Binghamton University recently forced a professor to remove a section of her syllabus that said priority would be given to “non-white folks” to speak during classroom discussions after finding the policy violated the university‘s faculty staff handbook.
Ana Maria Candela wrote in her “Social Change- Introduction to Sociology” syllabus that she planned to practice “progressive stacking” during class discussions at the New York state school, according to Campus Reform.
“This means that we try to give priority to non-white folks, to women, and to shy and quiet people who rarely raise their hands,” she wrote.
“It also means that if you are white, male, or someone privileged by the racial and gender structures of our society to have your voice easily voiced and heard, we will often ask you to hold off on your questions or comments to give others priority and will come back to you a bit later or at another time,” the syllabus added.
As anyone who has taught at the college level can tell you, getting students to ask questions or discuss a topic is not easy. In my experience, this is usually a teeth-pulling exercise. In any case, this type of discrimination in an either a governmental institution or one with significant government funding violates the 14th Amendment. We all know that removing it from the syllabus does not change the instructor's behavior. She needs monitoring to see how she actually runs the class.
Trying to get the shy and quiet to speak up is part of good teaching, and isn't racist in the slightest.
ReplyDeleteI agree. In face-to-face classes, I will sometimes call on the quiet ones, but the responses really show how painful this is for them.
DeleteWhile it's painful for them, if they don't overcome it their post-school life probably won't be as successful so I see it as a good thing in the end to nudge them through their phobia or at least try to.
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