Subverting Resistance to Social Justice and Diversity Education: Constructive Approaches with Undergraduate Students 3031317122, 9783031317125

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SpringerBriefs in Social Work Andy J. Johnson · April Vinding   Editors

Subverting Resistance to Social Justice and Diversity Education Constructive Approaches with Undergraduate Students

SpringerBriefs in Social Work

SpringerBriefs present concise summaries of cutting-edge research and practical applications. Featuring compact volumes of 50 to 125 pages, the series covers a range of content from professional to academic. Typical topics might include: • A timely report of state-of-the art analytical techniques • A bridge between new research results, as published in journal articles, and a contextual literature review • A snapshot of a hot or emerging topic • An in-depth case study or clinical example • A presentation of core concepts that students must understand in order to make independent contributions SpringerBriefs in Social Work showcases emerging theory, empirical research, and practical applications in a wide variety of topics in social work and related areas. Briefs are characterized by fast, global electronic dissemination and expedited production schedules.

Andy J. Johnson  •  April Vinding Editors

Subverting Resistance to Social Justice and Diversity Education Constructive Approaches with Undergraduate Students

Editors Andy J. Johnson Department of Psychological Sciences Bethel University Saint Paul, MN, USA

April Vinding Department of English and Journalism Bethel University Saint Paul, MN, USA

ISSN 2195-3104     ISSN 2195-3112 (electronic) SpringerBriefs in Social Work ISBN 978-3-031-31712-5    ISBN 978-3-031-31713-2 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31713-2 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

To All God’s Children —Andy J. Johnson To the generous truth-tellers—you are our teachers. —April Vinding

Acknowledgments

First, thanks to April Vinding for her collaboration and support over the course of this editing process. I could not have asked for a better co-editor in this journey and deeply appreciate her time and expertise. Our chapter authors have been incredibly capable, responsive, and delightful. The team at Springer, especially Janet Kim and Bakiyalakshmi RM, provided invaluable assistance in moving the project forward. Many thanks to my colleagues, community partners, and role models who made this book possible. I am grateful for what each of you has done. Tanden Brekke and I worked together for several years in partnership with many wonderful social justice leaders in the Twin Cities on project-based learning opportunities for my psychology classes. The feedback we received consistently mentioned the unique and effective nature of the approaches we were using, leading to the Relational Partnership Development Model (RPDM) and Moving Towards Social Justice (MTSJ) model described in this book. Community partners whose work with us was especially fruitful include Teresa Forliti, Bukola Oriola, Margaret Lovejoy, Kizzy Downie, Trahern Crews, Mariam Mohamed, and Deborah Mitchell. Thanks to my mentors, especially Karen McKinney and Vincent Peters, for encouraging and supporting my work in the areas of social justice, diversity, intersectionality, and trauma and for always encouraging me to do work that addresses the “big questions,” no matter how difficult they are. DeWayne Davis and Kareem Murphy have been outstanding role models. Denise Sudbeck provided consultation on trans justice issues. Bethel University granted a sabbatical to give me more time to write. Thank you also to Samuel Zalanga, Andrew Odubote, Tim Sena, Wallace “Wally” Swan, Steven Robertson, and Kenny Callaghan for the time you took to talk things through with me at critical points along the way. Thank you to the beloved community at All God’s Children for providing support and community while also encouraging introspection and growth – I am truly fortunate to have such wonderful friends. Finally, thanks to my wife, Carolyn Johnson, for her unwavering support of me and my work. Saint Paul, MN, USA

Andy J. Johnson

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Acknowledgments

I echo Andy’s gratitude to our team at Springer: their support of this work widens and roots the conversation. Collaborating with Andy and our chapter authors has been illuminating and energizing, and their contributions make me wiser and more hopeful–precious and muscular gifts as we all try to do fruitful work against harm and toward wholeness. My teachers, students, and colleagues who have been brave enough to be their full selves build the spaces of real dialogue that change relationships and the world, and me. Thank you for your courage. Saint Paul, MN, USA

April Vinding

Contents

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Understanding Resistance to Social Justice and Diversity Education����������������������������������������������������������������������������   1 Andy J. Johnson

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Embrace Preparing: Theoretical and Practical Foundations for Motivating Students to Address Social Justice for Persons from Diverse Social Locations����������������������  15 Andy J. Johnson

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Embrace Collaboration: Developing Community Partnerships Through the Relational Partnership Development Model (RPDM)��������������������������������������������������������������������  29 Tanden L. Brekke

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Embrace Multiple Perspectives: Balancing Interests of Community Partners, Students, and Instructors in Developing Creative Solutions��������������������������������������������������������������  43 Emily Rossing, Trahern Crews, and April Vinding

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Embrace Process: Classroom Practices for Nonviolent Formation��������������������������������������������������������������������������  57 April Vinding

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Embrace Complexity: Anticipating and Neutralizing Student Resistance in Undergraduate Education for Transgender and Gender Identity Justice ����������������������������������������  69 Christine M. Robinson

Index��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  85

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Contributors

Tanden L. Brekke, Ed.D.,  (he, him, his), Justice and Peace Studies, Dougherty Family College, University of St. Thomas, Minneapolis, MN, USA Trahern Crews  (he, him, his), Black Lives Matter Minnesota, Saint Paul Recovery Act Commission, Saint Paul, MN, USA Andy J. Johnson, Ph.D.,  (he, him, his), Department of Psychological Sciences, Bethel University, Saint Paul, MN, USA Christine  M.  Robinson, Ph.D.,  (she, her, hers), Department of Justice Studies, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA, USA Emily  Rossing  (she, her, hers), Department of Psychological Sciences, Bethel University, Saint Paul, MN, USA April Vinding, MFA,  (she, her, hers), Professor of English, Director of Writing, Department Chair, Bethel University, Saint Paul, MN, USA

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About the Editors

Andy J. Johnson, PhD,  Associate Professor of Psychological Sciences Emeritus, taught a variety of courses in the Department of Psychology at Bethel University in Saint Paul, Minnesota. His research interests center on the intersection of religion, ethnicity, national origin, immigration status, sexual orientation, gender identity, and ability/disability with interpersonal violence. A volume he edited, Religion and Men's Violence Against Women; a volume he co-edited with Ruth Nelson and Emily Lund, Religion, Disability, and Interpersonal Violence; and a volume he co-­edited with Emily Lund and Claire Burgess, Violence Against LGBTQ+ Persons, are published by Springer. Andy is a Past Board Member for the National Partnership to End Interpersonal Violence (NPEIV), where he served as Co-Chair of Action Team 2: Training and Mentoring. He is currently a member of American Psychological Association (APA) Division 44: Society for the Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, APA Division 56: Trauma Psychology, and a former Member-at-Large for APA Division 36: Society for the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality. Andy has served as a member of the Olmstead Specialty Committee on Violence Against Persons with Disabilities for the State of Minnesota. He earned his MA and PhD in Counseling Psychology from the University of Notre Dame. April Vinding, MFA,  grew up deeply embedded in a midwestern American evangelical culture that fused political power, patriarchy and divinity, and prized certainty, suspected beauty, and avoided conflict. Naturally, she got an MFA, a divorce, and loves to dance. She teaches writing at all levels, facilitates faculty development, and develops curriculum. Her creative work includes an incisive spiritual memoir, Triptych, and various essays, poems, and multimedia work. She is wildly interested in embodied education and the intersections of creative and spiritual practice.

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Chapter 1

Understanding Resistance to Social Justice and Diversity Education Andy J. Johnson

The chapters in Subverting Resistance to Diversity and Social Justice Education provide a concise introduction to models we have found beneficial for addressing student resistance in our courses. The approaches can be useful in any of a number of ways: they might complement or supplement other approaches, provide guidelines for revising current teaching methodologies, or stimulate consideration of the unique aspects of your teaching context and how you might address student resistance you encounter. It is important to understand the context in which one is teaching, what forms of resistance are present, the underlying dynamics of resistance that are barriers to engagement, and to use a problem-solving approach to access healthy student values, strengths, and interests as motivation to engage diversity and social justice concerns. This book provides examples of solutions to resistance we have encountered in our particular contexts. It is neither a handbook, a comprehensive account of every issue, nor a review of the history of the field; instructors may develop their background further on those issues by consulting works on critical structural analysis and critical race theory (Apple et  al., 2009; Lynn & Dixson, 2022; Misiaszek & Popoff, 2022; Smeyers, 2018), promoting social equity in education (Johnson III & Meyer, 2022; Meyer et al., 2022), teaching about privilege (Goodman, 2011), and the intersection of human rights with psychology (Rubin & Flores, 2020). The central focus here is student resistance and how to facilitate student engagement. Students at the private religious-affiliated university where I teach are often ambivalent about diversity and social justice issues. On the one hand, they often

A. J. Johnson (*) Department of Psychological Sciences, Bethel University, Saint Paul, MN, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 A. J. Johnson, A. Vinding (eds.), Subverting Resistance to Social Justice and Diversity Education, SpringerBriefs in Social Work, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31713-2_1

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have religious and personal values, which encourage them to grow and move in the direction of becoming more inclusive, just, and equitable persons. At the same time, many have political, religious, or personal beliefs, attitudes, or commitments that create barriers to growth and result in resistance to exploring issues in depth.

1 Resistance to Movement and Growth While there are different ways of understanding and defining resistance, the following has been helpful in my context: Resistance to learning about diversity and social justice is any internal or external process that prevents, hinders, slows, weakens, or threatens growth and movement toward developing a more inclusive, empirically informed, socially just, and compassionate outlook, understanding, and capacity to partner and take action with diverse others. This definition focuses on movement in a healthy direction so students are empowered to take appropriate actions. The central question revolves around the extent to which persons use internal or external events to move in a healthy direction: How can we engage undergraduate students in ways that tap into the greatest strengths of their value systems and personal identities to promote understanding, growth, and movement in diversity and social justice? The goal of this approach is to facilitate students’ engagement as they begin to understand how studying diversity and social justice benefits them.

1.1 Moving Toward Social Justice (MTSJ) Model The MTSJ model was developed to circumvent student resistance to learning about diversity and social justice. The theoretical underpinnings of the model include Roger’s work on attributes of relative advantage and compatibility with value systems that facilitate diffusion and acceptance of innovation (Rogers, 1971, 2003, 2004), the work of scholars on the psychology of movement and use (Adler, 1988, 1991; Johnson, 2005; Meacham, 1990), social psychological research on how approaches using behavior change to facilitate attitude change are more effective than approaches trying to change attitudes as a means of changing behavior (see Chapter 4 in Myers & Twenge, 2022), and the work of Glover and Friedman (2015) emphasizing learning to recognize cultural dilemmas and respecting cultural differences when developing intercultural competence. Chapter 2 explains the MTSJ model more fully; for now, we turn our attention to the psychology of movement and use.

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1.2 Movement and Use A primary consideration in studying social justice and diversity is that growth and change need to take place over the course of a lifetime. A continual process of movement through learning, listening, appreciating context and historical foundations of problems, connecting with others, acting in partnership, and evaluating outcomes is essential. From a very early age onward, each of us has been exposed to racist, sexist, ableist, homophobic, and transphobic biases in surrounding cultures. Some of these biases may be unknowingly accepted by children before they have developed critical awareness. Even the most advanced leaders in the work to end prejudice and discrimination find themselves occasionally becoming aware of internalized bias they did not realize was there before. This can be used to enhance growth and develop a greater sense of humility and honesty. In contrast, the attitudes and behaviors of some persons can reflect the notion they have achieved a status where further improvement is unnecessary. These misunderstandings are then used as justification for not making continuous, substantial efforts to grow in their ability to notice dilemmas and problems of oppression related to race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity. Some will defend their lack of initiative on the grounds they are a good person or a “competent professional” who follows professional guidelines, and therefore their actions will not be biased. These defenses illustrate how resistance is a function of use. Being a good person and trying to be a competent professional are positive things in and of themselves, but using personal or professional identity to rationalize minimal engagement in diversity and social justice is problematic.

