Incorporating Liberatory Pedagogy into the University Teaching
A Proposal for the Teaching Innovation Grants- Fall 2012
submitted to the
Koç Office of Learning and Teaching (KOLT)
by
Seda Akçakoca
Koç University, Center for Gender Studies (KOÇ-KAM)
15.08.2012
Table of Contents
1.Course Title and learning objectives of the course
2.Objectives of the teaching innovation initiative
Student Centred Learning
Active Learning
3.Planned grant activities
Presentation at a Conference
Collection of the educational materials for Diversity in Organizations Course
4.Syllabus for the course
5.Resources and support needed and itemized budget
6.Expected outcomes of the grant activities for learning
7.Evaluation- a description of how the success of the initiative will be evaluated
APPENDIX 1: Acceptance of Conference Paper
APPENDIX 2: Syllabus for the Diversity in Organizations Course
APPENDIX 3: Conference Budget Request
APPENDIX 4: Course Material Budget Request for Journal Writing
APPENDIX 5: Course Material Budget Request for Film Reviews
APPENDIX 6: The Teaching Innovation Budget Request in Total
APPENDIX 7: Additional Information Related to the Costs
Proposal for the Teaching Innovation Grants- Fall 2012
1.Course Title and learning objectives of the course
Course Title: Diversity in Organizations- SOCI 350
Course Description:Diversity is about differences between people based on the categories of gender, class, age, ethnicity/race, physical appearance, disability, religion, and sexual orientation. This course focuses on the theories, concepts and debates related to the issue of diversity in organizations. In this course, it is explained how interpersonal, social, cultural, structural and economic dynamics within and outside organizations affect people working in organizations differently in terms of opportunities, challenges, and trade-offs. Following an interdisciplinary approach, the course discusses the issue of diversity in organizations in relation to the key concepts, such as identity, culture, power, and inequality. At the end of this course, the students will acquire a better understanding of the effects of diversity on formal and informal work processes and practices in a variety of organizations.
Course Objectives:
- Identify conceptual foundations of diversity
- Explain the areas of diversity and discuss their interaction with one another
- Develop critical evaluation of organizational policies and practices in relation to the concept of diversity
- Examine the legislation that are related to diversity in organizations and explain how different working people are affected by the historical and current legal and social issues
- Understand the views and experiences of dissimilar others
2.Objectives of the teaching innovation initiative
As an early career faculty, I support the idea that research should be the fundamental goal of the academics as it develops the reputation of the university. However, I also believe that the academic staff should not isolate the research from the teaching and find new ways to develop their teaching philosophy via various ways. I am applying to this Teaching Innovation Grant that Koç University offers to its academic staff with the objective of developing and practicingmy pedagogical approach to the university teaching, which is called ‘liberatory pedagogy’.
The notion of ‘liberatory pedagogy’has been on the agenda of educators and intellectuals since Paulo Fierie’s book Pedagogy of the Oppressed was translated to English in 1970. Thenceforth, many scholars have argued about and offered new dimensions of the notion. My interpretation of liberatory pedagogyis highly affected by Ronnie Leah’s (1996: 38) description of the concept as being a combination of ‘critical pedagogy’, ‘feminist pedagogy’, and’ anti-racist pedagogy.’As I do not have enough space to talk about each of these three strands of pedagogy, I shall briefly go through the two mainprinciples which I consider being the most helpful in terms of incorporating liberatory education into my teaching and course material.
Student Centred Learning
Liberatory pedagogy claims that in the traditional education methods students are considered as the depositories of knowledge and the teacher as the depositor (Freire, 1984). It argues that top-down teaching methods create an education system that is based on memorising, repetition, and individualisation. In liberatory pedagogy,the utilization of a lecture-format of teaching is achieved through‘dialogic relationship’ between the teacher and the student, andthe promotion of ‘critical consciousness’of the students. The classroom turns into a safe environment in which the teacher is the intermediary between the course content and the student, and the ‘participatory democratic processes’are used to encourage students to interact. The teacher builds a trusting environment in which all participants are respected and offered the equal opportunity to participate (Schniedewind, 1993: 18). Students are given the freedom, encouragement and tools to link the academic knowledge to their life experiences (Leah, 1996: 39). As a result, students can relate the themes covered in the classroom to their daily lives and current social matters, increase their awareness, and act upon them. This ‘collaborative learning’ develops critical thinking of the students through relationship and dialogue, and with respect for and ability to work with others (Shrewsbury, 1993: 9).
