diversity literacy: teaching for social justice in south africa
TRANSCRIPT
Diversity LiteracyTeaching Social Justice in South Africa
Haley McEwen & Claire Kelly Intercultural & Diversity Studies of Southern Africa, University of Cape Town, South Africa
Outline of Presentation
I. Why Diversity Literacy in South Africa?
2. Situating Diversity Literacy
4. Diversity Literacy as Social Justice Pedagogy
3. Defining Diversity Literacy
5. Our practice: Operationalising Diversity Literacy
7.Our Learnings : Content & Structure
8. A 9th Criteria?
9. Discussion
Why teach Diversity Literacy in post- apartheid South Africa? UCT: Historical context • Historical whiteness
• "one of the most diverse campuses in South Africa”
• "Internationalisation of UCT"
Undergraduate Curricula • No courses available that require
students to meaningfully engage with concepts of diversity and difference
• No preparation for working with
diverse groups in the "Real World"
• Lack of interdisciplinary & inter-
faculty collaboration • Students outside Humanities
faculty have little exposure to conventions of academic writing, few to no opportunities to engage with academic theory
Situating Diversity Literacy
Melissa Steyn (2007,2010,2011) Intellectual origins Critical Diversity TheoryFrankfurt SchoolCritical management/Organisational Studies Key concepts:IntersectionalityPower relations centers and margins
Diversity Literacy as outcome of social justice pedagogy
Social Justice Pedagogy (Paulo Freire 1973, Pedagogy of the Oppressed) concerned with conscientization of learners to systems of privilege & oppression Diversity Literacy as intended outcome of conscientisation process
ConscientizationRecognition of the relationship btw the individual and their social, political, historical, cultural and economic contexts Understanding of, and ability to position oneself within power relations & structural oppression Will to change structures of power, privilege, oppressionRequires the mobilization of emotion, acknowledges relational dimension of conscientisation
Defining Diversity Literacy A “reading practice” – a way of perceiving and responding to the social climate and prevalent structures of oppression. Eight analytical criteria employed to evaluate the presence of diversity literacy: 1) a recognition of the symbolic and material value of hegemonic identities (i.e. whiteness, heterosexuality, masculinity, ablebodiedness, middle-classness)
2) analytic skill at unpacking how these systems of oppression intersect, interlock, co-construct and constitute each other;
3) the definition of oppressive systems such as racism as current social problems rather than a historical legacy; 4) an understanding that social identities are learned and an outcome of social practices; 5) the possession of a diversity grammar and a vocabulary that facilitates a discussion of race, racism, and antiracism, and the parallel concepts employed in the analysis of other forms of oppression; 6) the ability to translate (interpret) coded hegemonic practices; 7) an analysis of the ways that diversity hierarchies and institutionalised oppressions are mediated by class inequality and inflected in specific social contexts; and 8) an engagement with issues of transformation of these oppressive systems towards deepening democracy/social justice in all levels of social organisation. (Steyn 2007)
Our Practice: Operationalising Critical Diversity Literacy1. Varied Complimentary Modalities lectures which present the basic theory and provide
opportunity for clarification; discussion sessions on current “Hot Topics” which
provide students the opportunity to apply and grapple with theory in discussion with colleagues;
weekly films which form the basis of weekly group assignments;
individual assignments which require students to apply theory to media texts;
a group presentation on a particular focus area; and an end of semester exam.
Our Practice: Operationalising Critical Diversity Literacy2. Co-operative Learning Groups (Roger T. and David Johnson, 1994)
conscientization is a relational process requiring that learners experience, first hand, their own positionalities within the context of difference
group work requires cooperation rather than competition
small heterogenous groups of students aim to shift existing power relationships by providing
students with opportunities to showcase their individual strengths and give a sense of power to those who feel that they do not have a voice within mainstream, competitive, teaching and learning activities
Our Practice: Operationalising Critical Diversity Literacy3. Theoretical Integration Crit 1:recognise symbolic and material value of hegemonic identities• exposure to various axes of difference and related
hegemonies e.g. masculinity, whiteness, heteronormativity• " diversity octopus" - integrated of understanding
difference, privilege and oppression e.g. Young (2000), Johnson (2001), Payne (2000) and Wildman and Davis (1997)
Crit 2: recognise how systems of oppression intersect, interlock,co-construct• core concept > intersectionality e.g. Crenshaw ( 1995),
Lerner (1997).
Our Practice: Operationalising Critical Diversity LiteracyCrit 3: recognise current social problems • "hot topics" on topical social issues in South African and
international media • e.g. affirmative action re UCT admissions policy
Crit 4:understand social identities learned and outcome of social practices; • core concepts > essentialism and constructivism• e.g. Lorber (1994) and Toni Morrison’s (1983) powerful
piece Recitatif which deliberately messes with racial signifiers
Crit 5: develop diversity grammar & vocabulary that facilitates discussion• "glossaries"
Our Practice: Operationalising Critical Diversity LiteracyCrit 6:translate or interpret coded hegemonic practices• opportunities to develop abilities to interpret texts (popular
and mass media, images, films)• weekly film analyses throughout the semester & two
individual essay assignments and in the final exam.
Crit 7: recognise hierarchies and oppressions mediated by class• core concepts > materiality of difference and division
(Payne 2000) and intersectionality of class throughout
Crit 8:engage with issues of transformation• at least have reached a level of conscientisation which will
prevent them from reproducing oppressive structures!
Our Learnings 1: StructureUniversities and the privatization of knowledge
Sharing and openness as ethos of course content and outcomes
• "Micro-level” (In the classroom) Co-operative learning Interdisciplinarity of course vs. Interfaculty teaching
• "Macro-level” (Looking outwards)
Openness of content - OER course Outcome of conscientising students to their social
worlds - Diversity Literacy in "Real World", not only academic knowledge
Our Learnings 2: Content Grappling with emerging identities
"Black South Africans can’t call themselves African”
(Nigerian Student)
"I am an African" (Thabo Mbeki) and
Where do I stand and why? Who is African? (What is African?)• someone who is born on the continent • someone who is born on the continent and black • someone who shows solidarity with other Africans
• what’s at stake in each of these constructions?• what is the “agenda” in each of these constructions?
• how do you construct who is African? • what’s at stake for you? • why do you get upset when someone has a different
construction?• what’s your “agenda”?
And to what extent does any agenda serve the interests of social equality and social justice?
Our Learnings 2: Content Grappling with emerging identities
socially constructed nature of social categories like black, white, African (Criteria 4)
co-constructed and intersection of categories Africanness, race and HIV (Criteria 2)
symbolic and material value of these constructions, extent of the emotion that was generated in the contestation (Criteria 1)
being currently contested and not an apartheid or colonial relic (Criteria 3)
reading coded hegemonic practice (Criteria 6) Discussion texts and end of semester assignment, analysis of White people "doing African" images.
A 9th Criteria?
Investment: “the emotional commitment involved in taking up positions in discourses which confer power and are supportive of our sense of continuity, confirming ourselves as masculine or feminine [or whatever the relevant identification]” (Hollway, 1984, p. 205).
9th Criteria? The ability to recognise and problematise one's emotional commitments and investments in all of the above.
