Helping faculty confront their own, and their students’ stereotypes, is the goal of a new workshop, “Tunnel Vision: Overcoming Our Received Frameworks in the Classroom.”
Kimbra Smith, associate professor, Anthropology Department, and Jeff Scholes, assistant professor, Philosophy Department, will lead the workshop designed to give faculty members tools to improve classroom dynamics.
“From both sides – the student and the faculty member – snap judgments can be made that put people into categories,” Smith said recently. “The point of this workshop is to shine a light on some of the reasons that we all do this in order to facilitate safer, more open dialogues where we can all learn more.”
As an example, Smith noted that student email to a faculty member might initially appear overly casual or even disrespectful to the faculty member. By creating an interactive workshop where such scenarios are openly discussed, Smith and Scholes hope to present some alternatives to this kind of reaction. By highlighting several categories that are susceptible to stereotyping such as religion, disability, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, or military status, faculty will be invited to consider how these operate in the university environment. “We picked the title ‘Tunnel Vision’ to refer to the blinders that keep all of us from seeing things that we’re not socialized to see,” Scholes said. “If we can recognize that we may not be seeing the whole picture and then struggle to broaden our perspective, then there is the potential to gain something that everyone wants – a more productive classroom discussion.”
The workshop is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Nov. 12 in University Center 124 and is open to all UCCS faculty members. To attend, please contact Jeffrey Montez de Oca, assistant professor, Sociology Department, [email protected].
“Tunnel Vision” is the second workshop this fall as part of a “Contentious Discussions in the Classroom” series sponsored by the Faculty Minority Affairs Committee, the Faculty Assembly Women’s Committee, PRIDE, the Office of Diversity and Inclusiveness and the Faculty Resource Center.
In September, Abby Ferber, professor, Women’s and Ethnic Studies program, and Leilani Feliciano, associate professor, Psychology Department, led “Danger Zones: Triggers in the Classroom.”
Two workshops are planned for the spring semester. They are “The Judge is In: Managing Stereotypes of Faculty and Students” and “O Brave New World: Issues in Online Teaching.”
“The Judge is In” will be led by Stephany Spaulding, assistant professor, Women’s and Ethnic Studies program, and Katherine Mack, assistant professor, English Department, in February 2015.
“O Brave New World” will be led by Roger Martinez, assistant professor, History Department, and Rebecca Laroche, professor, English Department, in April 2015.
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