Active Learning
While encouragingcollaborative learning, liberatory pedagogy also sets the ground for ‘active learning’ in which students are actively involved in the learning process by engaging in ‘participatory education’ (Shor, 1993: 33 in Leah, 1996: 40). In liberatory pedagogy, the teacher supports the student to gain experience with the lived realities of the course content by undertaking a ‘learn by doing’ approach. The aim here is ‘to help the students shift the paradigm of their thinking about what should happen in class is … (and) to transform them from passive to active learners who think about ideas rather than grades’ (Shibley, 2005: 16). Through teaching techniques like group work, discussion, problem-based learning, case-studies, role playing, simulation, and so forth,students are motivated to become more personally invested in their learning process. Moreover, active learning can also be promoted when the teacher encourages students to participate in ‘constructive activities’ outside the class (Buller, 2009: 175).For instance, students can be asked to conduct a small survey, being a participant observer in a social context, or interview a small number of people, and then make a presentation about their experiences and findings in class, all of which contribute to their understanding of the sociological concepts and develop their sociological research methods.
To sum up, a student centred learning as part of a teaching philosophy overlaps with my Diversity in Organizationscoursecontent as it is about the inequalities, power struggles, and opportunities that people experience differently at work due totheir social identities, all of which are also linked to organisational processes and broader macro structures. Student centred learning will also develop third year sociology students’ respect for diversity of personal experience, which is directly linked to my course objective: understanding and exploring how diverse people experience work differently, and why.Students will not only create knowledge about the issue of diversity at work, but also an understanding of it. By engaging in liberatory pedagogy, I will act as a medium between the students and the notion of diversity to foster their curiosityto the subject, and create the setting for ‘active learning’ by varying the activities that students will be participating both in and out of the classroom. This will enable the translation of theories into practices through the process of ‘action-reflection-action’ (Freire, 1984).
3.Planned grant activities
After explaining my teaching pedagogy as my objective for applying to this grant, I shall now state two planned grant activities I am hoping to fulfil: (i) to give a presentation at a session of a conference in the United Kingdom that is directly relevant to higher education, teaching, and learning; and (ii) to collect the educational materials that will allow experimental teaching methods to be used during the development and practice of the new Diversity in Organizations course.
a)Presentation at a Conference
Event Title:Feminism in Academia: An Age of Austerity?Current Issues and Future Challenges
Event Summary: The event will be a day-conference at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom packed with many sessions to discuss the current position of feminism in academia, which is affected by the current economic climate in the world. There will be speakers from highly prestigious universities such as London School of Economics, University of Cambridge, University of Edinburgh, University of Oxford, University of Vienna, University of Warwick, and many more. The conference will also include publishers in the field including Ashgate Publishers, Combined Academic Publishers, Polity Press, and Palgrave Macmillan. As an academic in early years of her career, it will be such an opportunity for me to meet successful academicians from respected universities, represent Koç University at an international conference, and build professional networks for potential future research, conference projects,and/or publications. The session that I will make a presentation is titledPedagogical Austerities? Teaching Feminism, which is directly relevant to teaching and learning in higher education andreflects teaching experiences of university scholars providing fruitful discussions about teaching methods and their outcome.
(Please visit the conference programme, andsee Appendix 1 for the email announcement regarding my abstract submission.)
Presentation Abstract:
Developing the Discussion of Intersectionality by Incorporating Liberatory Pedagogy into the University Teaching: An age of austerity or new possibilities for Turkish feminist scholarship?
