Lee Anne Bell

Diversity and Social Justice are issues beyond the schools of Social Work and Gender Studies. The most common goals for diversity and social justice studies are to help students understand the meaning of social difference and oppression in the social system as well as in their personal lives. Many issues of social justice are taken at face value - that's simply the way it is. When one looks deeper at the issue and its roots, many realize that there is far more to the story than what we take at face value. This book offers a host of pedagogical approaches to explore diversity and social justice in the classroom.… (mehr)

I found part one of Teaching for Diversity to be an articulate introduction to anti-oppression work, especially when addressed within a social justice education framework. I have previously been introduced to broad issues of oppression in workshops and trainings, but I have never been exposed to such a clear and yet in-depth discussion of causes, effects, and processes that an anti-oppression activist/educator may deal with.
This last section of Teaching for Diversity stood out as the most interesting and relevant to my own experiences. I found the in-depth disscussion of the facilitators role in a anti-oppression class to be very enlightening. Topics such as creating a safe classroom environment, and pedagological frameworks based in social cognititve theory provided me with a conceptual basis within which clarifies the basic knowledge of oppression topics that I am now working from. The discussion leadership tasks like giving information, conceptulizing, reflecting, using silence, addresssing conflict, accepting the expression of feelings, disclosing personal information, observing and reporting back are concepts that are valuable for even a non-facilitator to take to any workshop/ group disscusion format.… (mehr)