2 Sources of Resistance 2.1 Social Presentation Social presentation of students to others both inside and outside of the classroom is critical to processes of engagement and resistance. Social presentation is a complicated and multifaceted concept involving maintaining self-esteem and group identity, with assumptions that persons strive for significance, meaning, and importance in their lives. I will focus on the interpersonal functions of social presentation related to undergraduate courses involving diversity or social justice themes. Students need a way to articulate the relative advantage they are gaining in these classes through developing greater understanding of diversity and skills in working with diverse others on important social justice problems. They need to feel better about themselves and to converse with others in their social networks in ways that engender social support and neutralize criticism or unhealthy social dynamics which interfere. While almost all instructors take steps to ensure a safe place for students to have difficult conversations about diversity and social justice,

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establishing safety and social support in the classroom is only the beginning. Students must learn how to discuss with others what they are learning in the classroom in a way that elicits social support from peers, other faculty, family, and friends. Framing the learning experience can be complicated, since students’ identities include differing social locations and histories, external situations, and relationship patterns, which can result in differing underlying cognitive schemata through which they filter experience. Conversations about these experiences are then subjected to various forms of social contingencies (e.g., approval, acceptance, challenge, dismissal, etc.) as a function of the audience. Students from marginalized and oppressed groups may sometimes approach class discussion on diversity or social justice with a degree of hesitation due to frustrating experiences in other conversations or classes and in receiving disbelief or upsetting or negative reactions from others. These students may have also been asked to carry inappropriate burdens if others expect them to speak for all members of their group or to teach others about diversity. Students in majority or privileged groups may also feel ambivalent, but for different reasons. They may not realize when they are learning something significant about diversity and often do not have ways of communicating these advantages to others who might be skeptical. For example, students in my classes sometimes encounter persons in their social circles who oppose critical race theory, without even knowing what it is. (Critical race theory is multifaceted and complex, and a full discussion is beyond the scope of this chapter; see Ladson-Billings (2022) for an overview or Lynn and Dixson (2022) for an extensive treatment.) Resistance to critical race theory in these circumstances is often based on misconceptions and distortions, reflecting fears that individuals will rewrite history and substitute false theoretical speculation for what they perceive to be established facts. These attitudes may be based on misleading news reports or on superficial, emotional factors. Others might not agree with one small part or misperceived aspect of critical race theory and then dismiss the entire theory. Similar patterns may occur with regard to feminism and information regarding sexual and gender minority persons. Substantial social barriers to diversity or social justice education efforts may be experienced by students who encounter peers or family members who dismiss or devalue what the student is learning by focusing on only one or two litmus test ideas. Social contingencies for social support within groups where normative influence is more frequently used than informational influence or evidence can be difficult for some students to achieve. On the other hand, some students may react against discouragement from others and become even more determined to learn. As we will see in the following chapter, instructors can use a number of different strategies to help students recognize when they have encountered something significant and discuss the value of what they are learning with others in their environment to obtain social support. Project-based learning in particular can be used within an MTSJ model as an effective method of short-circuiting these challenges.

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2.2 Emotion Management Learning about social inequities often involves unpleasant emotional reactions, which persons need to manage. In the MTSJ model, the important question is not whether one should feel certain emotions or the extent to which one experiences emotion; rather, the main question is how one uses emotion to move toward or away from the goal of understanding diversity and acting to address injustice. Maintaining the status quo moves away from the goal. Staying put calcifies the present position. Becoming aware of how persons experience marginalization and oppression often creates painful feelings, and rightfully so. What persons do to use their unpleasant emotions in a productive or nonproductive fashion is critical. Guilt  How persons in dominant groups use guilt provides useful illustrations. Bishop (2002) notes that persons in the process of becoming allies can channel unpleasant emotions such as guilt into motivation to end the oppression. In the MTSJ model, positive use of guilt means listening to oppressed persons, focusing attention on the needs of the marginalized persons and not one’s own self-defense, becoming well informed before taking action, developing multiple options for addressing oppression, and working with organizations run by members of the oppressed groups who are most likely to experience the consequences of any potential action taken. Encouraging students to direct feelings of guilt and other emotions into effectively engaging social justice is essential. Negative use of guilt can occur in different ways. Many people take action to reduce guilty feelings before becoming informed. While this reduces guilt and anxiety quickly, it also tends to create more problems. These persons may want to be in charge yet are unaware of the consequences or implications of actions, or they may desire credit for accomplishment without taking responsibility for assessing the effects of actions taken. Remind students in these situations to be patient and learn about options that research or theory suggest might be most effective. Some students choose to feel attacked, persecuted, or threatened for any of a number of reasons (see “Cognitive dissonance dynamics”). These responses can often be limited beforehand by gaining student trust in demonstrating concern for their future success, helping them anticipate and understand the reasons behind any difficult discussions coming, and other interventions mentioned by Robinson (Chap. 6 of this book). Other students may note that they are not directly responsible for creating social inequities and may use this to reduce unpleasant emotions but resist engaging. Instructors’ actions here are especially challenging. Many want to confront students immediately with the situation that the student benefits from the oppression, since instructors should not let students “off the hook” and students need to feel guilt or other unpleasant emotions in order to engage. While this might be successful with more advanced persons, I have not found this to be an effective strategy with beginners. Guilt serves a reintegrative function in some cultures (i.e., guilt is routinely used to motivate the person to reconnect with others) but is often used in a

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disintegrative fashion in contemporary Western societies to isolate, discredit, and alienate others. The risk of an immediate, premature confrontation about benefiting from social inequity is that students may listen but feel inside that they are being attacked (i.e., receiving disintegrative guilt) and pressured to be “politically correct.” Sometimes, these interventions backfire with majority culture students even though they are well intended. A better alternative in the earliest stages of students’ developing awareness is to remind them of how important it is to channel guilt and other unpleasant emotions into motivation to become informed and take effective, careful actions that are likely to succeed. After relationships of trust develop and instructors assist students in staying on target to move toward goals of personal growth and development of intercultural competency, then it is essential to integrate instruction raising awareness of benefits from social inequity. Too much too fast risks being counterproductive. Students from dominant groups sometimes approach marginalized persons for emotional support. This is not helpful to oppressed persons. Instructors need to provide a safe and supportive learning environment as well as referral sources and education around appropriate emotion support options both for students from dominant and marginalized groups. Confidence and Doubt  Meacham’s (1990) work on the psychology of wisdom discusses the importance of balancing feelings of confidence with doubt. Overconfidence can result in unwise actions, but excessive uncertainty can prevent a person from taking appropriate action. The use of patterns of overconfidence and under-confidence to give oneself permission not to engage in diversity education or social justice initiatives is a common problem. Sometimes, a student, or even an instructor, might feel overconfident that they know something in-depth when they recognize general concepts. The labels sound familiar, and the person may use their confidence to feel better about disengaging. At the same time, this same person might hesitate or refuse to work on a specific social justice issue on grounds that they lack sufficient expertise. This can result in avoiding appropriate continuing education or attempting to take informed action with appropriate training and supervision. This can also serve the function of allowing the person to escape any potential discomfort or embarrassment in not handling a situation well or of being “outed” by a professional or other person from a marginalized community. A focus on interventions that make the person from a dominant group feel good is sometimes associated with this tendency to place too high a priority on feeling comfortable along with an underdeveloped ability to tolerate uncomfortable feelings or a tendency to use guilt as a way of interfering with exploring social justice or diversity more deeply. The issue is not the level of education or understanding: the issue is how someone uses patterns of high and low confidence in their level of expertise either to move forward in growth and development or to avoid risk and engaging diversity and social justice issues in depth. Cognitive Dissonance Dynamics  Given the ambivalence many feel about approaching diversity and social justice issues, it should come as no surprise that

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cognitive dissonance plays an important role in resistance. Consider the situation of someone deciding they do not have the time to engage in diversity or social justice because they feel they have more important things to do. While this helps reduce dissonance, it also interferes with one’s own professional development and contributes to the problem of diversity and social justice being seen as secondary concerns. These attitudes are often conveyed in indirect ways that are readily picked up by others in the class and can have negative effects on class climate. In addition, students from diverse social intersections facing oppression usually notice these indirectly expressed attitudes, contributing to experiences of marginalization. Use of phrases such as “it is bad everywhere” or “they really have it bad over there” invoke lateral and downward comparisons projecting bias onto others and preventing ownership and change of one’s own prejudices, often in an attempt to reduce dissonance. Sometimes, people use this not only as a way to feel better about themselves but also as a means of normalizing oppression or of excusing oneself from taking action locally because, “after all, it is either better or at least no worse here than at other places.” In situations like this, the focus shifts from facilitating acceptance and belonging, and constructing more just systems, to concern for the reputation of oneself or one’s group as a whole. The purpose of diversity and social justice education, in contrast, is to promote equality, healing, and flourishing at individual, relational, and systemic levels. The primary consideration is the extent to which someone uses their experience or their encounters to move forward into growth and development versus the extent to which they become defensive or act to preserve the status quo.

2.3 Attention and Cognitive Factors There is a long tradition of research in psychology on the role of cognitive factors in stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. The following list highlights applications of this research to understanding student resistance. Restricted Attention  Application of research on the fundamental attribution error (Andrews, 2001) suggests students might overestimate the role of personal characteristics contributing to the problems faced by marginalized persons if they focus their attention on the person without considering the environmental context. Systematically intervening to direct attention to the situations facing marginalized and oppressed persons can attenuate resistance and facilitate the development of empathy (Davis & Clark, 2022) as students consider how the world looks through the eyes of clients of a community organization working on social justice. Confirmation Bias  When students focus attention on events or findings that confirm their pre-existing ideas or beliefs (Kenski, 2017), they can unconsciously validate stereotypes or biases they might hold. Sometimes, this will be associated with seeking to evaluate the truthfulness of a perception by the extent to which a group

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of peers who are also not informed agree. Belief in the idea that both sides of an issue are equally valid ignores that some perspectives are grounded in objective reality, while some are based on self-perpetuating beliefs, which justify social inequity. Directing students to look for evidence which disconfirms their initial ideas can facilitate an openness to experiences promoting healthy change. Social Comparison Theory  Gartrell’s (1987) theory can explain how students evaluate themselves relative to others they consider to be more highly prejudiced from other locations or time periods to boost self-esteem and to justify that they really do not need to learn more about diversity and social justice because they perceive it not to be a problem for them or their group. Misunderstandings of the Nature of Prejudice  Ream (2021) discusses how prejudice evolves over time from more overtly hostile types to forms which are more subtle to make discrimination appear more benign, socially acceptable, benevolent, or a reflection of accurate perceptions. Students unaware of their prejudices might perceive instructors or others as trying to pressure them to say things which are not true (i.e., not congruent with preconceived biases). Some may even believe it is a stereotype that people from their own group are biased while the real problem is not that they are prejudiced but that others just need to know how good they really are. “Critical Thinking” as a Form of Denial  Sometimes, a person from a dominant group lacks critical consciousness, not understanding the context, life experiences, and trauma history of marginalized persons when hearing reports of oppressive experiences. In other words, a failure to take a trauma-informed perspective (Bryant-­ Davis, 2019; Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2014) occurs when someone does not appreciate the courage it takes to bring criticism forward to a majority-culture person. The tendency of those in the majority can be to unwittingly discredit, criticize, ostracize, or make negative consequences for those who identify legitimate problems, by focusing on presentation (e.g., manner of expression or affect) while glossing over the issue. The statements of marginalized persons are thus carefully scrutinized to determine if events really happened or if their perspective is literally true without an understanding of how experiences as a privileged person are qualitatively different from those who are marginalized, how difficult it is to trust a person from a dominant group with this information, and the risk of backlash and other negative consequences if one is not believed. The end result is often a denial or minimization of the oppressive situation as the dominant-­ group person uses what they consider to be “critical thinking” in an “objective” and “neutral” fashion to discredit and/or fail to support the person speaking. Another variation on this form of resistance is when dominant-group persons pride themselves on taking the middle ground on social justice issues. There is no middle ground with regard to human rights, however, and to claim the middle ground is not to be neutral but to side with oppression (Lund et al., 2021).

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All or None Thinking  The work of Katz (2013, 2018) on empowering bystanders to prevent gender-based violence explains how persons often assume they must either directly intervene or do nothing. Given the high costs of intervening directly, most individuals choose to do nothing. The Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) program Katz developed teaches persons to stop, evaluate multiple options of intervening directly and indirectly, and then choose the option to do something which is most appropriate in the situation. Doing nothing is discouraged. Parallel dynamics are often involved with students considering social justice action: they are overwhelmed at the enormity and pervasiveness of social inequities and feel as if their efforts are too costly or will not be effective. The MTSJ model encourages students to develop multiple options to address a social justice problem identified by a community partner. They focus on identifying what can be done under the circumstances based upon input from a community partner along with the theoretical and empirical knowledge base of the class. Double Standards  Some students from dominant groups might hold others to a different or much higher standard. For example, they may require a marginalized person to say and do everything in a perfectly calm and rational manner. They might engage in microaggressions or make offensive statements in a calm, detached manner because the dominant-group person does not understand the nature of their offensive behavior. On the other hand, when a majority-culture student responds emotionally due to a perceived offensive statement, then that behavior is interpreted as justified. It is not unusual for students with double standards to consciously or unconsciously assume cultural deficits affect BIPOC students while considering limitations of their own group normative. A common variation on double standards occurs when a student uses peripheral issues, such as manner of expression or amount of emotion, to discredit or devalue a marginalized person’s message rather than the central information of the message (Petty et al., 1997). The complaint might be “it is not what you did, it is how you did it.” Failure or Refusal to Comprehend  No evidence seems to be strong enough to convince some persons of a social justice problem. They act as if they require extraordinary, undeniable evidence right before their eyes in the present in order to accept the existence of a social justice problem. The use of project-based learning within the MTSJ model to address students acting this way who have very limited experience is described in Chap. 2. When responding to students like this, it is important to differentiate between students whose fear or underdeveloped sense of empathy prevents their comprehension and those whose prejudices are untreatable. A related form of resistance involves “alligator tactics.” Grabbing a bird or animal, taking it underwater, and rolling over and over to drown it is one way alligators subdue their prey. A student might engage in repeated, prolonged argumentation over basic points of a social justice problem when those points have been adequately explained already on multiple occasions.

