Order from us for quality, customized work in due time of your choice.
Write one page reflection or short paragraphs. Read and write utilize this forum to raise any questions or share your insights . I’m especially eager to learn which aspects resonate with you or capture your interest. Engaging with this document and contributing your reflections
Dear Global Faith and the Earth Class,
I encourage you to read this text closely as it brings important information that you need to know about this course.
What You Need to Know about this Course
As a student, I very much appreciate the chance to make informed decisions about the courses I take. I want to know who the educator is, what his/her assumptions are, and what he/she stands for before I make a commitment to spend my time, money, and energy attending the class. So, let me tell you some things about me, my pedagogical philosophy and methodology, and how I will work as an educator in this course, which will allow you to make an informed decision as to whether or not you wish to be involved in this course.
My pedagogical philosophy
I have designed this course grounded on a combination of pedagogical proposals that I have learned throughout the past 25 years. I have named my methods of teaching and learning decological praxis. The word decological is itself a truncation of the words decolonial, ecological and pedagogical. A decological way of teaching is focused on extricating colonial paradigms and assumptions, is dynamically informed by ecological philosophies and ethics, and is pedagogically reproducible, hence, “decological.”
Decological praxis uses bell hook’s engaged pedagogy and is inspired by Paulo Freire’s pedagogy of the oppressed. The classroom activities are designed in the principles put forward by the methods of teaching named democratic classroom discussions and inquiry-based learning. The assignments were shaped by AnaLouise Keating’s transcultural and post-oppositional proposal for dialogue. The course’s main goals and aspirations are inspired by teachings within the Mahayana school of Buddhism of compassionate communication and compassionate social action.
1. I learned from Paulo Freire that “through dialogue, the teacher-of-the-students and the students-of-the-teacher cease to exist and a new term emerges teacher-student with students-teachers. The teacher is no longer merely the-one-who-teaches, but the one who is herself taught in dialogue with the students, who in turn while being taught also teach. The students become jointly responsible for a process in which all grow” (Freire 1981, 67).
2. With the above in mind, I adopted the following assumptions about combining democratic classroom discussions, engaged pedagogy, and inquiry-based learning:
a. That participating in discussion brings with it the following benefits:
• It helps students to explore a diversity of perspectives.
• It increases students’ awareness of and tolerance for ambiguity or complexity.
• It helps students recognize and investigate their assumptions
• It encourages attentive, respectful listening.
• It develops a new appreciation for continuing differences.
• It shows respect for student’s voices and different experiences
• It affirms students as co-creators of knowledge.
• It develops habits of collaborative learning.
• It increases the breadth of knowledge and makes students more empathic.
• It develops the capacity for the clear communication of ideas and meaning.
• It helps students develop skills of synthesis and integration
• It leads to transformation.
b. That students will have experiences that they can reflect on and analyze in the discussions.
c. That the course will focus on analyzing students’ experiences and ideas as much as on analyzing academic theories.
d. That small group discussions of experiences of ideas will be a regular class activity.
e. That I, as a teacher, have a dual role as a catalyst for your critical conversation and as a model of post-oppositional learning and dialogue.
SO PLEASE CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING IMPORTANT ASPECTS OF THIS COURSE
⇒This course involves sharing personal experiences and engaging in discussions within small groups. If this does not align with your learning preferences, consider viewing it as an opportunity to develop valuable skills that are essential for leadership roles in both religious and secular contexts.
⇒Active participation in small group discussions is a core component of the class. If you do not find value in this interactive format, it may be beneficial to contemplate this alternative way of learning as an opportunity to develop valuable skills that are essential for leadership roles in both religious and secular contexts.
⇒A willingness to critically reflect on both your own experiences and those of others is essential in this course. Should this approach to learning present a challenge for you, it might be prudent to consider how this might be an opportunity to develop valuable skills that are essential for leadership roles in both religious and secular contexts.
That said, here are the “Course Ground Rules.”
Our class community and dialogue practices will be guided by these presuppositions, which can create a space where we honor our diversity and humanity.
Dialogue: Some of My Presuppositions
1. Social injustice exists.
People are not treated equitably. We live in an unjust society and an unfair world; the remarkable promises of democracy have yet to be fulfilled. Oppression (racism, classism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, etc.) exists on multiple seen and unseen levels.
2. Our education has been biased.
The Eurocentric educational systems, media outlets, and other institutions omit and distort information about our own groups and others. These hidden mechanisms sustain oppression, including an often invisible and normative ‘white’ supremacy. This ‘white’ supremacist thinking has affected all of us in various ways; we all have “blank spots,” desconocimientos (Anzaldúa), and so forth.
3. Blame is not useful, but accountability is.
It is nonproductive to blame ourselves and/or others for the misinformation we have learned in the past or for ways we have benefitted and continue benefitting from these unjust social systems. However, we are accountable once we have been exposed to more accurate information! We should work to do something with this information—perhaps by working towards a more just future.
