1. Presented by:
Shelia Raffray, Anne Trottier, Jasmine
Rosentreter, Rachelle Johnson, Lisa Peters

2. In this presentation we will be
reflecting on learning and teaching
adults through anti-oppressive
education. These exercises entice us
to deeply reflect on our experience
through social position and personal
epistemologies while challenging us
to examine our perspectives.
The questions presented here are
intended to guide us through
different ways of knowing and
provoke a cultivated awareness of
self with interactions between
privilege, power and oppression that
we experience in ourselves and with
others.
These reflections include
intersections of
race, gender, power, white
privilege, world
view, learning, resistance and
change.

3. Several exercises and reflections are
presented here with common themes
including belonging, representation, ways
of knowing and challenging.
BELONGING Through out the presentation consider the
questions:
1.What happens to a person’s spirit and
sense of self when they are told that they
REPRESENTATION do not belong anywhere?
2. How can we be provided the
opportunity to define ourselves, when
others have defined us?
KNOWING
3. Did anything ‘trouble’ your knowledge?
(Kumashiro, 2009)
4. How will you respond if what you
uncover is that your privilege is a result of
an others oppression?
CHALLENGING While working through the presentation
you can choose to focus on one
exercise, engage in discussion or explore
specific questions that are meaningful to
you.
Please provide a response of atleast 250-
500 words.

4. Belonging: What happens to a person’s spirit and sense of
self when they are told that they do not belong
anywhere?
***********************************************************
Bishop’s (1994) article on Educating Allies introduces
the reader to the “Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes” activity that
can be used with learners to experience the
simulation of racism. I cannot help but ask what
about the people with green eyes? What about the
people who do not simply fit into box A or box B?
Rockhill (1991) explores how Hispanic women; many
of whom are recent immigrants to United States are
striving to break the yokes of oppression and sexism
through education as adults. Their desire to cross
barriers forces them into a situation where they do
not fit into box A or box B and they are faced with
resistance from within their community as they too
resist cultural and gender norms.

5. The Crisis of Capitalism (Video)
I think if the speaker would have identified who he was, separating himself from the
structural, I could have understood where he was coming from (Arnold, 1991). This
really distracted me from truly picking up on the content. I found him quite
demanding. He did not recognize any thing that pertains to me as a woman
(Arnold, 1991). I felt as though I was powerless, like he was more powerful than I
and my opinion didn‟t matter. When he was talking about how capitalism was all
linked together I could begin to understand a bit more. As an educator, I think that
his assumptions should have been stated at the beginning of the seminar .
I believe that we are all connected through nature and all life forms
(Graveline, 1998). I think that if the speaker would have connected the self in
relation to others ,I could have better understood how I could take action. The
interconnectedness of myself, to family, to community, to agency, and to the world
(the multigenerational and transgenerational model of Self-in-Relation to Others) is
important to my learning through experience (Graveline, 1998).The speaker used a
form of story telling that really resonated with my learning style. The flow of his
story, the use of images and animations helped me to better learn the material.
The use of language was very specific to those who already knew about
Capitalism, sort of like professional jargon. As I do not speak English or „Capitalism‟
as my first language it was hard to follow. As an adult learner from a different
culture and different gender, I felt that the learning experience was compromised
by the educator‟s presentation of the material– he spoke in scientific „truths‟
instead of identifying the complexity of the situation. It was very cut and dry. This
compromised my learning style.

6. Anais Nin (n.d.) is quoted as saying “We don’t
see things as they are, we see them as we are”.
It is clear that education has shifted the way in
which in which Bishop’s (1994) potential allies
and the Hispanic women within Rockhill’s
(1991) article see themselves and the world. It
is this opportunity to see themselves and their
world differently that directly contributes to
the lack of support the women receive from
their male counterparts? It seems the men
know that if the women begin to shift the way
their view themselves in terms of being worthy
of education, that they will shift their larger
worldview.

7. Curry-Stevens (2003) provides multiple
educational opportunities for the reader to
look within and explore how we
view/experience the world around us. Peggy
McIntosh‟s (in Curry-Stevens, 2003, p.33) white
privilege checklist provides the reader a list of
everyday experiences in which white people
have unearned, unquestioned privilege.
As an adult learner how will you demonstrate
your commitment to uncover the invisible?
How will you respond if what you uncover is
that your privilege is a result of an others
oppression?

8. Consider what Rio and Zamudios, (2006) call the new
“victimology” (pp.497), the “popular mythology about
unfair advantage afforded to people of color [that] serves
to perpetuate popular stereotypes while at the same time
denying white privilege” (p.497). Consider, these examples
utilized by a predominantly white society to partake in
“eating the other (p. 21)… [where] the desire is not to
make the Other over in one‟s image but to become the
Other” ( hooks, 1992, p.25).
I am not a costume.
Response to racist Halloween costumes
*How do you perceive these works, and how could they be
used as a tool for teaching, and advocating social change?
*Is it possible that tools like these could inspire reversal
racism?

