a social justice educator is to create a dialogue that considers different voices. We must hold these as valuable, understand that in Higher Education that we have work to do to question how we consider the needs of different populations. It is not enough that I focus on LGBTQIA issues but how these intersect with other identities within each student I face on a daily basis. When I program, it is not just for LGBTQ issues, but because all the students I have are multifaceted people with multiple social identities, I must consider how these different identity statuses shape who they are as individuals.

Manning continues to describe the role of social justice educators as: “Those with a social justice perspective work for change and shifts in power by accepting positions (elected or appointed) within the existing power structure”(Manning, 2009). I realize that I am working within the structure of Higher Education to create social change and bring other voices into how I program. Manning continues to describe the actions of social justice takes considerable time to progress in an authentic way. “Through incremental, evolutionary means, social justice activists chip away at the unfairness that is inherent in institutional structures”(Manning 2009). I intend to create teachable moments on a daily basis, create an atmosphere where those around me can challenge my privilege as well as those of their peers.

            As I consider how I will be a social justice educator, I must understand certain themes embedded into American Education. As an educator, I must examine the institution of Higher Education and understand the history of social injustice that is embedded into the structure that I must change. Spring (2011) asserts that there are many themes that inform the “history of schooling”, they are: “globalization, conflict, ideological management, immigration, economic goals, consumerism and environmental education.” These historical themes shape not only my understanding of education, but have shaped the lives of the students that I will serve.

            Historically, the institution of education was used as a “form of cultural imperialism” that enacted dominance over people of color, and immigrants that were different from the norm.  The dominant society attempted to assimilate those that could fit into what it means to be American (Spring 2011). Spring (2011) asserted that it was important to create an American National identity, and education would be used to create this identity. Spring (2011) describes how school polices created spaces to exclude those that did fit into the dominant American culture and were marginalized and stratified those that could not assimilate. Spring examined the American institution of education and describes the “culture wars” in American schooling and what it meant to be a multicultural American Nation (Spring, 2011). When examining the cultural norms in the history of education, we can immediately understand how education as “ideological managers” has deliberately stripped people of color their cultural heritage and historically segregated or removed them from the educational system (Spring, 2011).In the institution of American education today, it is important to recognize that were considered those apart of the dominant culture had a much different educational experience that those who considered inferior.

         Spring (2011) also recognized that American school systems were “ideological managers” where the education system “created and distributed knowledge in society” in its curriculum, the media, the home and created a national American culture. Creating this narrative became a single unified story, but many voices and many different cultural heritages were not integrated into this story.

            When reflecting on Harro’s (2008) cycle of socialization, it is evident how the institution of education plays its role in socializing our society. As “ideological managers,” education does “bombard” and “reinforce” individuals to create hierarchical differences in how we view people of difference, both consciously and unconsciously. These messages create “models of ways to be” and creates expectations and norms(Harro, 2008). Our teachers, those that care about us on the individual level create spaces that privilege dominant peoples and punish and stigmatize social identities that are not deemed as worthy. Through education these messages can create psychic trauma and is embedded in promoting the “status quo.” It is our charge as educators to realize that students are bringing in mixed messages of who they are supposed to be and the historical institution of education must be examine our roles in indoctrinating people in a system that both privileges and oppresses us(Harro, 2008). As social justice educators working with students with many different identities we must raise consciousness, interrupt and reframe the ways in which we have oppressed our own students (Harro, 2008). It is our duty as change agents, to uncover these scars, and work to create changes both in our policies and in our daily actions. When we come across students with difference in our positions we must work to create spaces that are equitable and just, shift our language and create a space for all identities to have a real seat in the institution of Academia.

Call to Action

I have to continue to look inward to see what I can offer the students that I serve. My philosophy as a social justice advocate in this position is to create a space that is welcoming, engaging and intentional in creating a sense of community and belonging. This space must be one that has an atmosphere of acceptance, where all who walk into the space immediately enter into a dialogue where we check our privilege, listen to each other’s voices and work collaboratively to meet our needs. Through programming, I want my role to help create a place that builds awareness of diversity, creates a space for those that feel silent and bolsters a sense of advocacy and community.