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Failure to Consider Racial Identity  Alvarez and Kimura (2001) discuss applications of Helms’s (1995) model of five ego statuses used by BIPOC persons to develop a healthy racial identity: conformity, dissonance, immersion-emersion, internalization, and integrative awareness. Each identity status reflects qualitatively unique thoughts, feelings, and behavioral reactions to race and racism. For example, someone in the conformity status tends to trivialize race and denigrate BIPOC persons in similar fashion to the majority culture, while someone in the immersion-­ emersion status may idealize BIPOC cultures and persons while rejecting majority culture and persons. Sometimes, resistant students encounter BIPOC persons with a conformity status with whom they share similar perceptions and then use that to argue against or reject ideas or statements concerning racial inequities from another BIPOC person or persons whose status involves greater critical awareness of social injustices. Persons employing double standards may use a lack of uniform perspectives between BIPOC persons as a reason not to take appropriate actions or implement helpful policies. Intersectionality of gender, race, disability status, sexual orientation, gender identity, and other factors can also be useful to consider when examining identity and identity development. Hays (1996), Root (1996), and Brown (2010) can be consulted for more information. Resistance to the Idea of Privilege  Students sometimes have limited exposure to situations involving racial and other inequalities in housing, educational opportunity, and things of this nature. They may lack sufficient experience to have developed cognitive schemata, which would allow them to assimilate information that comes to light in class discussions concerning privilege (Goodman, 2011). A misperception they have is that privilege means someone has had extraordinary perks and benefits. They do not understand that privilege involves the absence of significant obstacles and barriers based on one’s race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and not having disabilities. It is more difficult to notice something one does not have to go through. In addition, many privileged students associate privilege with someone who is extravagantly wealthy or powerful. They may resist seeing themselves as privileged because they may have come from a middle-class or lower-middle-class background, they may be working hard at multiple jobs to pay tuition, or they have difficulties and barriers to overcome as well. Some have often been exposed to misinformation such as the idea that people are poor primarily because of laziness or some other personal defect. Acceptance of these stereotypes and related prejudices combine with a feeling that they are being misunderstood as being wealthy and as never having to struggle can place these students at high risk for lashing out at others in direct or indirect, passive-aggressive ways. They also are at higher risk for failing to develop empathy and the ability to take multiple perspectives, which are essential for diversity and social justice education and for success in whatever career path they choose. The core developmental need of students in this situation is to observe and learn about experiences of differential treatment regarding privilege. Project-based learning assignments on social justice issues are a rich source of opportunities to direct

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student attention to observations of privilege in real life. As students learn about the challenges faced by diverse clients of community partner organizations, they will repeatedly experience reports from people who experience discrimination in a variety of ways. The sense of threat that many privileged students are inclined to feel tends to be deflected when their role as the student is to help the community partner devise creative solutions for the problems their clients face. The problem of the threat to the well-being of the client now becomes the obstacle the student is working with the community organization and the clients to overcome. As noted above, there is a history of students and others with privilege who will say they resist ideas or actions not because of the ideas or actions themselves but because of how these were carried out. Many BIPOC, feminist, and LGBTQ+ scholars encounter that attitude so many times they are skeptical, realizing in some circumstances that the resistant students of privilege are going to cry foul, regardless of how ideas are presented. There are some students who are beyond reach in this manner. However, other students may want to learn but do need to have things framed in a way that is more appropriate for someone with limited experiences that have been misinterpreted due to stereotypes and the influence of biased others. Individualistic Bias  Some forms of student resistance are rooted in the lack of understanding a systems approach. For example, they may be strongly in favor of a soup kitchen to feed the poor but resist explorations of unjust systems that underlie social inequity. It is easy for someone to imagine giving a hungry child a sandwich, but it is often difficult to see or understand how interlocking, intersecting systems affect a problem. An associated problem here is student lack of insight into how serious and chronic a situation is.

3 The Following Chapters Chapter 2 by Johnson continues describing theoretical contours and applications of the MTSJ model to address dynamics of student resistance. Brekke explains in Chap. 3 how the Relational Partnership Development Model (RPDM) can be used by university faculty or administration to develop effective long-term partnerships with community organizations promoting social justice. Student and community partner perspectives on the MTSJ and RPDM models are described by Rossing, Crews, and Vinding in Chap. 4. Vinding elaborates principles of nonviolent teaching methodologies, which lead students in a process of discovery and personal change in Chap. 5. Finally, Robinson describes in Chap. 6 how instructors might understand and neutralize student resistance to studying transgender and gender identity justice.

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References Adler, A. (1988). Personality as a self-consistent unity. Individual Psychology: Journal of Adlerian Theory, Research & Practice, 44(4), 431–440. Adler, A. (1991). The progress of mankind. Individual Psychology: Journal of Adlerian Theory, Research & Practice. Special Issue: Social interest, 47(1), 17–21. Alvarez, A. N., & Kimura, E. F. (2001). Asian Americans and racial identity: Dealing with racism and snowballs. Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 23(3), 192–206. Andrews, P. W. (2001). The psychology of social chess and the evolution of attribution mechanisms: Explaining the fundamental attribution error. Evolution and Human Behavior, 22(1), 11–29. https://doi-­org.ezproxy.bethel.edu/10.1016/S1090-­5138(00)00059-­3. Apple, M. W., Au, W., & Gandin, L. A. (Eds.). (2009). The Routledge international handbook of critical education (Routledge international handbook series). Routledge. Bishop, A. (2002). Becoming an ally: Breaking the cycle of oppression in people. Zed Books. Brown, L. S. (2010). Feminist therapy. American Psychological Association. Bryant-Davis, T. (2019). The cultural context of trauma recovery: Considering the posttraumatic stress disorder practice guideline and intersectionality. Psychotherapy, 56(3), 400–408. https:// doi.org/10.1037/pst0000241 Davis, A. N., & Clark, E. S. (2022). Considering the role of empathy in the links between discrimination and prosocial behaviors. Journal of Adult Development. https://doi-­org.ezproxy.bethel. edu/10.1007/s10804-­022-­09406-­7. Gartrell, C. D. (1987). Network approaches to social evaluation. Annual Review of Sociology, 13, 49–66. https://doi-­org.ezproxy.bethel.edu/10.1146/annurev.so.13.080187.000405. Glover, J., & Friedman, H. L. (2015). Transcultural competence: Navigating cultural differences in the global community. American Psychological Association. Goodman, D. (2011). Promoting diversity and social justice: Educating people from privileged groups (The teaching/learning social justice series) (2nd ed.). Routledge. Hays, P.  A. (1996). Addressing the complexities of culture and gender in counseling. Journal of Counseling & Development, 74(4), 332–338. https://doi-­org.ezproxy.bethel. edu/10.1002/j.1556-­6676.1996.tb01876.x. Helms, J. E. (1995). An update on Helms’s White and people of color racial identity models. In J. G. Ponterotto, J. M. Casas, L. A. Suzuki, & C. M. Alexander (Eds.), Handbook of multicultural counseling (pp. 181–198). Sage. Johnson, A. J. (2005, Summer). Reflections on wisdom as movement in the life space. ReVision: A Journal of Consciousness and Transformation, 28(1), 24–28. Johnson, R. G., III, & Meyer, S. J. (2022). Lessons in social equity: A case study book. Birkdale Publishers. Katz, J. (2013). TEDTalks: Violence against women it’s a men’s issue. Films Media Group. Retrieved July 7, 2022, from https://fod-­infobase-­com.ezproxy.bethel.edu/PortalPlaylists.asp x?wID=107283&xtid=56597 Katz, J. (2018). Bystander training as leadership training: Notes on the origins, philosophy, and pedagogy of the mentors in violence prevention model. Violence Against Women, 24(15), 1755–1776. https://doi-­org.ezproxy.bethel.edu/10.1177/1077801217753322 Kenski, K. (2017). Overcoming confirmation and blind spot biases when communicating science. In K. H. Jamieson, D. Kahan, & D. A. Scheufele (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of the science of science communication (pp. 369–375). Oxford University Press. Ladson-Billings, G. (2022). Critical race theory: What it is not! In M. Lynn & A. D. Dixson (Eds.), Handbook of critical race theory in education (2nd ed.). Routledge. Lund, E. M., Burgess, C. M., & Johnson, A. J. (2021). Research, practice, and advocacy in the movement to end gender and sexual orientation violence: No room for complacency. In E. M. Lund, C. M. Burgess, & A. J. Johnson (Eds.), Violence against LGBTQ+ persons: Research, practice, and advocacy. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-­3-­030-­52612-­2

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Lynn, M., & Dixson, A. D. (Eds.). (2022). Handbook of critical race theory in education (2nd ed.). Routledge. Meacham, J. A. (1990). In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), Wisdom: Its nature, origins, and development. Cambridge University Press. Meyer, S. J., Johnson III, R. G., & McCandless, S. (2022). Moving the field forward with empathy, engagement, equity, and ethics. Public Integrity, 24(4/5), 422–431. https://doi-­org.ezproxy. bethel.edu/10.1080/10999922.2022.2089476. Misiaszek, G. W., & Popoff, J. M. (2022). The Palgrave handbook on critical theories of education. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-­3-­030-­86343-­2 Myers, D. G., & Twenge, J. (2022). Social psychology (14th ed.). McGraw Hill. Petty, R.  E., Wegener, D.  T., & Fabrigar, L.  R. (1997). Attitudes and attitude change. Annual Review of Psychology, 48, 609–647. https://doi-­org.ezproxy.bethel.edu/10.1146/annurev. psych.48.1.609. Ream, G. (2021). Concepts of sexual orientation and gender identity. In E. M. Lund, C. M. Burgess, & A. J. Johnson (Eds.), Violence against LGBTQ+ persons: Research, practice, and advocacy. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-­3-­030-­52612-­2 Rogers, E. M. (1971). Communication of innovations: A cross-cultural approach. In Communication of innovations: A cross-cultural approach. Free Press. Rogers, E. M. (2003). Diffusion of innovations (5th ed.). Free Press. Rogers, E.  M. (2004). A prospective and retrospective look at the diffusion model. Journal of Health Communication, 9(Supp 1), 13–19. https://doi-­org.ezproxy.bethel. edu/10.1080/10810730490271449. Root, M. P. P. (1996). The multiracial experience: Racial borders as the new frontier (M. P. P. Root (Ed.)). Sage https://doi-­org.ezproxy.bethel.edu/10.4135/9781483327433 Rubin, N. S., & Flores, R. L. (Eds.). (2020). The Cambridge handbook of psychology and human rights. Cambridge University Press. Smeyers, P. (Ed.). (2018). International handbook of philosophy of education (Springer international handbooks of education). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-­3-­319-­72761-­5 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2014). SAMHSA’s Concept of Trauma and Guidance for a Trauma-Informed Approach. HHS Publication No. (SMA) 14-4884. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. https://store.samhsa.gov/ product/SAMHSA-­s-­Concept-­of-­Trauma-­and-­Guidance-­for-­a-­Trauma-­Informed-­Approach/ SMA14-­4884

Chapter 2

Embrace Preparing: Theoretical and Practical Foundations for Motivating Students to Address Social Justice for Persons from Diverse Social Locations Andy J. Johnson

1 Foundations of the Moving Toward Social Justice (MTSJ) Model The Moving Toward Social Justice (MTSJ) model described in this chapter developed slowly over time in response to the various forms of resistance to diversity and social justice education in my context. The dynamics of resistance to diversity and social justice education discussed in Chap. 1 are quite complicated. Students come to classes with mixed feelings and a sense of ambivalence about material related to diversity and social justice education. Many have values congruent with the goals of understanding persons living at the intersection of diverse social locations and taking action to promote a more just and equitable society; simultaneously, they sometimes have political or religious commitments, which create hesitancy toward healthy engagement. These values often revolve around issues of taking personal responsibility and beliefs that the world is just (Furnham, 2003), where things will work out fine for persons if they only work hard enough. The latter beliefs reflect lack of familiarity with the dynamics of oppression and marginalization and often are an important barrier for students to overcome. On one hand, students typically look to participate actively in learning to respect and value diverse others and to work to make the world a better place for everyone, including those who are usually excluded when terms such as “all” or “everyone” are used. On the other hand, students may feel pressure not to change if they perceive the classroom environment is trying directly to confront important group affiliations based on political or

