Equity Studies in Education

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Tuesday, May 31, 2022 | Simon Fraser University | Burnaby

The Polarization of Privilege

Decades of research and scholarship have explored social privilege in its many dimensions. Yet, privilege remains a thorny topic and difficult to talk about, inciting eye-rolling, confusion, denial, resentment, and perhaps even rage, among other responses. Walton argues that building understanding of equity relies on reshaping educational approaches to teaching about privilege. Recognizing the risks of polarization in spaces of learning, Walton insists that it is up to social justice scholars and educators to find ways to mitigate it. In his view, the work is especially incumbent upon those who, like himself, benefit from social privilege. His presentation for Equity Studies in Education focuses on how scholars and educators can teach about social privilege in ways that engage all students, even the most resentful ones. The question is: How?

About Dr. Gerald Walton: Dr. Gerald Walton is Professor in the Faculty of Education at Lakehead University. Raised in the Canadian military without having been taught anything about colonialism in school, he grew up in several places in Canada and oversees, never enjoying the constant uprooting but always doing well in his studies. He graduated with his BA and MA from the University of Victoria and his PhD from Queen’s University, focusing his scholarship on privilege and exclusion to understand his own experience. Focusing on the topic of bullying, he argued in his dissertation, as he still does, that bullying persists because of a fundamental misunderstanding of what it is in the first place. An award-winning educator and student mentor, Walton draws from his own experiences of social privilege on one hand, and social oppression on the other, in his approach to education. In addition to many academic and general articles, he is also co-author of Being boys: Shaping gender norms to weaken rape culture (2021) and editor of The gay agenda: Claiming space, identity, and justice (2014).

Gerald Walton: The Polarization of Privilege from CELS on Vimeo.

Wednesday, February 24, 2021 | ESE Black History Month Lecture | Dr. Annette Henry | University of British Columbia

Why Black History Month Isn't Enough: What Else Educators Must Know and Do

How do researchers build relationships with cultural communities? How do we, especially where we are cultural outsiders, bridge issues of power and build trusting and mutually beneficial research and advocacy relationships? And in turn, how do cultural insiders build trust as university workers representing institutional contexts that have often amplified the marginalization experienced by Black communities, Indigenous communities, communities of Colour, and otherwise marginalized peoples? In this talk, Dr. Henry will draw on her decades of experience and scholarship working with Black students, teachers, activists, and community-based organizations to share her insights on how researchers can better navigate circumstances working across race and culture.

About Dr. Henry: Annette Henry holds the David Lam Chair in Multicultural Education in the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia. She is a Professor in the Department of Language and Literacy Education and cross-appointed to the Institute for Race, Gender, Sexuality and Social Justice. Her scholarship examines race, class, language, gender and culture in socio-cultural contexts of teaching and learning in the lives of Black students, Black oral histories, and Black women teachers’ practice in Canada, the U.S. and the Caribbean. She has written extensively about equity in the academy, diverse feminisms and conceptual and methodological research issues especially in culture-specific contexts. She is the 2018 recipient of the Canadian Association of University Teachers Equity Award.

View the recording of Dr. Henry's talk (SFU ID required).

Tuesday, March 10, 2020 | Transforming Simon Fraser University: Bringing Back the Canoe to Undertake Our Collective Responsibilities to Walk Together on Saltən & Lhukw’lhukw’ayten

Dr. Gwendolyn Point | BCAFN Elder Representative

Shoysqwelwhet (Dr. Gwendolyn Point) is from the Stó:lō Nation. She is a distinguished educator, scholar, mentor, visionary, cultural advisor, and leader. At various points in her career, Shoysqwelwhet has taught at the elementary, secondary, and post-secondary levels, and held positions in leadership and administration with the Stó:lō Nation and the provincial government. She is former Chancellor for the University of the Fraser Valley and is currently serving as the Elder for the B.C. Assembly of First Nations Chiefs.

Dr. Point holds a Doctorate in Education from SFU and is a board member for PAVCOand the Provincial First Nations Education Steering Committee. Her work in Indigenous education and Stó:lō language revitalization, as well as her contributions to Indigenous sovereignty, healing and self-determining community-based research have been recognized with numerous distinctions and awards. Among them are an honourary Doctorate in Education from the University of Victoria, a University of British Columbia Alumni Volunteer Leadership award, the Order of Chilliwack, and the Rotary Harris Fellow Award.

View a recording of Dr. Point's talk (SFU ID required).

Monday, November 18, 2019

You Say You Want a Revolution: Criticalizing Youth Activism in the Post-Truth Era | Shirley R. Steinberg, PhD

How do we become critical allies and supporters of youth, without becoming their critics? Our futures are determined by our desire to understand and work authentically with youth as educators, community workers, and activists. In order to become facilitators and supporters of our youth, it is essential to discuss the history and culture of youth and to contextualize the worth of an empowered youth population.

View a recording of Dr. Steinberg's talk.

Wednesday, March 13, 2019 | Intersections and Interventions: Making Visible the Invisible Violence of Power

Yasmin Jiwani, PhD

This presentation focuses on the role of the mainstream media in making visible, hyper-visible and invisible the violence of power. Through intersectional frames of analysis of specific spectacular cases of violence, Dr. Jiwani interrogates how frames make certain bodies legible by situating them in a matrix of meaning that rationalizes certain kinds of responses and valuations of worthiness and grievability. Dr. Jiwani ends with an examination of various tactical interventions as pedagogies of hope in countering and talking back to the violence(s) of power.

View a recording of Dr. Jiwani’s talk.

Tuesday, November 20, 2018

White Fragility: Why It's So Hard For White People To Talk About Racism | Robin DiAngelo, PhD

White people in the U.S. and Canada live in a society that is deeply separate and unequal by race, and white people are the beneficiaries of that separation and inequality. As a result, we are insulated from racial stress, at the same time that we come to feel entitled to and deserving of our advantage. Given how seldom we experience racial discomfort, we haven’t had to build our racial stamina. We consider a challenge to our racial worldviews as a challenge to our very identities as good, moral people. Thus, we perceive any attempt to connect us to the system of racism as an unsettling and unfair moral offense. The smallest amount of racial stress is intolerable—the mere suggestion that being white has meaning often triggers a range of defensive responses. These include emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt and behaviors such as argumentation, silence, and withdrawal from the stress-inducing situation. These responses work to reinstate white equilibrium as they repel the challenge, return our racial comfort, and maintain our dominance within the racial hierarchy. I conceptualize this process as white fragility. This talk will provide an overview of the socialization that inculcates white fragility and the perspectives and skills needed for white people to build their racial stamina and engage more constructively across race.

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Awareness and Prevention of Sexualized Violence Against Indigenous Women and Girls: Dismantling and Deconstructing Colonial Constructs | Lisa Monchalin, PhD

Indigenous women in Canada are hypersexualized through all facets of western media and culture stemming from imperial colonial legacies. These ideas and misrepresentations have permeated institutions, infused today’s value systems, and have become embedded in western media and culture. It is argued that this sexualization is tied to extreme levels of violence and victimization affecting Indigenous women today. In this presentation, the dominant western narratives are deconstructed, challenged, and re-evaluated in an effort to raise awareness, examine solutions, and explore possibilities for next steps forward. It is argued that Indigenous women are a driving force for change. Many are raising awareness and empowering communities through cultural reclamation, acts of resurgence, and self-expression through art, music, and dance.