What work must you personally still need to engage in to become a culturally competent social justice professional to benefit Towson University and the world?
The continued and active learning process of who each of us are and the nuanced understanding of this is critically important. Our increasingly diverse campus plus the every connected world makes understanding critical. I am often struck by how much how much everyone (staff, students, faculty, parents, etc.) brings need to be a life long learner of who we are...just not our presenting selves.
For me to become a culturally competent social justice professional, benefiting Towson University, I believe that I must go beyond statistics and theoretical approaches. I believe it is important to understand our student population on a personal level and engage and challenege them in new and innovative ways that capture their attention. There is a certain appreciation given for the willingness to be open and understanding of different perspectives and experiences. Students who believe we are truly invested in them are more than likely willing to invest in us and in one another. This won't hold our home (TU) together alone, but it will assist in serving as a foundation.
For me I still need to do a lot of work getting to know myself fully. I want to better understand why I have the personal biases that I have as well as exploring how I can use my experiences and identities to better contribute to/educate my community. I think that attending sessions like the one today, and trainings in the future that I will continue to gain the skills necessary to be more culturally competent. I think the most rewarding and effective way to reaching a higher level of cultural competency is by interpersonal interactions. You can gain so much knowledge from conversing with others who are different from you. I will strive to continue to put myself in situations where I can learn from others around me whether it be students or other staff members.
I need to understand how to communicate my feelings and experiences effectively. I am still working on personal reflection as well as understandin who I am. Once I take a better look at myself, I know I need to work on how to engage in these kinds of conversations with residents.
I think that I am still trying to wrap my brain around what social justice actually means. Is it equality and opportunity for all? I am also always looking for techniques to talk to students about social justice. I hope that if I provide students with a handful of tangible things they can do to work toward equality and/or advocate for others, then they will not get as lost in the apathy that so many feel when paralyzed by all the world's problems.
I need to own my biases. I know that as Student Affairs professionals we shouldn't do this, but I do find myself treating others differently based on my biases (on a conscious/subconscious level). Here's an example during move-in. I found myself speaking with more families that looked like me while only speaking with the "other" families if/when posed a question. I justifed this by saying that the "like-faces" needed to know I was there to support their son/daughter. Shouldn't that be true for all students? I know, my stuff to deal with.
I'm very excited about the direction of where the discussion were going today! I know that I must further explore myself and what it is to be me. Given that, I believe that I can help my students with their exploration. Social justice is certainly something that I need to further research and understand more concretely what it is.
(Sidenote anyone else have trouble posting using Firefox?)
Well, this is a huge question...I don't think I can really say I need to do X,Y,&Z and then I am there. I agree with a lot of what everyone else has said. I think that I need to do some self-awareness work. While I have always been a part of school systems that encouraged/forced me to do self-reflection, I think it is a continuous process. As you encounter new experiences and react to those occurrences, you can learn more about yourself: how you think and operate. Then you can reflect your response.
As I learn more and more about myself I will uncover more biases that I hold on to. Then I can start to work on where those thoughts and feelings come from and how I can unlearn the stereotypes that I have.
I talked with some people today about how many of us, including myself, are "fixers". I think that can really get in the way sometimes. It makes me think back to the first exercise in which the "Humans" were trying to "fix" Mars. It is important for me to realize what I think is the "right" answer is only my perception. It is also important to realize that sometimes people want to figure things out on their own but they just want someone to listen and help them process.
I want to continue to develop my mentoring skills and make sure that I am patient and open with all my students because I never know when they will need to process or talk things out.
There are so many things I still need to work on as a Social Justice educator and member of the TU community. Specifically, I need to find ways to be a part of moving us from the 3 Fs (thank you for naming it) to a truly more inclusive community. There are roadblocks - most of which may be my own crap to work on - but it is hard to tell.
Personally I need to own my bias. When asked to cross the line when it came to do you have your own bias I didn’t do it because I didn’t think I had any, but that was denial speaking. When pointed out that we all have bias I thought about it and that is a true statement, rather it rears its head for only a moment in time it is still there and I need to deal with it. With that said I think that personally and as part of this team we do benefit Towson University and possibly the world as culturally competent social just professionals, I like others just need to continue to grow as a professional to continue to benefit Towson and the world around us.
I believe that the path to social justice is a never ending learning process. I am grateful to Dr. Greenfield for opening my eyes to biases I subconciously possessed (e.g. whether or not I would buy my own son a doll) With regards to cultural competence, I also believe that this process can only begin when we truly educate ourselves about a certian group (their history, their lifestyle,their struggles), only then can we have understanding and compassion.
I want to continue to learn and grow and feel while in this process of learning how to be a fully competent social justice professional...what does that mean for me? Also, as I work at this I want to make sure that both my head and heart engage in this work.