Liberatory pedagogy is an innovative pedagogical notion that has been used by many teachers, mostly in the European, American and Canadian universities. In this essay, I first describe my understanding of liberatory pedagogy as a synthesis of critical, feminist, and anti-racist pedagogies. In terms of critical pedagogy, Paulo Freire’s concept of ‘critical consciousness’, which calls for a pedagogy helping students to perceive and act upon the oppressive elements of society, is analysed. This is followed by bell hooks’ feminist interpretation of Freire’s concept through her notion of ‘engaged pedagogy’ requiring praxis both for students and teachers. In terms of anti-racist pedagogy, I look at Elizabeth Ellsworth’s redefinition of critical pedagogy that criticizes the pedagogical actualization of critical theory as being essentialist, and emphasizes a method of pedagogy that focuses on different and unequal social locations of students and teachers. I then explain my own approach to teaching that is based upon the intersections of gender, class, race, ethnicity, disability, and sexuality in university teaching as well as learning and research. I use the concept of ‘intersectionality’ as it allows me to question, understand, and reflect upon the complex relationships and structures of power, and realise the intertwined relationship between different social categories both in the academia and society. Second, I discuss my attempts to adopt a liberatory pedagogy stance in the Diversity in Organizations module that I teach in Turkey. The course examines the issue of diversity in organizations in relation to the concepts of identity, culture, power, and inequality, all of which are closely tied to the principles of liberatory pedagogy. I conclude by explaining how the current political and economic condition of Turkey, and the changing educational philosophy of Turkish universities can create new possibilities for practicing liberatory pedagogy and developing feminist scholarship within the Turkish academia.
b)Collection of the educational materials for Diversity in Organizations Course
As I have pointed out above, my aim is to foster student centred learning and active learning as two main principles of liberatory pedagogy in the Diversity in Organizationscourse that I will be teaching for the first time. In order to encourage active student involvement, I will use various forms of creative communication and thinking, and I am applying to this grant so that I can offer my students the two of the materials: (i) notebooks for journal writing; and (ii) DVD films for film reviewing.
Self-reflective writing by keeping journals:Writing is crucial not only for idea communication but also for idea generation. At the beginning of my class, I aim to give each of my students a small sized notebook and ask them to write notes, comments, questions, stories, memories, events, experiences, etc. which can be related to the course content. By doing that, students will reflect back on the concepts covered in the class any time they want to by explaining what trigger their ideas. I expect them to write at least one passage each week. This will also assist them to realize how they have grown during the course because as they learn more concepts in the class, they will have more points to relate to and write about. Although this may seem to personalize classroom learning, I will ask each student at the end of the semester to present one of the passages that they would have been already written to their journals in class in the week prior to the final exam.
Instructional technology:As part of active learning techniques, I will incorporate some movies to the curriculum. This will help students visualize social phenomena, and experience times, places, people and events that cannot otherwise be reproduced and brought into class (Mishra, 2007: 169). All of the movies I have chosen for my course are based on true life stories that are related to the discrimination different people experience at their professions and/or work places. Please see Appendix 5for the list of the movies and brief explanation about them. I will ask the students to watch one of these films (if they want to make a comparative analysis, they can choose more than one film)and then write a review paper about the film(s) by analyzing and discussing major concepts, issues, scenes, and characters.
4.Syllabus for the course
Please see Appendix 2.
5.Resources and support needed and itemized budget
Please seeAppendix 3,Appendix 4, Appendix 5, Appendix 6,and Appendix 7.
6.Expected outcomes of the grant activities for learning
The expected outcomes of the two grant activities I have explained above are:
- By attending a conference session that is related to teaching and learning, I will be able to (i) learn fromthe pedagogical experiences of other teachers in the conference and improve my teaching skills; (ii) represent Koç University abroad; and (iii) create the ground for future joint research,publication, and/orconference opportunities.