A. J. Johnson (*) Department of Psychological Sciences, Bethel University, Saint Paul, MN, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 A. J. Johnson, A. Vinding (eds.), Subverting Resistance to Social Justice and Diversity Education, SpringerBriefs in Social Work, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31713-2_2

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religious perspectives in a way they perceive causes them to lose their integrity. In these situations, some students may feel conflict between the reasons they find to discredit, devalue, “check out,” or disconnect from the educational objectives; at the same time, they may be finding reasons to become more actively involved. These dynamics apply most frequently to students who have privilege with regard to their race, gender, ability status, sexual orientation, or gender identity. Students from groups who experience marginalization and oppression due to their social location with regard to race, gender, ability status, sexual orientation, or gender identity are more likely to feel ambivalence related to tensions between wanting to explore significant issues and past experiences of frustration, anger, backlash, rejection, scapegoating, or even being placed in positions where they feel pressure to educate the class due to the lack of understanding or bias from the instructor (Bryant-Davis & Arrington, 2022). The starting point in the MTSJ model is to assess dynamics or patterns of resistance in order to develop teaching methods which tap into the healthy values of students while alleviating concerns, fears, and other issues which interfere with their highest values. Laying the foundation for helping students to identify what they have to gain by studying diversity and social justice is an important objective when assessing the differing patterns of characteristics of students in a course. A useful model in this process is Rogers’ five attributes that facilitate the acceptance of innovation (Rogers, 1971, 2003, 2004): relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability. With relative advantage, the instructor needs to demonstrate to students what they have to gain and provide a safe environment to take risks. Compatibility involves bringing student awareness to the discovery of how the advantages of learning about diversity or social justice can match the ideas they have about the world and that are consistent with their cultural values. Showing or setting the stage for student discovery is more effective than telling (see also Vinding, Chap. 5). Complexity means that solutions—in our case the process of learning about diversity and social justice—can be understood and is something learners will be able to do. Trialability and observability mean that students need to be able to experience solutions and to see how others who are learning or have learned about diversity or social justice have benefited. Facilitating student acceptance of course objectives will most likely differ based on the nature of the course and the unique characteristics of the students in a course. In my cross-cultural psychology and psychology of motivation courses, I typically approach this by mentioning the pervasiveness of diversity issues and challenges in an ever-shrinking world and the idea that growth and development are continually needed—there is no final arrival or having “made it.” The latter can be helpful for students who believe they are so advanced in their understanding, they do not need to study diversity. Throughout the courses, but especially in the opening sessions, providing examples of collaboration with diverse professionals or groups is essential. Examples in readings (such as those found in Glover and Friedman’s (2015) work on developing intercultural competence and in multiple professional articles or newspaper accounts linked in the course webpage) are also important for students who may have fewer intercultural experiences or who come from backgrounds

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without regular, respectful, and healthy discussion of diversity or social justice. Reframing learning about diversity and social justice as a way of developing wisdom can turn resistance into positive motivation. To do this, I introduce Sternberg’s (2001) balance model of wisdom. The following articulation of the model comes directly from my Cross-Cultural Psychology course syllabus: Wisdom involves the balancing of intrapersonal, interpersonal, and extrapersonal interests in deciding what to do with the environmental context to produce a common good. One of the first steps in developing wisdom is to develop and refine the capacity to understand the interests and concerns of diverse others. This is a capacity (that is, a systematically organized set of “skills”) that will serve you well over the course of your professional and personal careers.

Of course, there are many limitations to Sternberg’s model as well; most of which revolve around social justice concerns of who gets to decide the relative priority of short- versus long-term goals, values, what actions to take regarding the environmental context, and what constitutes the common good. Timing is key, however, and deep or prolonged discussions on these matters are best saved for later in the semester. At most, I mention these issues briefly (one or two sentences) and then state, “We will discuss these later in the course with a specific case.” The question is not whether to discuss these limitations but when and how to do so. Facilitating movement is more important than striving to arrive immediately at a final destination or having a fully fleshed out discussion all at once. At the beginning of a course, it is essential to demonstrate that studying diversity gives students a significant relative advantage in terms of skill development for a successful future and serves an important purpose that is consistent with their values. Failure of the instructor to do so can be the Achilles’ heel of diversity education attempts. Modeling humility and a willingness to learn from past experiences are also beneficial aspects of facilitating student trust, which can continue to grow in coming sessions as an instructor relates and works with diverse community partners on a social justice project. In their work on political issues, Maxmin and Woodward (2022) also discuss how principles of humility and a willingness to learn from others are especially important for persons from rural areas and religious communities. Most students see themselves as wanting to develop wisdom. To do this, it is to their advantage to be able to take diverse perspectives into account (Sternberg, 2001). Developing a greater sense of empathy is essential if students are going to grow in their capacity to relate and work effectively with diverse others to alleviate inequities (Davis & Clark, 2022). Seeing relative advantage, integrating their values into the rationale for studying diversity and social justice, and taking steps to develop greater empathy each subvert internal sources of student resistance. Ironically, arguing self-interest as a basis for studying diversity and working on a social justice project has been more effective in my experience with many students who follow a religion based on love of neighbor than are arguments based on principles of nonmaleficence (do no harm) and beneficence (provide benefits for others). How does this happen? Many instructors emphasize how learning about diversity and promoting social justice is the right thing to do. Haidt (2007) has documented that progressive persons often restrict moral arguments primarily to

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harm and fairness considerations in this manner. Outside of Western progressive traditions in the majority of persons in the world, however: There are also widespread intuitions about ingroup-outgroup dynamics and the importance of loyalty; there are intuitions about authority and the importance of respect and obedience; and there are intuitions about bodily and spiritual purity and the importance of living in a sanctified rather than a carnal way. And it’s not just members of traditional societies who draw on all five foundations; even within Western societies, we consistently find an ideological effect in which religious and cultural conservatives value and rely upon all five foundations, whereas liberals value and rely upon the harm and fairness foundations primarily. (Haidt, 2007, p. 1001, italics added for emphasis)

Some students from nonprogressive religious and political backgrounds have been warned by others in their community to beware of ideas and actions which sound good on the surface but will lead them astray. They may fear their student being encouraged to violate highly valued moral principles, such as loyalty to the group, tradition, obedience to authority, and what they perceive to be purity or truth. Students may be suspicious of an outsider, especially a university instructor, who has not earned their trust. Arguing on the basis of “the right thing to do” may raise red flags for students who perceive they are being pressured to be “politically correct.” In contrast, demonstrating how learning about diversity and working on social justice empowers students to develop valuable personal skills or capacities, which will be useful in their future success, can act both to develop trust and enhance their acceptance of the goals and objectives of the course. Developing these skills is compatible with perspectives or value systems focusing on individual acts of piety or career development. An instructor who engages in forms of discourse or confrontation, which highlight ingroup versus outgroup conflicts early in the course (before establishing trust), risks unnecessarily alienating students who might be receptive otherwise. Of course, there will always be students who reject course goals and objectives and others who embrace them regardless of what the instructor does. This intervention, though, may reduce the antipathy of one group while providing support for the enthusiasm of the other. Students in the middle—ranging from those who are slightly in favor to those who are ambivalent or undecided to those who are slightly against—are most likely to benefit. And their movement in a healthy direction of valuing and respecting diverse others with a willingness to work in partnership with marginalized persons to advance social justice is very important not only for their own development but also for the classroom climate. The framing of studying diversity and social justice as developing wisdom has another advantage as well. The issue of helping students develop social support outside of the classroom for learning about social justice and diversity was mentioned in Chap. 1. Some students are immersed in social settings where people are afraid they will be expected to distort reality or deviate from the truth in order to be “socially or politically correct.” Equipping students to challenge social pressure they might encounter from such persons, through pointing out how they are learning to be more effective leaders by being able to understand and balance diverse interests in deciding how to promote good for everyone, can help students engender social support in social networks which might otherwise produce barriers to

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learning. In addition, it can be important also to state explicitly at the outset of a course that the instructor is not interested in changing anyone’s religion or political affiliation. This often reduces the fears of many resistant students, especially religious students from backgrounds with strong emphasis on proselytizing (who tend to see interpersonal encounters in terms of converting the beliefs or perspectives of others). Informing students they need to develop intercultural skills and understanding in order to succeed can sidestep these issues. Some conservative Christian students may also feel an obligation or pressure to let others know that they do not agree with something. Reminding students that they are not being asked to agree with every idea expressed in the class—but are being challenged to understand the experiences and perspectives of others—can help dissipate these fears. In summary, the essential starting place is to show students what they have to gain by studying diversity and social justice, beyond the notion that it is the right thing to do. The use of examples from personal stories and working in ways consistent with pre-existing healthy student values will build trust and enhance an instructor’s chances of facilitating student movement and growth. Once an initial level of trust is established and students can see learning about diversity and social justice is in their personal best interests, the next phase of the MTSJ model introduces the class to a project-based learning assignment.

2 Project-Based Learning in MTSJ: Collaboration, Partnership, and Consultation Project-based learning assignments are becoming increasingly popular. Using project-­based learning in MTSJ involves multiple strategies to enhance student motivation and interest in learning about diversity. These strategies are highlighted in the following discussion of course selection, community partner engagement, problem conceptualization and creative problem solving, and presentation to the community partner.

2.1 Course Selection Many university instructors are familiar with the practical skills and capacities students develop in their classes. In MTSJ, students collaborate with a community partner on a social justice issue selected by the community partner. Students’ role will be as consultants to the community partner on matters related to theories, principles, empirical findings, and other information relevant to the class. In selecting a course for participation, a primary consideration is: What will students learn that could provide value to the community organization? Furthermore, how can the

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instructor tap into pre-existing student capabilities and skills to enhance the creativity and richness of student solutions? Two courses in which I routinely use MTSJ project-based learning assignments provide applicable examples. Cross-cultural psychology is a general education class using a standard psychology of diversity text and Glover and Friedman’s (2015) work describing the importance of understanding cultural dilemmas and maintaining cultural humility. The course emphasizes the importance of recognizing and respecting cultural differences. Many community organizations working on social justice issues will encounter cultural dilemmas; students who learn to address cultural dilemmas are developing marketable skills, which may interest a community partner. For example, one semester, a community organization run mostly by African American professionals was having difficulty engaging Somali youth in after-school programming. Cultural dilemmas were obviously involved, but it was not clear how. The community organization was open to the possibility of the class searching the psychological research literature and meeting with Somali elders to discover and develop possible options for engaging Somali youth. Students in the cross-cultural psychology class have access to library resources that might not be readily available to a community partner organization. Students also have more time to search and sort through the research literature since that is a major class assignment and is integrated into course discussion. Resources that might be difficult for students to discover on their own can also be provided by the instructor on the class website. In addition, students often have talents using the latest technology and social media, and outside the classroom, they often have access to conversations with friends or family members in private where attitudes regarding diversity or social justice might be more freely shared. Since biases tend to evolve over time, students might be exposed to local and recent iterations of misperceptions the instructor or the community partner might not have heard yet. These misunderstandings often have an interesting history of discovery and can be framed by the instructor to provide a sense of curiosity in contrast to confrontation, defensiveness, or guilt. Students can search literature on diversity and develop a set of options for how a community partner might address a cultural or social justice dilemma; however, cross-cultural psychology is often the first diversity course students have taken, and they are not equipped to provide peer counseling or volunteer to make referrals within an organization—those activities are best reserved for students from more advanced classes. On the other hand, having students work on projects that do not directly involve developing skills, understandings, or capacities related to the course (such as picking up litter and then writing a reflection paper on it) might be appropriate for a service learning project within another setting, but are not appropriate for MTSJ project-based learning assignments. Psychology of motivation provides students with opportunities to learn about what energizes, directs, and sustains human behavior. MTSJ project-based learning is fitting in this course since most community social justice organizations easily identify situations where they would like to motivate others, but the motivational challenges often involve complexity of intersecting social locations that students

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have the opportunity to discover as they work on their projects. Learning about diversity can be readily integrated into the course by critically aware instructors. And many organizations are also interested in working with research classes where students develop the ability to collect and analyze qualitative or quantitative data, which provides yet another set of opportunities to integrate diversity and social justice education within courses that might not typically involve these dimensions.

