Dear White America: Letter to a New Minority!
This week I would like to reflect on the “Dear White America” speech from Tim Wise. His speech last semester here at Tech opened my eyes to many different perspectives of the issue with the current regulations in higher education institutes. Reading the inclusive pedagogy articles: from safe spaces to brave spaces, identity and intellectual performance, and reducing the stereo type threats I cannot say that I disagree with their presented methods. However I am not sure if they are sufficient to address some of our current issues… Yes, changes in the educational system/exams/etc. can help, but this will not impact what students learn outside of school from the community that they are in contact with. We cannot neglect the fact that the interaction of students with each other is a major part of this equation… If a student does not feel comfortable in a classroom setting because of gender, race, or other categorization issues, restructuring the exams or the educational system will definitely have an impact on the performance of such students. However how are we moderating the interaction of the students with each other? How are we making sure that they are understanding of each other? I think that it is very important to educate the teachers with the background and history of the ethnic minorities that they will be mentoring. I believe that this should be a requirement for all teachers and professors which will help them understand how some of these issues are impacting the society and how they can be best conveyed to students. Most probably I will be teaching a course in my last year of PhD here at Tech and I think that it is necessary to have a discussion with my students to open their eyes to some of these problems. As most people (alike myself) may think that this problem does not relate to them and since this problem may not be near and dear to the hearts of people who have not experienced it, they are less likely to learn more about it or work their way to finding some potential solutions to these problems.
One way to implement this change in higher education is to offer one mandatory course for all majors which discusses the background, culture, and history of various ethnic minorities and how the future of the nation depends on equal rights and opportunities for all current minorities which might be the majority of the population of the United States in the future (here’s an additional resource). Students enlightened with the true history of various ethnicities are more likely to perform better in their courses and therefore are more likely to perform better when they work in today’s global environment. Our graduates are the future generation of the CEOs, employees, teachers, professors, policeman, and policy makers. Although I think that this problem needs to be fixed from much higher place in the hierarchy of regulations. We in higher education can also impact this problem in many ways by understanding that our population blend will look very different in the future and that we need to find better ways of understanding and serving the minorities by both training our teachers and students…
March 1, 2016 @ 6:02 am
Thanks for the post. I think some universities now require the professors to attend mandatory seminars about diversity and inclusion. Some others publish printed books or flyers to give essential information about inclusion for instructors in their classrooms. However, the idea you proposed is exceptional, yes why not universities require instructors to learn about minorities. If it is hard to give a complete course, it could be enough to give some sessions in the break before they begin their work. The idea of learning more about something is the road to deal better with that thing.
March 1, 2016 @ 3:27 pm
Thanks AbdelRahman! Exactly! Something like the one day GTA workshops that we have here would be a great start to educating our teachers and even the undergrad students… this should not just be limited to TAs!
March 1, 2016 @ 4:40 pm
I totally agree that this is a large issue that can not be solved solely by higher education. And I like your idea of teaching teachers/professors the background of cultures of some minorities. When I brought a gift from Tibet to a professor, she said:”Oh not even from China”. I was very uncomfortable and really wish she could know more about my country and culture.
March 1, 2016 @ 4:58 pm
That’s terrible! See I did my elementary grade school studies in both Iran and Canada… It was not until I moved to Iran that I was familiarized with the world map! In Canada all they taught us was the Canadian provinces! We studied both the geography of Iran and the world! I do not think that this is not happening here in the States or in Canada… So if people are lucky enough to get to graduate school, they will understand that they only know about half of the world! What about the rest of the population? Ho will they learn about the various countries and cultures? I think that this issue has been improved significantly over the past 10 years… I should say that a big part of this is also being in grad school! Since graduate students have such diverse backgrounds I guess we have self educated ourselves throughout these years…
That being said all I remember from Tibet from my middle grade geography is the beautiful high altitudes there and the Tibetan fabrics :)!