Looking forward to tomorrow and hope to hear from each person in the group at some point during the day.
Today was a heavy day for me...I did appreciate that Greenfield was intentional about facilitating a process that evoked me to take a hard look at myself and be honest with biases that I have that are both conscious and unconscious...I think to date this is also the first diversity training that we had where I honestly feel that everyone was an active participant. I am confident that this will help build/ repair relationships within the department.
I agree with getting pass stats and theories. So far this training surpassed my expectations and moved us away from the humdrum of stats and theories that weave trainings. While they are important these numbers don't allow the needed discussions and self reflections experienced today. I look forward to tomorrow with everyone contributing hopefully with the larger group.....
One thing I think I need to do is keeping hearing people's personal stories, struggles, and victories with social justice. As a student affairs professional, it almost seems like I am getting another tool when I hear someone share their experiences with me. The knowledge of knowing what they went through is potentially a resource for me to use when a student in need/crisis and comes to me looking for help. Another thing I need to do is educate myself more about social justice. While certainly not a foreign concept to me, it is true that much of the training, literature, interaction with colleagues I have experienced has focused more on diversity and multiculturalism and not taken that next step.
For me I feel that I still need to gain tools in how to engage students more in conversation around the topic of social justice. It is easy for me to have the conversations with those who naturally want to engage, but how do you engage the unengaged? We began the conversation around denial, and I think even I at times am guilty of the denial, I either don't want to have the conversation, or maybe I sometimes dont know that that is a bias that I have that is preventing me from getting to the true issue. So I do have some self reflection to do.
I believe that I still need the exposure, conversations, and ideas for responding and improving personal interactions, as well as interactions with my students regarding people'e personal ideas and biases about certain social groups. I have difficulty speaking up and standing up for my beliefs and i believe this training will be very beneficial for me.
In my opinion, I feel that in order for an individual to be engaged and consequently enlightened by issues of social justice, one has to first be open to learning. They have to want to learn. They must also be self-aware as an individual so that they know who they are, what role they play in the institutional isms, and what issues they will be compassionate about. Many of us as student affairs professionals have reached this phase of awareness. The challenge still remains, how do we engage the disengaged? How do we or can we motivate students whom are globally oblivious, to be self-motivated to learn, engage, and work toward becoming change agents?
The continued and active learning process of who each of us are and the nuanced understanding of this is critically important. Our increasingly diverse campus plus the every connected world makes understanding critical. I am often struck by how much how much everyone (staff, students, faculty, parents, etc.) brings need to be a life long learner of who we are...just not our presenting selves.
ReplyDeleteFor me to become a culturally competent social justice professional, benefiting Towson University, I believe that I must go beyond statistics and theoretical approaches. I believe it is important to understand our student population on a personal level and engage and challenege them in new and innovative ways that capture their attention. There is a certain appreciation given for the willingness to be open and understanding of different perspectives and experiences. Students who believe we are truly invested in them are more than likely willing to invest in us and in one another. This won't hold our home (TU) together alone, but it will assist in serving as a foundation.
ReplyDeleteFor me I still need to do a lot of work getting to know myself fully. I want to better understand why I have the personal biases that I have as well as exploring how I can use my experiences and identities to better contribute to/educate my community. I think that attending sessions like the one today, and trainings in the future that I will continue to gain the skills necessary to be more culturally competent. I think the most rewarding and effective way to reaching a higher level of cultural competency is by interpersonal interactions. You can gain so much knowledge from conversing with others who are different from you. I will strive to continue to put myself in situations where I can learn from others around me whether it be students or other staff members.
ReplyDeleteI need to understand how to communicate my feelings and experiences effectively. I am still working on personal reflection as well as understandin who I am. Once I take a better look at myself, I know I need to work on how to engage in these kinds of conversations with residents.
ReplyDeleteI think that I am still trying to wrap my brain around what social justice actually means. Is it equality and opportunity for all? I am also always looking for techniques to talk to students about social justice. I hope that if I provide students with a handful of tangible things they can do to work toward equality and/or advocate for others, then they will not get as lost in the apathy that so many feel when paralyzed by all the world's problems.
ReplyDeleteI need to own my biases. I know that as Student Affairs professionals we shouldn't do this, but I do find myself treating others differently based on my biases (on a conscious/subconscious level). Here's an example during move-in. I found myself speaking with more families that looked like me while only speaking with the "other" families if/when posed a question. I justifed this by saying that the "like-faces" needed to know I was there to support their son/daughter. Shouldn't that be true for all students? I know, my stuff to deal with.
ReplyDeleteI'm very excited about the direction of where the discussion were going today! I know that I must further explore myself and what it is to be me. Given that, I believe that I can help my students with their exploration. Social justice is certainly something that I need to further research and understand more concretely what it is.