2.2 Community Partner Engagement Commonly, an instructor or researcher decides the nature of a project or class activity ahead of time and tries to sell the idea to a community organization. Coming to a community social justice organization to impose solutions from the outside risks adding more problems than solutions (see Brekke, Chap. 3). Even when an instructor has noble intentions and is familiar with diversity and the research on similar organizations and settings, a specific community organization will face unique challenges. Community organizations often have limited resources and staff and will have needs they have identified as higher priority. A better practice is first to ask community social justice organizations what they need. When the community partner identifies projects or problems, instructors can be prepared to explain their course, what students will be learning, and what kinds of projects they might be able to complete. When community partners realize through your actions and dialog that you are listening first and prioritizing their needs and concerns as highly as you are the educational needs of the students, it facilitates collaborative relationships. Partners can see how classes can contribute by bringing additional resources, ideas, and options to the organization, which frees their time and resources. This approach also avoids situations where community partners have to make painful decisions about whether to cooperate now on a project that does not meet their needs well in hope a more fruitful project might be possible in the future. Needs and projects identified by community organizations that my students were able to engage have included: • Communicating the rationale for reparations for descendants of enslaved persons in the USA to diverse groups (see Rossing, Crews & Vinding, Chap. 4). • Increasing immigrant family participation in recycling programs. • Educating persons about the unique needs of homeless single-parent survivors of violence to facilitate volunteer and donor involvement with a shelter. For instructors facing complications due to the need to have human subjects committee approval of a research project with potential for publication, it can be helpful to bring the community partner into the research process in the earliest phases of developing the research question. The process of introducing the project-based learning assignment and the community partner to the class may vary depending upon the course and community

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partner timelines. In general, it is best to keep the following objectives in mind regarding how they relate to minimizing student resistance and facilitating engagement. First, students feel an enhanced level of agency if they have choices of community organizations. This heightens motivation. Students also may not be interested in working with one of the organizations for any of a number of different reasons (e.g., including personal experiences where a student has experienced family violence and may be overwhelmed by working with a shelter) or for political values, which may be so highly prized by the student they are not able to find a way to collaborate with the community organization. Second, aligning student and community partner goals minimizes resistance based on ingroup/outgroup dynamics: everyone is on the same team. Students are in a role where they will provide consultation to a community organization addressing social justice problems faced by marginalized persons or communities; the success of the student depends upon the success of the community partner. Third, when students are in the role of consultants, their focus of attention subtly shifts from the person to the problems a community member faces. It becomes the student’s job to understand discriminatory and oppressive situations clients of the organization face. This minimizes the risk of students blaming persons as they slowly begin to use a trauma-informed perspective. It also encourages perspective-­ taking and empathy, which are related to the development of wisdom that students were introduced to at the beginning of the course. Finally, students are taken out of the role of a disinterested judge or jury regarding the “truth.” As discussed in Chap. 1, what often passes for “critical thinking” in academic settings does not take the context of diverse persons into account, nor does it appreciate dynamics of backlash and the experiences, including trauma, of marginalized persons. Instead, in MTSJ, students move toward using emerging critical awareness (Freire, 2000) to analyze problematic situations and systems. In the role of consultant, they are challenged to use the knowledge and skills from the course to make a theoretically and empirically informed plan to address a social justice issue from the perspective of a community partner who is a member of a marginalized group.

2.3 Problem Conceptualization and Creative Problem-Solving Students work together in small groups with regular meetings to brainstorm options for a project to address the problem area the community partner identifies. Laney College (2022) has a number of useful resources that can be adapted to MTSJ project-­based learning, such as worksheets for students to document what they need to learn about the problem and project management forms to report weekly objectives, identify areas each student has volunteered to carry out, record weekly contributions to the project, and identify goals for the next steps to be taken.

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Faculty can take the following actions to enrich the learning environment for students during the problem conceptualization and creative problem-solving phase. First, it is important to cultivate a high-risk, low-threat environment. Students must feel safe participating and free to use their creativity in deciding on which part of the problem they wish to focus, connecting course-relevant information to their understanding of the problem, and developing project options which allow them to integrate other interests, strengths, or course information. For example, art major students in one class developed an art exhibit depicting dilemmas faced by immigrants being trafficked for labor, while business majors in another class used what they were learning in financial management to develop a simulation of the economic dilemmas faced by descendants of persons enslaved in the USA who earn the median income for African Americans in St. Paul. Framing projects as a challenge and opportunity tends to move students toward more creative solutions, while emphasizing the need to prevent loss is more likely to lower creativity (Sacramento et al., 2013). Second, students sometimes do not understand how submitting at least two different proposal options to be approved by both the instructor and the community partner can benefit them. It is common for a group to pressure themselves into choosing one option quickly to alleviate anxiety. Often initial ideas do not consider implications of psychological theories or findings from the course. This can result in less effective projects, the project not meeting class requirements, and students receiving lower grades. Other students fail to recognize cultural dilemmas involved in the problem and try to propose a project that “would work for anyone.” That one-­ size-­fits-all solution does not typically meet course requirements, and community organizations have usually tried similar solutions and found them ineffective. Explain to students that generating multiple project options ensures their project will be more effective, meet course requirements (more likely to receive a higher grade), and provide backup options in case their first idea is not feasible. Pointing out relevant connections between the course and a student project can work to shape project development and implementation throughout the semester. Third, emotion management strategies need to be integrated into the course. Some students may become overwhelmed with the enormity of social inequities and use that as an excuse not to engage. Redirecting their attention to what they can do, rather than feeling pressure to solve the entire problem all at once, can be helpful. Bishop (2002) notes it is important to channel negative emotions into motivation to help end oppression and to focus on the needs of marginalized persons rather than one’s own self-defense. Providing resources and structure can empower students to take responsibility for learning about social inequities and obtaining emotional support on their own, rather than burdening the community partner. Students may become frustrated with the complexity or the time it takes to explore multiple project options. Remind them of the importance of learning to recognize cultural dilemmas and of the advantages of discovering and refining problem definition with the community partner. Fourth, encountering and recognizing the interacting influences of racism, sexism, heterosexism, classism, religious intolerance, and ableism while working on

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projects can open students to concrete realities affecting community partners and their clients that might otherwise be obscured in abstract discussions. For example, students working on projects with a shelter for families experiencing homelessness will have opportunities to discover unique obstacles faced by women of color or parents with disabilities. Taking opportunities to develop students’ understanding by pointing out specific, detailed examples of intersectionality can be especially beneficial as privileged students are introduced to the multifaceted nature of social inequities and students from marginalized groups are challenged to explore issues in greater depth (Bryant-Davis & Arrington, 2022; Crenshaw, 1989, 1991). Dealing with only one social location at a time (e.g., race or gender) can be used as a first step but in the long run will oversimplify the educational experience if opportunities are not intentionally made available to examine effects of multiple social locations. Ignoring intersectionality may also privilege some oppressed groups over others by implying the experiences of other oppressed groups are less important. Fifth, instructors must listen carefully to community partners to provide a course framework that balances structure with fostering student creativity in project initiatives and to maintain flexibility in managing the assignments as new information arises. Each student will learn at their own pace: the issue is how to provide a learning context with the flexibility and range to challenge advanced students while not overwhelming students for whom this is all very new and threatening. Instructors cannot master all of the knowledge involved in any given MTSJ learning project beforehand; there are some things instructors will be learning from the relevant research and theoretical literature along with the students. However, instructors can maintain student projects focusing on the goals related to the needs of the community partner organization, the educational needs of the students, and relevant timelines. Finally, remind students, as appropriate throughout the process, the importance of developing an evaluation strategy for their projects to enable community partners to assess the effectiveness of the project and provide information for possible future adjustments to the intervention.

2.4 Presentation to the Community Partner Student presentations of their projects to community partners may occur through a number of different means and formats, depending upon the target audience and nature of the project. Instructors need to provide flexibility with regard to presentation format, as the most effective means of communication can vary from a standard PowerPoint oral presentation to more creative options. Some creative presentations by students in my classes have included a model of a museum exhibit to educate others about labor trafficking, a financial-planning simulation emulating situations faced by persons in poverty, games intended to increase health protective behavior in diverse children, educational brochures on grief during the COVID pandemic, and even a rap performance to encourage nutritious food choices in a homeless

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shelter. Required features of all presentations include description of formulation of the project and how it meets community partner needs, the theoretical and research basis for the recommended option or set of options, the recommended intervention, and an evaluation strategy to assess the project effectiveness. It is important for community partners to have plenty of time to ask questions and dialog with student teams. My experience has been that community partners are most often pleasantly surprised at the quality and creativity of the student projects. Even projects outlining ideas similar to ones they have considered in the past can be helpful in affirming community partner plans or by providing unique features or compelling theoretical or research-based rationale to improve ideas. On rare occasions, a student project contains substantial misunderstandings or misperceptions. These also can be useful to a community partner by giving insight into specific areas of their work that well-intentioned persons might have difficulty comprehending. Students have most often been surprised at how well their ideas have been received by the community partners. A debriefing session after the semester ends can be useful for community partners, the instructor, and any relevant university officials to process what worked well, what improvements need to be made, and possibilities for future projects in the course or with another university course.

3 Benefits of the MTSJ Model The MTSJ model approach focuses on the goal of moving students in the direction of embracing diversity and social justice action. The emphasis is on reframing and focusing student thoughts, feelings, and actions in ways that minimize resistance and facilitate healthy growth. Explaining the relative advantage students gain both personally and professionally if they develop skills in intercultural understanding and respect is essential. The theoretical framework we are using assumes that nobody ever fully arrives at a place where they have developed multicultural competence. Learning takes place over a lifetime. Focusing on behavior first is more likely to be successful in facilitating attitude change than an approach which focuses on changing attitudes first and then hoping that behavior change will follow. This is accomplished by placing students in the role of consultant in partnering with diverse community leaders from social justice groups on projects identified by the community partner that also are compatible with course learning objectives and student abilities. Numerous advantages to using MTSJ project-based learning include the following. First, instructors have the opportunity for professional enrichment that goes beyond typical classroom experiences. Expanding their knowledge of the interconnectedness of social justice problems, the complex interactions of multiple factors in real-world settings, and experiences of persons living in intersections of multiple marginalized groups or identities is refreshing. Refining one’s ability to listen for the unexpected, finding unanticipated strengths of or challenges faced by a group, and further developing one’s own capacity as a consultant on a real-world problem

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through focusing on how student projects might contribute to discovery of possible solutions to complex problems enhances creativity and can increase one’s ability to envision alternatives. Greater insight into limitations of students, teaching methods, or course materials can be developed as student groups grapple with finding creative solutions based on the knowledge base related to the course. The beauty of surprise to see creative and useful projects from students that make effective use of course information in novel, unanticipated ways is exceptionally rewarding as an instructor. Evaluation data from the course or from the debriefing with the community partner afterward can be interesting and useful in institutional assessment program for the department or the university. Possible ideas for research publications or presentations for yourself and/or your students are sometimes generated. Finally, stories and narratives to use when explaining to prospective students, their parents, and administrators the practical usefulness of what they will be learning are beneficial. Second, students develop skills and capacities that will help them be successful in their careers and in their personal life. The practice of focusing on a social justice problem motivates student desire to understand diversity and to listen carefully to diverse community partners because their success is intertwined together. Channeling any unpleasant student emotions from discovering social inequities into a process of listening to diverse others, completing background research, creating and weighing several options, checking in with a social justice leader who will directly experience the impact of project effects for their input, or working in partnership with diverse others rather than working on them is an important movement away from tendencies to become defensive or take passive stances, which are used to prevent productive action. Opportunities to observe, value, and respect cultural differences while developing initial insights into diverse experiences within groups as a function of group history and social location facilitate the ability to notice and recognize cultural dilemmas. Additionally, students can gain a developmental perspective of change and the context of how their proposed intervention fits into the larger picture and timeframe of a movement as opposed to a “one and done” intervention that takes care of everything. Finally, students learn the importance of collecting data to assess the relative effectiveness of various aspects of the intervention options as a way of following up even if the timeframe of the semester does not allow for the evaluation data to be actually collected. Finally, community partners can benefit from student projects in any of a number of different ways listed below: 1. Often one or more projects propose novel or creative ideas, which can be implemented immediately. 2. A project might propose ideas that have already been tried but provide background information on a different way of attempting to do the same general idea. 3. A project may outline a promising avenue as a pilot, which can then be referred to a professional person or organization to implement in a more refined manner. 4. Projects might contain useful information about alternative resources that could be helpful to the community partner, regardless of how useful the project itself is.

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5. A project might not contain good ideas to implement, but they can give insight into how persons outside of the community or community partner organization might misunderstand or misconstrue the nature of a community, the problems it faces, and things of this nature. 6. Projects can identify assessment strategies for determining the effectiveness of an intervention, which may be useful or modified in some way by the community partner. 7. Community partners can indirectly access research and theoretical literature related to a problem or a solution through reading the literature review summaries of students. Long-term benefits a community partner might experience include one or more students developing continued interest in working with the organization or in having a group they are affiliated with work with the organization. The university might also have additional faculty or others interested in follow-up projects or in making a sustained commitment to this particular community partner. In summary, the MTSJ model taps into healthy student values to promote understanding of diversity and social justice through taking action to partner with community organizations in creative ways that simultaneously meet the needs of students, community partners, and course objectives.