March 1, 2016 @ 8:30 pm
I’m skeptical about diversity training. There is quite a bit of evidence that it does not work and can even make things worse.
http://scholar.harvard.edu/dobbin/files/still_biased.pdf
https://hbr.org/2012/03/diversity-training-doesnt-work
Second, I’m skeptical that college administrators should be playing a large role in how students interact with one another. I think this is driving victimhood culture (see link below). Students are young adults. They need to learn how to work things out on their own, otherwise, they won’t be prepared to do so after they graduate. Sure, we should intervene in extreme situations, but we should let them make mistakes and learn from them.
http://righteousmind.com/where-microaggressions-really-come-from/
March 2, 2016 @ 12:33 am
Thanks Ben! Very interesting articles! I do not disagree with you but the point that I am trying to make is that not all the students get to graduate school where they get to interact with a diverse population and get to learn things on their own… I think that these diverse interactions decrease as we move down in the educational system! Yes, I agree that students should learn things on their own and that we should not encourage or trigger microaggressions and victimhood culture. I also agree with you on the fact that diversity training might reveal some boundaries to us that were never there before… However I think that our students need some amount of training in order to be able to explore the world on their own… I mean it would be nice if teenagers knew about at least 80% of the countries in the world and their cultures before being exposed to how these individuals might act in certain situations… Yes you can give someone a bike and let them learn bike riding on their own… But wouldn’t it be better if we first teach them the basics of bicycle riding and then let them explore on their own? In this way they are less likely to hurt themselves and other people…
I think it it best to give them the basic knowledge that they need before we send them off to explore the world! At least that how I felt when I went from Canada’s elementary grade school to an Iranian school and got to learn about world geography for the first time! Before that I only knew about the Canadian provinces!
March 2, 2016 @ 3:38 pm
I think in institutions like Virginia Tech, where there is institutionalized racism (http://diverseeducation.com/article/64583/), there is a need of involvement by University administrators in helping promote the adequate student interactions. Students, even if they are young adults (although not as adults when Universities need to find them where to live, where to eat, and how to transport themselves without issues) are in a process of developing their professional identity when they are in college. This identity will shape they way they see the world in their adult life. If they come into a place and a culture that accepts oppression, and mistreatment of minorities, they will see that as acceptable, they will even start promoting those behaviors. I don’t think this is a situation of “letting them make some mistakes and learn from it” when the mistakes can affect the learning and the professional identity development process of another person.
March 2, 2016 @ 3:58 pm
Well said Homero! This was the exact point that I was trying to make when I said in my previous comments if someone doesn’t know the basics of bicycle riding they are more likely to hurt themselves and “others”. If students don’t know the basics of our diverse global society they might affect the educational experience of other students in a very negative way! So we cannot say that they should go and experience things on their own… Yes at some point they will experience some things on their own but they definitely need to be educated about their environment first…
March 1, 2016 @ 8:57 pm
Thanks for sharing!
Although I didn’t like Tim Wise speech here at Tech (topic for another conversation), I am happy that it helped you become more aware of some of the issues we face.
I agree with you, that we need to do more in the system than just changing some things in the curriculum. The problem is bigger than that, however, I think we need to give baby steps here. If having some changes in syllabus, and exams is the only thing I get offer right now, I will take it.
What a great idea you propose about having everyone understand different cultures, countries, ethnic groups, and so on. I really think having this knowledge will impact positively any professional in any field. For example, in engineering and business is crucial to understand the perspectives of a diverse population when designing and selling a product. The product will be more successful if is not targeted to a specific ethnic group.
Here in the U.S. I struggle with my engineering students because sometimes they have a very limited knowledge of the world outside the U.S., I believe there is a need in elementary education to go beyond borders. For example, I have in my house maps that I have bought in different places in the world, for me is fascinating how in some countries they will sell you a map with 5 continents, in other places with 6, or 7. Isn’t it the same world?
Homero
March 1, 2016 @ 10:33 pm
Thanks Homero! On the Tim Wise speech I think that at some point it became more of a show and in took away from the main content of his speech…
I am definitely on the same page with you on accepting any change that would positively impact us and the students!
On the diversity note I think that you are exactly right! I was just mentioning this in my previous comments that starting my elementary grade school in Canada, I thought that Canada was the entire world! It was not until I moved to Iran that I was familiarized with the world map and the culture of various countries… I think that the education system must be very similar here in the States! We are fortunate as graduate students to be able to self educate ourselves with the global world since our environment is very diverse. However at an undergraduate level the students are not that diverse and moving down in the education system we can see that students know less and less about the world outside of the US or Canada! It fascinates me how some these first world countries leave their students in the dark like this!
I definitely think educating our learners about the culture and history of various countries will have a positive impact on them as human beings and further down the road as members of the society (i.e. as teachers, salespeople, entrepreneurs, designers, etc.)
