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Everything is blurry until you look through the correct lenses

Teaching Through the Lens of Intersectionality

PREZI By Cody Selanders

How does the concept of intersectionality support classroom teachers committed to teaching for social justice?

Introduction

Intersectionality is defined as the complex, cumulative way in which the effects of multiple forms of discrimination (such as racism, sexism, and classism) combine, overlap, or intersect especially in the experiences of marginalized individuals or groups (Intersectionality | Definition of Intersectionality by Merriam-Webster, n.d.).

What really drew me to intersectionality is that you have to do the work yourself before you can apply it to your teaching profession!

I will be using the lens analogy to look at three areas in which applying intersectionality will be of great benefit: teacher wellness, student learning outcomes, and how to practically apply intersectionality in the classroom.

Teacher Wellness

The statistics around teacher burnout are staggering. The Ontario College of Teachers reported that teachers felt most stressed over job aspects such as time constraints, encountering dysfunctional families, performance evaluations, and school politics; furthermore, 58% of teachers reported feeling stressed “all the time” and “a few times a week,” compared with only 36% of the general working public (Koenig et al., 2018).

Encountering dysfunctional families is where approaching these families with an intersectionality background would be of tremendous help. Simply having a conversation with the family, finding their story and the many lenses you may have to look through could help their child. Since you have already done the work on yourself to find all of your own lenses this will help develop an empathy towards the dysfunctional families as opposed to building up negative stereotypes that I feel are exhausting over time.

Learning Outcomes

When teaching students through the intersectionality lens, it is important to help the students understand how power structures influence and control oppression of marginalized groups. Whether your students are part of the oppressor or the oppressed groups, having a strong understanding of how these structures work will lead to great student success. For oppressed students its akin to teaching them how to work the system to their benefit, and for students who are a part of the oppressive class they will learn empathy and humility.

In Canada there are a lot of newcomers and aboriginal students in the education system. Since the base of the north American curriculum was developed 180 years ago, there is a lot of inherent color blindness and colonial white male ideals (Grant & Zwier, 2011). By applying an intersectionality lens we can see the many factors contributing to whether or not our students will have success. Are they a newcomer by choice or a refugee? Are they male or female? Do they have a solid command of English? Do they look considerably different then the other kids? How will looking through these lenses impact their success?

Practical Application

Intersectionality is fairly easy to understand in an abstract sense, but takes a lot of personal work to integrate into a teaching practice (Jones & Wijeyesinghe, 2011).

One way teachers can practice intersectionality is by incorporating into their class assignments. For example, a teacher could start each year with having the students write a grade appropriate life history, to give the educator a starting point. Throughout the year the teacher could have the students submit a weekly journal with guided questions and feedback. These are just two examples of reaching out and engaging with the students story.

Educators need to create a culture of openness in their classroom where students both feel safe and have the time to share their own journey and reflect on it. It can be very impactful for an educator to share their own lived experience, as we all have a multi-axis intersectionality position. As a white male in the majority I can share how looking through all my different lenses has made things easier for me. The other white male students will hopefully relate and move forward differently with this understanding. It also shows to other students that I have humility and am open to their stories.

Conclusion

Bibliography

Grant, C. A., & Zwier, E. (2011). Multicultural Perspectives Intersectionality and Student Outcomes: Sharpening the Struggle against Racism, Sexism, Classism, Ableism, Heterosexism, Nationalism, and Linguistic, Religious, and Geographical Discrimination in Teaching and Learning. https://doi.org/10.1080/15210960.2011.616813

Intersectionality | Definition of Intersectionality by Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Retrieved December 13, 2020, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/intersectionality

Jones, S. R., & Wijeyesinghe, C. L. (2011). The promises and challenges of teaching from an intersectional perspective: Core components and applied strategies. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 2011(125), 11–20. https://doi.org/10.1002/tl.429

Koenig, A., Rodger, S., & Specht, J. (2018). Educator Burnout and Compassion Fatigue: A Pilot Study. Canadian Journal of School Psychology, 33(4), 259–278. https://doi.org/10.1177/0829573516685017

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