References Bishop, A. (2002). Becoming an ally: Breaking the cycle of oppression in people. Zed Books. Bryant-Davis, T., & Arrington, E. (2022). The antiracism handbook: Practical tools to shift your mindset & uproot racism in your life & community (The social justice handbook series). New Harbinger Publications. Crenshaw, K. (1989). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist policies. University of Chicago Legal Forum, 1(8), 139–167. Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241–1299. https://doi.org/10.2307/1229039 Davis, A. N., & Clark, E. S. (2022). Considering the role of empathy in the links between discrimination and prosocial behaviors. Journal of Adult Development. https://doi-­org.ezproxy.bethel. edu/10.1007/s10804-­022-­09406-­7 Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed (30th anniversary ed.). Continuum. Furnham, A. (2003). Belief in a just world: Research progress over the past decade. Personality and Individual Differences, 34(5), 795–817. https://doi-­org.ezproxy.bethel.edu/10.1016/ S0191-­8869(02)00072-­7. Glover, J., & Friedman, H. L. (2015). Transcultural competence: Navigating cultural differences in the global community. American Psychological Association. Haidt, J. (2007). The new synthesis in moral psychology. Science, 316(5827), 998–1002. https:// doi.org/10.1126/science.1137651 Laney College. (2022). Problem Based Learning (PBL). https://laney.edu/ect/ect-­nsf-­initiative/ ect-­nsf-­labs/pbl/ Maxmin, C., & Woodward, C. (2022). Dirt road revival: How to rebuild rural politics and why our future depends on it. Beacon Press.

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Rogers, E. M. (1971). Communication of innovations; a cross-cultural approach. In Communication of innovations: A cross-cultural approach. Free Press. Rogers, E. M. (2003). Diffusion of innovations (5th ed.). Free Press. Rogers, E.  M. (2004). A prospective and retrospective look at the diffusion model. Journal of Health Communication, 9(Suppl 1), 13–19. https://doi-­org.ezproxy.bethel. edu/10.1080/10810730490271449. Sacramento, C. A., Fay, D., & West, M. A. (2013). Workplace duties or opportunities? Challenge stressors, regulatory focus, and creativity. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 121(2), 141–157. https://doi-­org.ezproxy.bethel.edu/10.1016/j.obhdp.2013.01.008. Sternberg, R. J. (2001). Why schools should teach for wisdom: The balance theory of wisdom in educational settings. Educational Psychologist, 36(4), 227–245.

Chapter 3

Embrace Collaboration: Developing Community Partnerships Through the Relational Partnership Development Model (RPDM) Tanden L. Brekke

This Relational Partnership Development Model (RPDM) for university-­community partnerships emerged over 15 years and developed through readings, conversations with colleagues, practical experience, reflection, and mostly listening to community leaders. The work of building community partners is done through diligently listening, learning from, and following the lead of those working in the community. The RPDM presented in this chapter is founded on grassroots leadership combined with the theoretical work of Freire (2000), Fricker (2007), and Baker (Parker, 2020). This model was developed with community partnerships over a sustained period of time in one specific location. This length of time and depth of connection in a particular place nurtured the possibility of authentic partnerships that do the difficult work of social justice. Longevity and focus on a particular location become the ingredients to develop the model laid out in this chapter. This is not a quick-fix approach. Developing these collaborations takes real work, time, and courageous internal and external reflection. Plenty of universities have settled for developing collaborations that are mainly about surface-level results that strive to make the university look good and help students build their resumes. The process in this chapter strives instead to develop partnerships that are much more transformative for the university and the community. Social justice work in communities has never been a quick-fix project; it takes truly committed organizations and individuals working together day in and day out to make the needed progress. The Relational Partnership Development Model lays out a way for universities to become committed to this important work. The diagram below shows the relationships between each component of the model. RPDM is T. L. Brekke (*) Justice and Peace Studies, Dougherty Family College, University of St. Thomas, Minneapolis, MN, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 A. J. Johnson, A. Vinding (eds.), Subverting Resistance to Social Justice and Diversity Education, SpringerBriefs in Social Work, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31713-2_3

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Fig. 3.1  Visual diagram of the Relational Partnership Development Model (RPDM)

conceptualized as a cycle that keeps repeating itself. This is not a linear process that moves from one step to the next. These are practices that build on each other as relationships deepen over time (see Fig. 3.1).

1 Place-Based Partnerships Yamamura and Koth (2018) identify place-based partnerships as one of the critical ways of developing authentic partnerships that produce both university and community benefits. Place-based partnerships are defined by their focus on a specific geographic area. One example is when a university partners with organizations in a specific neighborhood year after year. With place-based partnerships, it is essential to be specific about the geographic boundaries of the partnership. These boundaries help define the specific neighborhoods and communities that are a part of the overall partnership and focus the efforts to be committed to that area. This place-based approach is essential for creating the kinds of collaborations detailed in this chapter because of its emphasis on relationships. Authentic partnerships that produce mutual benefits are grounded in relationships. These

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relationships are nurtured through a place-based approach. The following three main benefits arise from a place-based approach to developing partnerships.

1.1 Deeper Understanding Through Deeper Connection All places have unique histories, colloquialisms, values, and fundamental beliefs. Understanding these nuances is important when developing partnerships. As universities get to know a place, they can understand why people and organizations do what they do. As faculty members get to know a place, they can start to understand what is below the surface that is leading to what is happening above the surface. Here is an example from a participatory action research project that we participated in. The project looked at the impact of a new professional soccer stadium on a marginalized community. About 55  years earlier, an interstate development project caused long-lasting devastating impacts on the community. The professor working on this project was aware of this history and how that history still impacted the community. As the professor and students worked on the project, they understood the community did not see this just as a professional stadium project but instead as part of a long history of “development” that excluded the community’s concerns and only benefited people outside of the community. Through spending time in a place, we can understand the history of that location and why it is unique to the people who live there. A place-based approach challenges the idea that some places are in the middle of nowhere and instead teaches that every place is someplace to someone. By getting to know a place, universities can learn about how different forms of oppression have impacted that place in specific ways. It is one thing to think about the impacts of redlining on housing policies in general; in contrast, having a conversation with a particular person about the creation, impact, and continuation of those policies in that precise location brings a more personal understanding. Out of this understanding, one can collaborate better and work to address the oppression systems in that location. In one project, we worked with Urban Farm and Garden Alliance (UF&GA) on a core aspect of their mission: addressing environmental racism through farming projects in the Frogtown and Summit-University neighborhoods of Saint Paul. Through various projects, students studying environmental racism saw impacts and solutions to environmental racism through the work of UF&GA.  This place-based partnership moved the educational experience from abstract to concrete and exposed students to complex nuances of this issue. Through developing these kinds of connections to places, community members come to see that universities are genuinely interested in their lives and have a growing knowledge of their community. This better equips universities to partner with communities to bring about needed change. Because of the complexities of social justice work, these kinds of deeper connections and understandings of systems of oppression are required.

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1.2 Webs of Relationship Expand Trust and Reach A place-based approach naturally lends itself to developing organic partnerships through the web of relationships already existing in that location. Community partners who have come to trust universities will introduce that university to their network. These new connections would often never be possible without these introductions. Unfortunately, most universities are not trusted at the grassroot level in marginalized communities. Too often, universities have broken trust, abused their power, and directly contributed to oppressive systems that violently harm the communities with whom they desire to partner. Because of this history, there is a hermeneutic of suspicion. Through positive long-term partnerships, organizations will positively talk to other organizations about their experience with the university, which can help address and sometimes alleviate this hermeneutic of suspicion. In one partnership with a historically Black church, the university rented office space from the church. Through this partnership, the church’s pastor introduced the university to several congregation members leading community organizations or to other organizations with whom the church partnered. These organizations have a much more positive first impression of the university because of its partnership with the church. To be clear: no matter how long one works in a marginalized community, attachment to an institution perceived as powerful and privileged will bring a hermeneutic of suspicion directed toward one’s work. But a non-defensive listening approach allows for the community’s concerns to stay central and avoids centering the university’s reputation instead. Defensiveness only leads to a trail of mismanaged conversations that try to protect the university’s image. Community partners need to know they can share their suspicions without getting a defensive response. Developing positive partnerships and letting those organizations speak to the benefits of working with the university help address this suspicion. A web of relationships in a specific neighborhood opens possibilities that would have otherwise never been possible.

1.3 Commitment Cultivates Long-Term Engagement As the field of community-engaged learning has developed over the last 20 years, more scholars and practitioners see the benefits of long-term partnerships (Guajardo et al., 2015). Through commitment to one place over time, projects can have a compounding impact and focus on specific social issues for a sustained period. Often universities are only interested in addressing a particular social problem for a semester, during a sabbatical, or until another social problem becomes more trendy. This same problem manifests through the work of many foundations. Long-term place-based partnerships help address this inconsistency by keeping the focus on a specific geographic area. As long as that place deals with a social issue, the

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Table 3.1  Description: Examples of how various courses could engage a single community organization on several projects over several semesters to develop a deeper partnership Class Introduction to social work

A course with a project-based learning component

Public policy course Internship

Initial project Introduction to organization and neighborhood, e.g., students visit Urban Farm and Garden Alliance (UF&GA) gardening sites Students work on event planning and administrative tasks, e.g., students plan UF&GA annual greens cook-off

Deeper partnership Expanded knowledge of an organization, e.g., students examine how organizations interact with systems in neighborhood environments

Organization receives support on administrative/event planning tasks, and students develop contextual knowledge, e.g., UF&GA receives event planning support. Students learn about cultural values and the importance of food Students write policy briefs Advocacy work. Students learning about on issues the community systems and organization receives support organization identifies on policy-level needs Students work 10 h a week. A Students provide leadership to organization, job description is co-created and organization expands capacity between the professor and the community org.

university will need to address that issue. The community benefits from this sustained work, but the university also benefits through learning what leads to social change. Short-term projects do not lead to these kinds of results (Avila et al., 2018; Yamamura & Koth, 2018). Long-term commitment builds trust. Through this trust, some community partners will invite the university to participate in more challenging and complex projects because they know that the university will be committed to seeing the complex social change work through for the long term, not just until something more interesting comes along. Tables 3.1 and 3.2 outline how long-term partnerships can cultivate further engagement. Place-based partnerships nurture a depth of understanding, connect universities to various community organizations, and encourage long-term partnerships. These benefit university-community collaborations that work toward social justice. Place-­ based partnerships also allow universities to reflect on their social location and how their privilege has contributed to the issues they are working to address with various community partners. These place-based partnerships also benefit community organizations through deliverables that they have identified and by producing those deliverables over a long period of time.

2 Critical Self-Reflexivity Parker’s (2020) critical self-reflexivity is the use of “critical pedagogies—writing, performance, and art—to actively and publicly acknowledge and challenge how power and privilege are operating in ourselves and in organization-community

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Table 3.2  Description: Examples showing how a variety of courses can deepen a partnership with a community organization through tandem work on a single project Class Class on project development Research course

Finance course

Communication studies/marketing course

Project description Community organization-identified project, e.g., environmental organization aims to increase the tree canopy in a neighborhood Students collect data on a community organization’s project and give recommendations, e.g., students gather and analyze data about the effectiveness of the tree canopy program Students propose fundraising plans, e.g., students develop a fundraising campaign to support the tree canopy program Students implement a fundraising campaign, e.g., students film and produce fundraising videos

Deepening of partnership Community organization receives a project plan The initial project is improved through student research

The sustainability of the project is increased through fundraising plans Fundraising plans implemented

partnerships” (p. 34). Parker (2020) makes the vital point that critical self-­reflexivity moves beyond the starting point of being aware of one’s social location: it involves a deep integration of how that social location has benefited and participated in oppressive systems. I have found that my identity as a straight, White, Christian male means community partners watch for signs I am aware of those privileged identities and understand how those identities have oppressed their community and that I am working to address inequalities. Critical self-reflexivity is more than just intellectual understanding—it includes an embodied way of being with oppressed communities. When privileged individuals start to practice critical self-reflexivity, marginalized individuals see deep commitment, which opens opportunities for true collaboration. A few years ago, when I was meeting with an organization we had not partnered with, a community leader started talking about the challenges of working with predominantly White universities. The faculty member and myself, as the university partnership coordinator, are White but did not get defensive, and we agreed with the critique of the community partner. We explained what we had been doing to address many of the related problems in the partnerships we were developing. The following semester, the community organization agreed to develop a project together, and though the community leader has since changed organizations, we still partner together. Critical self-reflexivity played an essential role in developing that sustained partnership. Critical self-reflexivity requires working through the guilt that comes when one sees how they have benefited from and participated in oppressive systems. Actions primarily driven by guilt come across with an anxious energy that does not facilitate partnerships, and guilt as a primary motivator leads those who are privileged to try to be perfect and prove that they are “one of the good ones,” which often places a considerable amount of emotional weight on a partnership and puts community

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partners in a role of reassurance. Guilt keeps the focus on the privileged person/ organization and thus removes the focus from the community and the partnership. Addressing guilt in one’s own life (an ongoing issue for privileged individuals) allows individuals to show up more authentically in partnerships and leads to deeper connections and more meaningful work. Developing pedagogical exercises for students to deepen their self-reflexivity is important, but too many instructors stop there. University faculty, staff, and administration must also practice critical self-reflexivity to form healthy partnerships. Community partners seek and demand critical self-reflexivity to be a practice from the top down. Marginalized communities repeatedly express the desire for university leadership to spend time in the community, and one of the critical reasons is that community partners want to know how much those in leadership positions embody critical self-reflexivity. When community partners get a sense that critical self-­ reflexivity is being practiced, the possibility for authentic partnership expands exponentially. Critical self-reflexivity reveals to community partners that their time will not be wasted again on a university that wants superficial work and that the university has the capacity to engage deep social justice work.