9. The acted role of an Indian,
A character assumed wrong.
The continuous misinterpretations
Of a life
That is hurting
Echoes climb,
Distorted
Endlessly by repeated lies.
An undertow of current time.
Will it ever die?
Loosen the bond.
Undo?
Will not this relenting ease
So that we may rest,
Performance over
And unravel the mistake –
Stories told
Of Indians and white men.
Rita Joe (1978)

10. Reflection
**************************************
 What was your initial response to the links
and poem?
 How did you sit with your comfort or
discomfort?
 How has your learning been impacted by the
links and the poem?
 Has your perspective about Halloween and
how people dress for Halloween changed?
 Other reflections?

11. Please read and experience this story about
understanding the Anishnabek point of
view. You might, as we did, become
interested and spend some time learning
from Nokomis.
Understanding from an Anishnabe Point of View

12. What did you know about Anishnabek
perspectives (before you read this article)
and where did you learn it?
Does this article reflect an Aboriginal way of
knowing in the way that you understand it?
Did you experience any emotional or physical
responses to reading the article? How do
you explain that?

13. How do I even know when I or someone else is
oppressing others, or me?
I can ask “When I see…When I hear…When I feel …
I know that [oppression] is at work”
(Bishop, 1994, p.114).
I can open my mind, body, heart and spirit to
learning in ways that are different from those in
the past. By fully experiencing the world, by
listening and silencing my mind‟s need to know
„why‟ (Graveline, 1998) and by remembering
how I came to know things, I can begin to
understand how others did and begin to make a
difference.
So where do I go from here? How do I work as
an ally for social change? I can work to uncover
“relations of domination and [open] up spaces
for voices suppressed in traditional education”
(Razack, 1998, p. 42).

14. Curry-Stevens (2003) recognizes that knowledge is
dynamic and that to learn new perspectives does
not insist that we abandon our own
knowledge, though suspend our judgments and
challenge our comfort zones for long lasting
change. Critical points include creating awareness
of what of our identity is socially constructed and
how internalizations of the status quo can greatly
influence our perspective and worldviews. We
ask, what of your experience is largely a function of
your identity and begin to look at structures of
belonging that don’t necessarily represent anyone.
We hope that some of these readings and exercises
have challenged your knowledge as a learner and
teacher and created opportunity for
expanded, critical explorations of interpreting the
world.
Thank you for participating in this exploration with
us!

15. References
Arnold, R. Burke, B., James, C. et al.(1991). Chapter 1. This is Our Chance: Educating
Strategically.(pp. 13-15). Toronto:ON: Between the Lines and the Doris Marshall
Institute for Education and Action.
Adrienne K. (2011). Open Letter to the Poca Hotties and Indian Warriors this
Halloween, retrieved on October 26th from:
http://nativeappropriations.blogspot.com/2011/10/open-letter-to-pocahotties-and-
indian.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Nat
iveAppropriations+%28Native+Appropriations%29
Bishop, A. (1994). Notes on Educating Allies. In In Becoming an Ally (pp. 107-119). Halifax:
Fernwood.
Curry-Stevens, A. (2003). An Educator's Guide for Changing the World: Methods, Models and
Materials for Anti-Oppression and Social Justice Workshops. Toronto: CSJ Foundation for
Research and Education.
Graveline, F. J. (1998). Revitalizing a Traditional Worldview. In Circle Works: Transforming
Eurocentric Consciousness (pp. 49-69). Halifax: Fernwood.
Harvey, D.2010). The Crisis of Capitalism. RSA Animate. Retrieved from:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOP2V_np2c0&noredirect=1
hooks, b. (1992). Chapter 2. Eating the other. Desire and resistance. In Black Looks, Race
and Representation (pp.21-39). Toronto, ON: Between the Lines.
Joe, R. (1978). Poems of Rita Joe. Halifax, Nova Scotia: Abanaki Press
Kumashiro, K. (2009). Against Common Sense: Teaching and Learning Toward Social
Justice. New York: Routledge.

16. Mann, J. H. (2011). Reflections on anti-oppressive education. Retrieved from:
http://jessiehmann.com/2011/07/13/take-away/
Ng, C. (2011) Ohio University Students Hit ‘Racist’ Halloween Costumes.
Retrieved on October 25:
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2011/10/ohio-university-
students-hit-racist-halloween-costumes/
Nokomis. (2007). Native Legends. Retrieved October 12, 2011, from Native Art
in Canada: An Ojibwa Elder's Art and Stories: http://www.native-art-in-
canada.com/nativelegends.html
Ong A.(2003). Keeping the House from Burning Down. In Buddha is Hiding:
Refugees, Citizenship and the New America. Berkeley: University of
California Press: pp. 122-141
Razack, S. (1998). The Gaze for the Other Side: Storytelling for Social Change.
In Looking White People in the Eye: Gender, Race, and Culture in
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Rockhill, K. (1991). Literacy as Threat/Desire: Longing to be SOMEBODY. In
J.Gaskell & A. McLaren (Eds.) Women and Education (2nd Ed.) (pp.333-349).
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reserve)
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