I have a responsibility consistently try to respond to the needs of all students’ voices, and work collaboratively with different campus departments to create communities of caring. I must personally try to establish a sense of rapport and trust and when I act out my commitments, I can own up to my actions and work to dismantle our wrongdoings or biases. This is how I believe I can create change.

In my practice, I must take a stance where I continue to listen, where I continue to think of different narratives that inform my story and my craft. I must understand that I am just one caretaker of the stories of my students. As I reflect on this new position, I have to question: what does it mean to be considerate? What does it mean to silence others? Who is speaking when I am speaking? How am I ideologically managing others? What am I teaching? What are the messages I want to pass on? I must consider where am I creating spaces for agency and self-definition.

            The questions that I’ve considered must be reflected in my practice. I must regularly check in on my philosophy of social justice so I do not become numb to the great responsibility as a student affairs practitioner. I must recognize my role in creating spaces for not only LGBTQ students, but also all students. As a practitioner, I must continually develop my commitment to all students. 

            As a call to action, practitioners must utilize Harro’s (2008) cycle of liberation, as we aim to transform the institution of Education. To create change, we must use many critical lenses and transform “institutions and create new cultures”(Harro, 2008). Harro (2008) suggests as leaders and policy makers, we must examine and change Higher educations, “structures, assumptions, philosophy, rules [and our] roles.” We are charged with working collaboratively, understanding that change is not working from a single issue perspective, but aligning ourselves as leaders that “model authenticity, integrity and wholeness”(Harro, 2008). Harro (2008) suggests we must share our “power” create action plans that share and “spread hope and inspiration.” When internalizing the cycle of liberation it means working right within my position, modeling a new way. It means critically examining my power as an educator, sharing and spreading that power, creating spaces and policies that are inclusive where all who are in that space can bolster their sense of empowerment. I think creating a new culture, means taking ownership, working in a place of vulnerability and working to create dialogues and a strategic plan which models our integrity as educators to use the lenses of what it means to be a social justice educator.

Conclusion

            In conclusion, as social justice educators, we must critically examine current campus climates: the students, the faculty, staff, administrators, the atmosphere of the campus, the campus’ mission statement, stances on social justice and living out that stance in our policies, programming, and our curriculum. We must continually examine the structures that hold power and work to dismantle that structure or work within that structure to create an environment where students have more access and equity. As practitioners, we must look at where we are those that have privilege and hold power and work to create collaborative partnerships to create spaces for others to empower themselves. Social Justice educators must continue to examine and assess the historical experience of students on the campuses they inhabit. We must listen to the feedback and the voices of our students. We must authentically consider the needs of the student populations.

Reflection

     This paper helped me understand what it means to have both the knowledge and the passion to articulate and understand my mission and role as a social justice educator. As I created this paper, I remember having so many ideas. The prompt had so many directions and I needed to examine myself, the institution and history of the American Higher Education system as well as understand what I bring in to my work on a daily basis. I felt worried writing this, because I feel that it was and as a promise. It is a living contract that I make as a social justice educator. I feel bound and honored that I have to live my life in such a way but my goal is about being intentional.
      As a professional and social justice educator, we must be intentional in the way that we live out our careers, because there our lives on the line. We are responsible for checking our strengths, weaknesses and opportunities for growth, because there were so many people before us that really damaged lives and generation by mishandling people they were responsible. As educators, we must do our part in the institution of academia, do dismantle and reshape the narrative that is being told. I think it is more about adding to the narrative, intentionally leaving room for space for students to have spaces where they can make up their own minds and think critically. Using a multi-frame approach is about trying to cover our bases, we must think about our own thinking, consider others, and always take on a personal role of growth and development.