3 Epistemic Justice Questions about knowledge, such as how knowledge is generated, who can create it, what the relationship between knowledge and power is, and whether community knowledge respected, are essential in developing university-community partners. Many university efforts are built on the premise that universities are the creators of knowledge and use that knowledge to “fix” the community’s problems. The power dynamics present in this framework lead to what Fricker (2007) recognized as two kinds “epistemic injustice”: Testimonial injustice occurs when prejudice causes a hearer to give a deflated level of credibility to a speaker’s word; hermeneutical injustice occurs as a prior stage when a gap in collective interpretive resources puts someone at an unfair disadvantage when it comes to making sense of their social experiences. (p. 1)

Both testimonial and hermeneutical injustice exist in many university-community partnerships. The collective resources universities have that are withheld from communities are too numerous to count. This imbalance of resources is compounded by negative social biases that discredit the testimonies of communities when they describe their social conditions. Conversely, universities receive positive social biases, even as they generate knowledge about social situations from which they are often far removed. This power imbalance creates dysfunctional relationships where universities can abuse communities. Universities take on a savior mentality that needs to fix the community. This “fixing” leads to a deepening of the oppressive systems (Cammarota, 2011). For example, many class projects never get implemented by community organizations. Often universities interpret this lack of

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implementation as a dysfunction of the community organization when, in reality, the project was never what the community organization needed. In these cases, universities have not listened to the knowledge of the community and have made assumptions, imposed their knowledge, and assumed a community’s dysfunction. There are many differences between universities and community organizations (amount of resources, social basis, structural barriers, etc.) that create a power imbalance in favor of a university. Because of this imbalance, universities can choose to ignore the community’s knowledge and become the ones that frame the issues and determine the solutions. In these situations, community partners become passive recipients that universities experiment on instead of partners that co-create. Even when the ignoring is unintentional or unconscious (which it often is), it can lead to destructive results. Epistemic justice requires university administrators and faculty to acknowledge this power imbalance and develop proximity to community partners that allows the university leadership to learn from the community partners. As administrators and faculty learn to practice epistemic justice, they become liaisons to other parts of the university by modeling what it means to learn from community partners. Language can play an essential role in addressing this power imbalance. One practice is referring to community partners as “community professors” or “community educators.” Using these titles emphasizes the knowledge community partners contribute. As an employee of a university, one must be aware of epistemic injustices and how they manifest in university-community partnerships. Communities have powerful and creative ways of generating, dispensing, and controlling knowledge. A big part of a university facilitator’s work is addressing biases in one’s socialization that discredit and doubt community knowledge. As one works through those biases, one learns to listen to and, most importantly, be led by the knowledge that emerges from the community. When one meets with community leaders, embrace a posture that conveys community leaders know more about the assets, opportunities, and challenges they face than university employees. Identify how to follow the leadership of the community, and make a positive contribution to the work that they are doing. Critical self-reflexivity plays a role here in helping universities identify how biases have created false knowledge about the community and what the community needs. The process of recognizing epistemic injustice becomes life-giving because as one stays curious about the knowledge coming from communities, one learns all kinds of new things. By following the leadership of community partners, universities get invited into significant work: community partners recognize university members can be trusted to “stay in their lane” and not try to take over the work. Embracing epistemic justice is the main contributor to participating in the deep work of social change. Community partners will keep the university at a distance by partnering on less significant projects until they know universities recognize epistemic injustice. Universities do have a part to play in using what they know, but that knowledge must be held with humility. Universities have resources that are very important in creating knowledge. It is not about discarding those resources, but using them in a way that supports and follows the leadership of the community. Partnership

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flourishes when community members know their university counterparts respect their knowledge and will use university resources to help them create new knowledge. Through this shared co-creation of knowledge, epistemic justice can be realized.

4 With Communities In describing Ella Baker’s leadership practices, Parker (2020) recognized them as “equitable partnership with, instead of on, communities” (p. 11). No idea has been more central in my experience of building university-community partnerships than the idea of with. Many universities practice work on communities (due to many of the dynamics outlined in this chapter). Through this framework, universities are the active subjects that “fix” communities that are viewed as passive objects. Universities have agency, while communities are seen by many universities as having no agency. These dynamics have led to many abusive and violent practices by universities, all in the name of “helping.” One way universities work on communities is through conducting research with limited input, and the results are not shared with communities. Yet these results are shared with political and business leaders, who use the results to develop public policies or business plans that significantly impact communities. Baker’s emphasis on partnerships “with” makes a wide-reaching difference. These kinds of partnerships are based on belief in everyone’s agency, mutual respect, and deep connection to each other. When community partners believe that universities are genuinely creating partnerships with instead of on, they will extend trust, leading to new possibilities.

4.1 Listen 75% and Speak 25% Creating these kinds of partnerships requires what Brother Damon Drake (personal communication, June 30, 2022) called the 75/25 rule. One must listen 75% of the time and speak 25%. Listening 75% demonstrates that one is interested, curious, and committed to understanding the community partner. Sharing 25% of the time demonstrates that one has a contribution to make. This contribution is grounded in a deep understanding because one has listened. Deep listening, followed by speaking, builds a foundation that develops a partnership with. When meeting with a new community partner, one might have some initial ideas about how the partnership might unfold. By not sharing those ideas until the community partner has fully expressed their thoughts, one’s original ideas will either be modified or discarded entirely based on the desires of the community partner.

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4.2 Monochronic and Polychronic Time Another aspect of creating partnerships with communities is our relationship with time. Hall (2000) named two main ways of viewing time, monochronic and polychronic: Monochronic: • • • •

Emphasize linear process. Prefer to do one thing at a time with a clear beginning and ending. Low-context, individual, and task-oriented. Prefer process thinking, straightforward tasks, goals, or objective or measurable outcomes.

Polychronic: • Emphasize holistic perspectives. • Prefer doing multiple things, responding to a diversity of inputs. • High-context, group, and relationship-oriented. Universities often view time through a monochronic lens, with strong emphasis on building partnerships with clear, measurable outcomes and that are task-oriented and have explicit agreement with beginning and ending dates. On the other hand, community partners often view time through a polychronic lens, with emphasis on the whole partnership, not just one particular project. For community partners, collaborations are constantly evolving as they respond to diverse inputs, and because they are focused on relationships, many aspects are not clearly defined. Because of differences in approaches to time, misunderstandings and conflicts can quickly emerge. Universities need to bend to meet the community’s approach. It is critical for faculty to demonstrate a posture of flexibility and allow projects to evolve. This can create challenges because of the nature of grading, course syllabi, and the timelines of a semester. To embrace a more flexible approach, faculty need to explain these dynamics to the students, be willing to create a Plan B (and sometimes a Plan C), and realize that some details cannot be figured out until projects are worked on throughout the semester. In a recent semester, I helped facilitate a collaboration where a community partner and a faculty member developed a project to do outreach to the residents in the housing complex run by the community partner. As the semester unfolded, the community partner expressed the need for the students to help plan and put on an event for the residents. The faculty member worked with the students to rewrite a couple of the assignments to give them credit for doing the event planning. The faculty member connected the reason for the redesign and the new project to the learning outcomes from the class. This took more work for the faculty member, and it required some flexibility with the students, but as a result, both the partnership and the student learning outcomes became more significant. Learning to practice polychronic time in a monochronic environment is much more

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of an art than a science, but as one practices this art, it becomes much more comfortable. Helping each party understand these different approaches to time is important for the university employee that manages university-community partnerships. Developing a greater capacity for universities to practice a polychronic view will greatly help develop deep and layered partnerships that address significant work. The monochronic approach can limit the capacity of partnerships to address complex social issues because of its emphasis on having everything clearly defined and on controlling the process. Addressing complex social problems inherently requires the ability to address emergent challenges. This is why many marginalized communities have embraced a polychronic approach to time. One example of this is during the COVID pandemic, when Camphor United Methodist Church (a historically Black church) became a vaccination site. This was not a one-time effort; the church had partnered with a community health clinic for over 2 years to provide vaccinations. This project was not part of the church’s 5-year strategic plan, but when the need arose, the church responded. For marginalized communities, devastating events like COVID happen on a regular basis, and a polychronic view of time allows them to respond to these dynamic conditions.

5 Birth New Projects Often university-community partnerships are limited by the fear of failure. These partnerships become risk-averse for a variety of reasons: universities wanting to “look good,” making sure students meet measurable learning outcomes, and not knowing what to do when things don’t work out. However, the kinds of partnerships outlined in this chapter are defined by envisioning new possibilities and taking risks to realize those possibilities. The Relational Development Process Model includes the relational capacities to address failures when they occur—which means the fear of failure is not such a limitation. Creativity, risk-taking, and dreaming become more possible when failure is not at the forefront or when the fear of failure is diminished by a more inventive polychronic process. A place-based process practicing critical self-reflexivity and epistemic justice and being with community over a long period of time nurtures the context to birth projects with the potential to work toward social justice. Social justice work is complex, multilayered, and requires sophisticated approaches. The practices in this chapter develop partnerships with the depth, trust, and respect to do that required work. The Relational Partnership Development Model is not a quick fix or a process that leads to instant results. This model must be committed to with consistency over the years. This will be a great challenge for many in the current context of higher education with the tremendous pressure to produce measurable results that address pressing issues that universities face. RPDM can help universities achieve many of their desired outcomes, but those benefits can be realized only through a long-term investment.

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Professionals aiming to do this work must consider the commitment to do it long term. It might not be possible for professionals to stay in a particular role long enough to realize the long-term benefits (because of life circumstances, universities’ changes in priorities, etc.); however, long-term commitments realize the full results of this process.

6 “Cupcaking” At the end of a recent partnership, a community leader described the state of the project as “cupcaking.” Cupcaking is a time of celebrating transitions, acknowledging what is taking place, and looking forward to what is coming. Part of the cupcaking process for that project was to gather at the community organization where my office has been for the last 7 years. For this farewell, community leaders, students, faculty, and university administration all came to mark this transition. During the gathering, I started to feel the impact of what had taken place. RPDM describes the process, but the results are so profound that this chapter does not capture the depth of impact of the results. Community leaders from African-American, Indigenous, and Asian-American communities shared how their leadership was followed and how co-creation was a hallmark of what took place. Students talked about being formed in significant ways. The faculty member spoke about the honor of being a part of significant work that led to social change. Afterward, several people commented to me how the gathering was one of the most authentic, heartfelt gatherings like this that they had ever witnessed. Over the following days, I carefully read through each of the handwritten cards. These notes made it clear that this process was appreciated, contributed to the work already happening in the community, and was unique. The Relational Partnership Development Model is not built on hidden knowledge or secret skills. The model is built on aspects contributed by scholars mentioned in this chapter and numerous community partners. RPDM’s unique approach involves how these ideas are embodied over a long period of time in a specific location. Committing to partnering with communities and respecting the value they bring to the partnership becomes a worthwhile project because of the meaningful work one is invited to join and the significant changes that come as a result.

References Avila, M., Peters, S., & Gecan, M. (2018). Transformative civic engagement through community organizing. Stylus Publishing, LLc. Cammarota, J. (2011). Blindsided by the avatar: White saviors and allies out of Hollywood and in education. The Review of Education/Pedagogy/Cultural Studies, 33(3), 242–259. https://doi. org/10.1080/10714413.2011.585287 Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed (30th anniversary ed.). Continuum.