ReplyDelete(Sidenote anyone else have trouble posting using Firefox?)
Well, this is a huge question...I don't think I can really say I need to do X,Y,&Z and then I am there. I agree with a lot of what everyone else has said. I think that I need to do some self-awareness work. While I have always been a part of school systems that encouraged/forced me to do self-reflection, I think it is a continuous process. As you encounter new experiences and react to those occurrences, you can learn more about yourself: how you think and operate. Then you can reflect your response.
ReplyDeleteAs I learn more and more about myself I will uncover more biases that I hold on to. Then I can start to work on where those thoughts and feelings come from and how I can unlearn the stereotypes that I have.
I talked with some people today about how many of us, including myself, are "fixers". I think that can really get in the way sometimes. It makes me think back to the first exercise in which the "Humans" were trying to "fix" Mars. It is important for me to realize what I think is the "right" answer is only my perception. It is also important to realize that sometimes people want to figure things out on their own but they just want someone to listen and help them process.
I want to continue to develop my mentoring skills and make sure that I am patient and open with all my students because I never know when they will need to process or talk things out.
Firefox worked fine for me
ReplyDeleteThere are so many things I still need to work on as a Social Justice educator and member of the TU community. Specifically, I need to find ways to be a part of moving us from the 3 Fs (thank you for naming it) to a truly more inclusive community. There are roadblocks - most of which may be my own crap to work on - but it is hard to tell.
ReplyDeletePersonally I need to own my bias. When asked to cross the line when it came to do you have your own bias I didn’t do it because I didn’t think I had any, but that was denial speaking. When pointed out that we all have bias I thought about it and that is a true statement, rather it rears its head for only a moment in time it is still there and I need to deal with it. With that said I think that personally and as part of this team we do benefit Towson University and possibly the world as culturally competent social just professionals, I like others just need to continue to grow as a professional to continue to benefit Towson and the world around us.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the path to social justice is a never ending learning process. I am grateful to Dr. Greenfield for opening my eyes to biases I subconciously possessed (e.g. whether or not I would buy my own son a doll) With regards to cultural competence, I also believe that this process can only begin when we truly educate ourselves about a certian group (their history, their lifestyle,their struggles), only then can we have understanding and compassion.
ReplyDeleteI want to continue to learn and grow and feel while in this process of learning how to be a fully competent social justice professional...what does that mean for me? Also, as I work at this I want to make sure that both my head and heart engage in this work.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to tomorrow and hope to hear from each person in the group at some point during the day.
Ron
Today was a heavy day for me...I did appreciate that Greenfield was intentional about facilitating a process that evoked me to take a hard look at myself and be honest with biases that I have that are both conscious and unconscious...I think to date this is also the first diversity training that we had where I honestly feel that everyone was an active participant. I am confident that this will help build/ repair relationships within the department.
ReplyDeleteI too am looking forward to tomorrow...
I agree with getting pass stats and theories. So far this training surpassed my expectations and moved us away from the humdrum of stats and theories that weave trainings. While they are important these numbers don't allow the needed discussions and self reflections experienced today.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to tomorrow with everyone contributing hopefully with the larger group.....
One thing I think I need to do is keeping hearing people's personal stories, struggles, and victories with social justice. As a student affairs professional, it almost seems like I am getting another tool when I hear someone share their experiences with me. The knowledge of knowing what they went through is potentially a resource for me to use when a student in need/crisis and comes to me looking for help. Another thing I need to do is educate myself more about social justice. While certainly not a foreign concept to me, it is true that much of the training, literature, interaction with colleagues I have experienced has focused more on diversity and multiculturalism and not taken that next step.
ReplyDeleteFor me I feel that I still need to gain tools in how to engage students more in conversation around the topic of social justice. It is easy for me to have the conversations with those who naturally want to engage, but how do you engage the unengaged? We began the conversation around denial, and I think even I at times am guilty of the denial, I either don't want to have the conversation, or maybe I sometimes dont know that that is a bias that I have that is preventing me from getting to the true issue. So I do have some self reflection to do.
ReplyDeleteI believe that I still need the exposure, conversations, and ideas for responding and improving personal interactions, as well as interactions with my students regarding people'e personal ideas and biases about certain social groups. I have difficulty speaking up and standing up for my beliefs and i believe this training will be very beneficial for me.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, I feel that in order for an individual to be engaged and consequently enlightened by issues of social justice, one has to first be open to learning. They have to want to learn. They must also be self-aware as an individual so that they know who they are, what role they play in the institutional isms, and what issues they will be compassionate about. Many of us as student affairs professionals have reached this phase of awareness. The challenge still remains, how do we engage the disengaged? How do we or can we motivate students whom are globally oblivious, to be self-motivated to learn, engage, and work toward becoming change agents?
ReplyDelete