- At the end of the Diversity in Organizationscourse, students will (i) demonstratethe essential and long-term knowledge about the issue of diversity in organizations; (ii) gain competency in the abilities and skills of critical thinking, analysis and writing; communication and dialogue; presentation techniques; using innovative tools for assignments; and being a team member; and (iii) develop attitudes like respecting others, tolerating different views, and empathy; all of which contribute positively to the student profile of Koç University.
7.Evaluation- a description of how the success of the initiative will be evaluated
Throughout the semester, I will be using the software program Collaborative Classroom, which is a free online collaborative education platform that allows students and teachers to engage in an online collaborative learning environment. While doing that, I will ask students to express their thoughts about the syllabus andcomment on the course material, and also I will put questionnaires to realize whether my teaching style is appreciated by students and the course objectives are met.
APPENDIX 1: Acceptance of Conference Paper (email format)
Acceptance of conference paper: Seda Akcakoca
Davies, Helen/
- 12:47 PM (53 minutes ago)
to me, FeminismandAus.
Dear Seda,
Thank you for your submission to the 'Feminism in Academia: An Age of Austerity? Current Issues and Future Challenges' conference. I'm delighted to inform you that we will be accepting your paper. Just to confirm, the event is taking place on Friday 28th September 2012 at University of Nottingham. Full details of the conference can be found at including the conference registration form and the event schedule. I have attached a copy of the latter for your reference.
Claire and I look forward to welcoming you in Nottingham in September, and don't hesitate to contact us if you have any queries.
Best wishes,
Helen
Dr Helen Davies,
Associate Lecturer in English Literature,
Leeds Metropolitan University,
Room A120, Broadcasting Place,
School of Cultural Studies,
Woodhouse Lane,
Leeds,
LS29EN
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APPENDIX 2: Syllabus for the Diversity in OrganizationsCourse
WEEKS / TOPICWEEK 1 / Introduction to Diversity in Organizations
WEEK 2 / Individual Factors Related to Diversity:
Self and Group Identity, Prejudice, and Stereotypes / CONCEPTUAL
FOUNDATIONS
OF DIVERSITY
WEEK 3 / Organizational Factors Related to Diversity:
Organizational Policies and Practices
WEEK 4 / Legislative Factors Related to Diversity:
Policy Approaches to Diversity
WEEK 5 / Dimensions of Diversity I:
Gender in Organizations / VALUING
DIVERSITY
WEEK 6 / Dimensions of Diversity II:
Race and Ethnicity in Organizations
WEEK 7 / Dimensions of Diversity III:
Physical and Mental Disability in Organizations
WEEK 8 / Dimensions of Diversity IV:
Class and Religion in Organizations
WEEK 9 / Dimensions of Diversity V:
Age and Sexual Orientation in Organizations
WEEK 10 / Analysing Diversity in Organizations:
Using Sociological Research Methods while Studying Work and Organizations / MANAGING
DIVERSITY
WEEK 11 / Creating and Sustaining Diversity and Inclusion in Organizations I:
Linking Diversity to Individual and/or Group Strategy
WEEK 12 / Creating and Sustaining Diversity and Inclusion in Organizations II:
Linking Diversity to Organizational Strategy
WEEK 13 / Creating and Sustaining Diversity and Inclusion in Organizations III:
Linking Diversity to Social Policy
WEEK 14 / Journal Presentations and Wrap-up
WEEK 15 / Final Exam
APPENDIX 3: Conference Budget Request
CONFERENCE BUDGET REQUESTRequested Expenses / Rate / Number of Days / Total
Conference Registration Fee / 40£ / 40£ = 113TL
Travel Expense to Conference: Airfare / 662TL / 662TL
Ground Transportation While Attending Conference:
Train / 29.50£ = 83.44TL
Taxi / 20£ / 3 / 60£ = 169.6TL
Meals / 30£ / 3 / 90£ = 254TL
Accommodation / 196.97TL / 2 / 393.94TL
Total Requested to Attend Conference / 1675.98TL
APPENDIX 4: Course Material Budget Request for Journal Writing