4. We are related to all that lives.
We are interconnected and interdependent in multiple ways, including economically, ecologically, linguistically, socially, and spiritually.
5. Categories and labels shape our perception.
Categories and labels, although often necessary and sometimes useful, can prevent us from recognizing our interconnectedness with others. Categories can (a) distort our perceptions; (b) create arbitrary divisions among us; (c) support an oppositional “us-against-them” mentality that prevents us from recognizing potential commonalities; and (d) reinforce the unjust status quo. Relatedly, identity categories based on inflexible labels establish and police boundaries—boundaries that shut us in with those we’ve deemed “like” “us” and boundaries that shut us out from those whom we assume to be different.
6. People have a basic goodness.
People (both the groups we study and class members) generally endeavor to do the best they can. We will all make mistakes, despite our best intentions. The point is to learn from our errors. In order to learn from our errors, we must be willing to listen and to speak (preferably, in this order!).
Listening with Raw Openness
by Dr. AnaLouise Keating
Listening is a crucial yet too often overlooked element in effective class discussions and other forms of dialogue. Below are some suggestions which, if we all practice, will enhance class discussions. I describe this process as deep listening, or “listening with raw openness.”
Deep listening entails respect for each speaker’s “complex personhood” (Cervenak et al.).
As we listen, we remind ourselves that each individual we encounter has a specific, highly intricate history, upbringing, and life experiences that we cannot fully know. We don’t know the forces that shaped her, and, at best, we can only partially ascertain her intentions and desires. Our understanding is always partial and incomplete.
Deep listening entails vulnerability and flexibility.
When we’re vulnerable, we can be open to others’ perspectives and willing to acknowledge the possibility of error. Vulnerability can facilitate transformation. As Paula Gunn Allen suggests, such vulnerability can be an essential part of growth: “And what is vulnerability? Just this: the ability to be wrong, to be foolish, to be weak and silly, to be an idiot. It is the ability to accept one’s unworthiness, to accept one’s vanity for what it is. It’s the ability to be whatever and whomever you are recognizing that you, like the world, like the earth, are fragile, and that in your fragility lies all possibility of growth and of death, and that the two are one and the same” (65).
Deep listening entails asking for clarification.
Before responding, we should clarify the speaker’s message to ensure we’ve understood as fully as possible what s/he’s saying.
Deep listening entails frequent pauses and the ability to remain silent.
Sometimes it’s best simply to listen and not respond verbally (especially if those responses would involve offering solutions, drawing analogies with our own experiences or those of others, or speaking without first self-reflecting).
Deep listening enables us to challenge the ideas, not the speakers.
We can respectfully but forthrightly challenge desconocimientos, misunderstandings, and expressions of falsehoods and stereotypes about our own and other groups. When doing so, it is vital that we challenge the stereotypes/racism/ideologies/etc., not the speaker herself.”
I really hope that you will engage with the material and join me on this learning journey so that we can meet these goals. I am aware that as a teacher, I can present these goals, but it is really up to us as a beloved community to collaboratively make them a reality. I welcome you to open your mind and heart to our collaborative learning journey together. You are not expected to agree with all that you read, but I expect you to carefully read, engage with, and reflect deeply on what is presented.
Special Thanks
I want to extend a warm thanks to Dr. AnaLouise Keating for the use of her material in this syllabus and course, as well as her mentoring and guidance for the U.S. Women of Colors Course.
Kindly,
Dr. Elaine Nogueira-Godsey.
Sources
1. Allen, Paula Gunn. Off the Reservation: Reflections on Boundary-Busting, Border-Crossing Loose Canons. Boston: Beacon Press, 1998.
2. Anzaldúa, Gloria E. “now let us shift . . . the path of conocimiento . . . inner work, public acts.” this bridge we call home: radical visions for transformation. Eds. Gloria E. Anzaldúa and AnaLouise Keating. New York: Routledge, 2002. 540–78.
3. Cervenak, Sarah J., Karina L. Cespedes, Caridad Souza, and Andrea Straub. “Imagining Differently: The Politics of Listening in a Feminist Classroom.” this bridge we call home: radical visions for transformation. Eds. Gloria E. Anzaldúa and AnaLouise Keating. New York: Routledge, 2002. 341–56.
4. Hogue, Cynthia, Kim Parker, and Meredith Miller. “Talking the Talk and Walking the Walk: Ethical Pedagogy in the Multicultural Classroom.” Feminist Teacher 12 (1998): 89–106.
5. Keating, AnaLouise. “Women of Color and Feminism: Twenty Years after This Bridge Called My Back.” Paper presented at New York University. WS/SOCI 5463. Fall 2002.”
Order from us for quality, customized work in due time of your choice.