To be completed before Tuesday, January 11, Zoom session.
Culturally sustaining pedagogy and trauma-informed pedagogy, like open pedagogy, are asset-based pedagogies. As we discussed, asset-based practices focus on strengths of our students and their communities, rather than deficits. Before our next Zoom session:
- Read about culturally sustaining pedagogy;
- Read Mays Imad’s article, “Leverage the Neuroscience of now,” about trauma-informed practices and review Trauma-Informed Teaching and Learning Examples, from the Columbia School of Social Work.
After reading the information at the links above, respond in a few paragraphs to the following questions by posting a comment below.
- What are some ways you currently incorporate culturally sustaining pedagogy and trauma-informed practices into your courses?
- How might you apply asset-based pedagogies to other learning experiences in your courses? Give specific examples.
Bonus listen: For more information on trauma-informed pedagogy, Tea for Teaching has a terrific interview (39 mins) with Karen Costa, an educator who’s been working in this area for several years.
4 thoughts on “Reflection on Asset-based Pedagogies”
Students experience stress when they feel they cannot afford to make a mistake or if they feel the mistake cannot be rectified {trauma via classroom) To ward off these kinds of negative experiences, I have found the best way is to reduce tensions by using scaffolding (Whereby the assignments are deconstructed and students can work on small parts of each assignment. ) (as per our first reading)
This also allows essays to become more of a series of lower stakes assignments rather than one high stakes submission.
I begin each semester by asking the students about their lives and having them speak on what they know from their own familial and cultural experience. We can then build on that, to extend out to analogies in the texts we are covering. Every human being has a story. Every story is unique and invaluable.
As James Baldwin wrote,
You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was Dostoevsky and Dickens who taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who ever had been alive. Only if we face these open wounds in ourselves can we understand them in other people. [The Doom and Glory of Knowing Who You Are, ]
Students are allowed their own agency in working on responses with each other and with me in breakout rooms, and they are also allowed to make decisions regarding when midterms and finals should be administered.
They are further given a sense of empowerment by participating in drafting homework and essay responses in class, and by brainstorming in class, together in preparation for exams.
Culturally, not only students but instructors are responding to the on-going trauma of an unending pandemic and our country’s slide towards fascism; students experience this as frontline workers, struggling parents, and racial profiling; whereas, many instructors sheltered from the daily trauma of our students, cannot shed the inevitable sense that our republic is slowly dying.
As Martin Luther King, Jr said, “We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.”
The experience of pulling others to safety or allowing the boat to fill with water is where the measure of our teaching effectiveness occurs.
Response #2, trauma and literature
1. I write a statement on diversity in my syllabus that pertains to every student, race or age. i tell the students that we are all members of a board so when they sit in class theyf are all coming to the table with different ideas, languages, accents and cultural difference. I also address students that have limited english and i tell them this statement. In the hotel industry dual language is an asset so if you tell me professor i dont speak english my response is ” If you can say i dont speak english, you speak english”.
2.In an example of asset based pedagogy i would give the students an assignment. In this assignment i would ask the students to do a presentation on a country that they really like. I would ask them to tell us all the details of this country and tell us why we should visit. Most of the time the student will present on their home country which will give them a sense of pride. I would also implement questions that would allow the student to explain on the cultural background of the country of things that people would not normally know or understand about the country. This also opens up for students to ask something about this country that they themselves may not understand about the country or its citizens.
Whenever I collect data from student feedback, they often communicate an appreciation for a democratic run course and having their voices heard. The consensus centered around students need to be heard is an important one for affirming their value and experiencing autonomy. Throughout the semester, I allow students to select from a few questions so that they can decide on topics of interests. Furthermore, each week I would highlight students with the most outstanding discussions and have them lead the lecture by discussion their topic and reason for choice. They are not only congratulated by peers, but it creates a buzz among them and healthy competition. It’s been my observation that students are more apt to share their inner thoughts and feelings when certain discussions are student led. Open pedagogy is a good framework for students to contribute in meaningful ways and create climates conducive for learning. Moreover, it serves to create safe spaces and lay the groundwork for diversity and inclusion.
I am in the process of creating two more planners, but I wanted to submit what I’ve done so far, for my future Abnormal Psyc learning experience.
Be encouraged,
Larry Elcock
BMCC_Jan2022_OER-Course Redesign Training_Jan 4, 2022 Zoom Session