Teaching Up: Female Sociologists Teaching About Privilege

• In Event: 2243 - Teaching Sociology

Abstract

The lack of diversity within the professoriate is an acknowledged problem (Moody, 2004; Ndandala, 2016). As the student body becomes increasingly more diverse, these changes are not reflected in the faculty. Women who identify as racial minorities are underrepresented in academia across all institutions (Kelly & McCann, 2014). The literature on challenges faced by women faculty discusses sexist environments, gender inequity, having higher teaching and service loads than male counterparts due to the perception of women being more nurturing, and lack of mentoring (Kelly & McCann, 2014). The literature on faculty of color primarily focuses on issues of isolation, tokenism, and tenure (Pittman, 2010; Stanley, 2006; Turner, Gonzalez, & Wood, 2008). As teaching is central to faculty experiences in higher education, similar attention should be focused upon faculty experiences within the classroom.

This research, which grew out of the author's experiences as a Black feminist community college instructor, focuses on a how women sociologists teach about privilege in their classes. Messner (1996) introduces the idea of “studying up” which “in sociology . . . refers to studying ‘up’ in the power structure” (p. 222). This concept led the author to reframing of marginalized faculty, including women, teaching about privilege as “teaching up.” There is a dearth of research on teaching about privilege beyond race, and we lack an intersectional understanding of teaching about oppression and inequality. This research explores how women sociology faculty’s position in social groups relates to their students’ perceptions of them and how this may affect their teaching strategies. Data was drawn from a subset of semi-structured in-depth interviews with twenty-five faculty from a variety of social groups and diverse institutions who occupied a range of professional statuses from adjunct to tenured.

Author

• Celeste Atkins, University of Arizona