Promoting Anti-Oppressive Practices With Students and Educators in the 21st Century

• In Event: Interrogating Assimilationist Education and Co-Constructing the Preservice Classroom

Abstract

In collaborating with and educating educators from other disciplines, a critical aspect of the process includes an examination of how we join with other disciplines to share our unique lens from a social work perspective, discuss the history, and analyze the research to facilitate an interrogation of an individual’s perspective and the impact on their behavior.
A pilot course was offered at a university to faculty from various disciplines including Social Work, Education, Biology, Mathematics, etc. The pilot was offered as an opportunity to engage faculty with D.E.I. material and to assist them in facilitating discussions in the classroom environment (as they prepare students to work in the field in various professions). Moreover, the pilot course was implemented to guide faculty towards ways to educate, train, and prepare for implementation of anti-oppressive practices both in their personal and professional lives. As a facilitator, efforts were made to create a space for educators to self-reflect, share their previously held views, examine the literature, and to challenge practices that do not promote diversity, equity and inclusion.
The research collected from faculty include perception-based pre-course and post-course surveys as well as focus groups to assess an educator’s cultural competence and openness to diversity. The research collected from educators teaching the course includes their perception on the preparation, facilitation, and management of teaching the material. Collaboration is essential to the delivery of service to our students, and t is important to collaborate with educators from other disciplines who are unfamiliar with and unknowledgeable about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (being an anti-racist/allyship) and the impact of their perspective on their direct practices in the field.

Author

• Tiffany Nelson
  Presenting Author