March 1, 2016 @ 11:53 pm
Thank you for the great post. I really like your idea about having a mandatory course. One of my department requirement for PhD degree is teaching at least one undergrad course. I feel I do not know enough about inclusive teaching techniques.
March 2, 2016 @ 2:41 am
I think your sense of Americans’ limited appreciation of world geography is, sadly, correct. On the one hand it’s incredible that this kind of basic remediation is needed at the post-secondary level (for students and faculty – yikes!). On the other hand, I agree with Homero — I’ll take whatever small openings exist and try to leverage them.
March 2, 2016 @ 7:01 pm
Thanks Professor Nelson! I agree…
March 2, 2016 @ 4:35 pm
Instead of having to attend mandatory courses, people should feel like they want to attend them on their own. A huge overhaul in societal hierarchy is needed before that become a reality.
March 2, 2016 @ 7:13 pm
Thanks Mary! I think that not all individuals are aware of these issues and for this reason it might be unreasonable to expect people to feel like they have to attend such classes… I agree that changes need to be made in the societal hierarchy and that’s why I think that providing such knowledge to both our students and our professor will help with this change…
March 2, 2016 @ 4:47 pm
I agree with this statement: “student does not feel comfortable in a classroom setting because of gender, race, or other categorization issues”. But, I think it is very difficult to solve these issues during class time. It needs more effort outside the class for example: mass media.
March 2, 2016 @ 7:00 pm
Thank you for your comment Mohammad… I agree with you on the fact that this needs more effort outside the class… But considering that we cannot control what happens outside the class, I think we should do our best to moderate the interactions and facilitate a healthy learning environment considering that the mass media can be wrong…
March 2, 2016 @ 6:11 pm
Great conversation! I was also fairly unimpressed with Tim Wise’s talk last semester but it sounds like it really sparked some interesting perspectives here . . . so yay! I agree on this interesting point of providing a course in discussing geography OUTSIDE the U.S. and perspectives on culture, etc. I think that much of the bias, implicit or explicit, that many people may have is simply based on lack of accurate information. I am a scientist and I always have a hard time with the “touchy/feely” stuff (or at least that is what I call it). I have been to seminars and training session on diversity and inclusion in the workplace and I do think they are helpful. But my brain responds better to facts and figures. So why not educate people (students and faculty) on the differences we may have based on culture, religion, geographical location, etc. and hope to help eliminate at least some of the bias just by providing accurate information. I agree that this is not the only answer but I think this might help?
March 2, 2016 @ 7:16 pm
Thanks Sheryl! Yes! I think that this will moderate the student-student interactions which will also facilitate a safe learning environment.
March 2, 2016 @ 9:50 pm
Yasaman,
As with many others and you, I agree we need to do more to address the issues of diversity at an institutional level. I don’t think you are off track with the idea of a required course that includes this as a key learning outcome. In fact some colleges and universities are already requiring students to take a College 101 course that offers support for freshman in terms of adjusting to college life, study skills and could easily include such a component. I would also suggest that these issues be included in the core curriculum for all majors in the way that ethics is required. In fact, these issues are closely related to ethics, so there may already be the scope for such learning outcomes if we as faculty take up a commitment to mindfully exploring diversity in our classes.
March 2, 2016 @ 10:00 pm
Interesting! I did not know about this college 101 course… Great point on the integration of ethics and diversity Noel! I think that including diversity in the required ethics courses is a great way to not over pressurize institutes by adding a new core course. In this way we could just include a few sessions of diversity training in the ethics courses as I agree that ethics and diversity are definitely closely related…
April 6, 2016 @ 9:33 pm
I had diversity course last semester with Dean DePauw and in that course we were supposed to read that book. Although I could not read the whole book, I found the book interesting. But I have also a problem with this kind of description, some other students in class had similar feeling like me that he looks at other people (Black people, Latinos, …) from top to bottom. It is good that a white american criticize the white culture but the tone of the book was in a way that we are good as white and need to correct ourselves and behave better with other races and ethnicity. I don’t like such approach. By the way starting a point such as the point Tim Wise has started is really great.
April 6, 2016 @ 11:28 pm
Good point Atiyeh! I have not read the book! However if that is the point that he is trying to make, I think that it is wrong since no race is perfect…!