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Fricker, M. (2007). Epistemic injustice: Power and the ethics of knowing. Oxford University Press. Guajardo, M. A., Guajardo, F., Janson, C., & Militello, M. (2015). Reframing community partnerships in education: Uniting the power of place and wisdom of people (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315732640 Hall, E. T. (2000). Monochronic and polychronic time. In L. A. Samovar & R. E. Porter (Eds.), Intercultural communication: A reader (9th ed.). Wadsworth Pub. Co. Parker, P. S. (2020). Ella Baker’s catalytic leadership: A primer on community engagement and communication for social justice. University of California Press. Yamamura, E. K., & Koth, K. (2018). Place-based community engagement in higher education: A strategy to transform universities and communities (1st ed.). Stylus Publishing, LLC.

Chapter 4

Embrace Multiple Perspectives: Balancing Interests of Community Partners, Students, and Instructors in Developing Creative Solutions Emily Rossing, Trahern Crews, and April Vinding

As an undergraduate student, I was able to experience intercultural project-based learning in a course with Dr. Andy Johnson. By taking part in hands-on learning that put me in direct communication with a community partner, I gained understanding about a cause, the inner workings of a nonprofit, and was able to apply the skills I was learning in the classroom to a real-life situation. My experience is not what every student will experience when taking part in this education model, but it may help inform the practices of others moving forward. My project partnered with Trahern Crews, the founder of Saint Paul Recovery Act (SPRA). The Act, passed in July 2021, formally apologized for Minnesota’s complicit participation in racial oppression against Black Americans and allowed for the creation of a committee to propose a plan to the city of Saint Paul for pursuing reparations for American Descendants of Chattel Slavery (St. Paul City Council Resolution 21-77, 2021). The Act was motivated by the staggering racial wealth gap between Black Americans and White Americans in the city of Saint Paul. As of 2020, the median income of a Black family in Saint Paul was less than half of what a White family made, with the gap expected to grow. When Crews came to the university and partnered with our class, his organization was actively working to educate the public about the Act and gather support so it could continue to be pushed as a forefront issue in local and

E. Rossing Department of Psychological Sciences, Bethel University, Saint Paul, MN, USA e-mail: [email protected] T. Crews Black Lives Matter Minnesota, Saint Paul Recovery Act Commission, Saint Paul, MN, USA A. Vinding (*) Department of English and Journalism, Bethel University, Saint Paul, MN, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 A. J. Johnson, A. Vinding (eds.), Subverting Resistance to Social Justice and Diversity Education, SpringerBriefs in Social Work, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31713-2_4

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federal government. By the suggestion of Dr. Johnson, Crews agreed to work with undergraduate students and use their project ideas to further his cause.

1 A Moving Toward Social Justice (MTSJ) Model Learning Project with the Saint Paul Recovery Act In order to fully understand the scope of the project and my experience being involved with it, more information is warranted about Mr. Crews and his cause. Trahern Crews, who grew up in Saint Paul, found a passion in civic engagement, particularly around the disparities he saw within his own Black American community. As a young Black man in Saint Paul in the 1990s, Crews was keenly aware of the disparities his community faced. He watched his neighborhood be over-policed as the War on Drugs disproportionately targeted Black Americans. The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1956 automated a 5-year prison sentence for anyone in possession of 5 grams of crack cocaine or 500 grams of powder cocaine. Powdered cocaine was much harder for most Black Americans to come by as it was a more expensive drug, one that the upper-class White population almost exclusively used. And yet, the usage penalties between the two forms of the drug were dramatically different. The ripples of this racial discrepancy reached some people Crews knew as a young man and ignited something in him to pursue and correct these injustices. As he immersed himself in his city’s history, Crews encountered several other issues that seemed to be deep-seated within the fabric of Saint Paul, the statehood of Minnesota, and the foundation of the US. Tracing the roots back to chattel slavery, Crews devoted himself to learning about the causes of one of the biggest racial disparities in Saint Paul and the US at large today: the racial wealth gap. The gap was impossible to miss in Saint Paul. Crews noticed it externally, as there were distinct markers between the Black and White neighborhoods of his city. White neighborhoods were much more affluent, and typically not racially diverse. Crews realized this was not by accident: he discovered that his city was littered with racial covenants, or clauses in housing deeds that prevent the sale of a property to people of specific races. This was done to maintain segregation. Racial covenants were officially banned from being enforced in Minnesota in 1968, but they are still hidden in many housing deeds today. According to the SPRA website, the top predictor of wealth is homeownership. With racial covenants beginning to appear in the early twentieth century, as well as other intentional barriers such as inaccessibility to housing loans, Black families were subjugated to housing in the cheap, “redlined” area of city maps: those places deemed undesirable by White realtors and whose value was then much lower than the average White counterpart home. Because it is the top predictor of wealth, the racial discrepancy in homeownership provides clues as to how the racial wealth gap between Black and White Americans became so large. The gap has widened significantly as generational wealth has exponentially increased over time for those

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families with more money in the first place. By owning a valuable home, White families in the early twentieth century had a larger basis for generational wealth, far exceeding that of the average Black American counterpart. Over the last 100 years, this wealth gap has continued to widen for several systemic reasons, but one major cause is the racist practice of redlining and racial covenants (SPRA, 2022). Today, Saint Paul clearly shows a connection between homeownership and the racial wealth gap. As of 2020, 61.2% of White Americans in Saint Paul owned a home, while only 16.9% of Black Americans did. Not surprisingly, the same year’s census data revealed a Black family in the Twin Cities’ area made less than half that of a White family. Nationally, these numbers are even more staggering: An average White American’s family net worth in 2016 was $171,000, while a Black American family’s net worth was only about $17,000 (SPRA, 2022). That’s a difference of a factor of 10. Ninety percent of the wealth in the US is possessed by White Americans, while only 2.8% is possessed by Black Americans (SPRA, 2022). These numbers suggest there are systemic issues at play, and indeed there are. Crews sees the reasons behind these disparities go back 400 years, including redlining, racial covenants, lynching, chattel slavery, and many more intrinsically racist practices. Saint Paul, Minnesota’s capital city, has a rich history that many of its Black residents resonate with deeply. The Rondo neighborhood, on the East Central side of the city, was particularly well known for its embrace of African heritage and culture. It was a pillar of ancestry and camaraderie, a thriving neighborhood in the midst of racial targeting and oppression from White neighbors. The Rondo neighborhood empowered Black individuals to find economic security and footing in society. In 1956, city officials voted to continue the expansion of highway I-94 through the middle of the Rondo neighborhood, displacing 650 families and the once-­ bustling Black American culture here. The construction of this highway was specifically chosen to go through the Rondo neighborhood, occupied by primarily Black residents, because it was politically expedient. This had deleterious effects on the Black community of Saint Paul. With this displacement, Black Americans lost homes and assets, widening the racial wealth gap yet again within the city. In the following years, the gap continued to expand due to the targeted policing of Black Americans during the War on Drugs, the Great Recession in 2008, and the COVID-19 pandemic, which disproportionately affected the Black residents of Saint Paul. Crews decided to intercede. After being active in demonstrations within the city government structure for years, he ran for city council in 2015. Though he did not win, he gained valuable connections that would help him advance his true cause: justice for Black Americans of his community. He earned the trust of some of the city council members and began talking to them about the idea of reparations for American Descendants of Chattel Slavery. In 1865, when the US officially outlawed slavery, former slave owners were paid reparations for their “property losses,’‘ but the newly freed slaves were turned onto the streets with next to nothing, despite being promised “40 acres and a mule” (SPRA, 2022). Crews argued that it was time Saint Paul apologized for their complicit participation in this and pursue plans to pay reparations to the descendants of the Black Americans.

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When I met him in the spring of 2022, Crews’ Reparations Legislative Advisory Committee, which was created as a result of the passing of the Saint Paul Recovery Act, was working to create a viable ordinance for the logistics of such reparations work. To do so took much time and resources and required public support. This sets the stage for how I was able to enter as a student and work collaboratively alongside Mr. Crews.

2 Experiencing the Four Rs of Transcultural Competency As part of this experience, I actively participated in a Moving Toward Social Justice (MTSJ) model project (see Johnson, Chap. 2), engaging intentional classroom processes (see Vinding, Chap. 5) while having unique chances to converse with Mr. Crews about his own goals, background, and racial identity. In doing so, I learned to flex my cultural competency muscles. In my cross-cultural psychology class, I was exposed to the four Rs of transcultural competency: recognition, respect, reconciliation, and realization (Glover & Friedman, 2015.) I was able to engage in a method of collaboration that involved asking questions first and listening—rather than inserting potential solutions without letting the partner’s needs be spoken. I was taught all of these skills (and more) from the classroom setting, where Dr. Johnson lectured on details of the theories as well as practical ways to apply them with a community partner. Still, it wasn’t until we entered into projects that I actually got to put the theories and applications into practice. In doing so, I demonstrated understanding of skills learned in my particular class setting, though these skills could be applied to many subjects.

2.1 Recognition Recognition is the foundational value necessary to facilitate a project-based learning model in a social justice context. A genuine, collaborative relationship cannot be built without the student acknowledging the validity of the community partner’s person, as well as the cause for which they are fighting. This does not mean a student has to agree politically with all efforts the community partner is striving toward. Rather, it means the student acknowledges the complexities and hard work needed to make some kind of change within the issue. Recognition allows the student to not reduce the community partner to a way to get a decent grade in their class but to see them and their efforts as truly valid. Prior to my involvement in the class, I had not heard much about the issue of reparations for Black Americans. From what I understood, it was the idea that the American Descendants of Chattel Slavery deserved money as compensation for the abhorrent treatment they had historically received. While I thought it was a good idea in theory, I mostly dismissed the idea as impractical and unjust. I thought from a defensive standpoint: I get that Black Americans

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deserve to be paid, but why should it come from my pocket? I didn’t enslave them; I’m not at fault here. Clearly, this thinking demonstrated my naivete both to my position as a White American and to my complicit participation in the propagation of unjust systems that still affect American Descendants of Chattel Slavery today. Also, I was ignorant of the history of past successful reparations, such as those paid from the US government to Japanese Americans who were imprisoned in internment camps during World War II. By adopting the simple practice of recognizing the issues, and not hiding from them or explaining them away, I was prompted to enter into a shared space with Mr. Crews, as were the rest of my classmates. When we recognized the very real and unjust issues that Mr. Crews explained and illustrated that his Black American community experiences, my fellow students and I lost some of our ignorance. Despite being unable to fully understand—many of us having never experienced the racial injustice he lived in—we recognized a real and valid problem. Moreover, we recognized the cultural dilemma present: that both we as students and Mr. Crews as the community partner brought different perspectives, values, and histories to the situation. Mr. Crews as the community partner allowed us each to be on our own journey in processing, not shying away from the harsh facts of reality but also never shaming us for what we did not know. He invited us to participate in his organization with an authentic welcome, without disavowing the credibility and validity of his cause and methods.

2.2 Respect Hand in hand with recognizing a cultural dilemma comes respecting multiple viewpoints and processes. As a student, I had my own understanding (prior to my experience in Dr. Johnson’s class) of what respect would mean when interacting with someone from a different racial background than myself. In my general understanding, respect could be equated to being polite. I was always uneasy about how to engage the issue of race, though I would not consider myself resistant as some of my peers were to the idea of working with reparations. I was caught up on saying the wrong thing. I didn’t want to go about it in a way that offended the other party. By operating from a place of fear, I would be unable to connect deeply with Mr. Crews and contribute in a meaningful way. Thankfully, I learned that respect is much more than just “being polite.” Respect includes affirming the dignity of the other person and both viewing and treating them as an equal. In practice, it looks like asking the person what they need and affirming their lived experience. It is acknowledging that the community partner knows their organization better than anyone else, especially an outsider like me. Respect looked like suspending my preconceived judgements about how the organization could run better and instead asking Mr. Crews what help he actually needed.

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2.3 Reconciliation Only after mutual respect has been established can the work of reconciliation begin. Reconciliation has been a buzzword of late, and for good reasons. Many people speak of “racial reconciliation” but are unwilling to sit in the pain that has caused a need for reconciliation in the first place. Reconciliation involves both parties operating from the recognition and respect they have previously given each other to contribute ideas of how to creatively find a solution that works within both frameworks. This is the point in our relationship where my project group had to be creative and open-minded. First asking what Mr. Crews needed from us, we began to imagine potential project ideas to spread awareness of the Saint Paul Recovery Act. There was some negotiation here, and in order for the negotiation to be productive, it had to be done out of respect for the other party. This is where we found the most fruit. If we had been defensive in our ideas, we would not have been able to reach a compromise with Mr. Crews about the best way forward. Similarly, if Mr. Crews had not taken our ideas seriously, we would have had our creativity limited, and the project would have been less authentic. In order to reconcile both parties’ stances, we needed to be honest and respectful with each other, genuinely considering the other party’s life experiences and strengths that they could bring to the collective issue at hand.

2.4 Realization After we agreed on a solution, we had to put it into practice. Realizing the solution to the cultural dilemma is bringing it into reality. Even though not everyone in my group may have fully aligned with Mr. Crews’ political ideas, we were able to concretely bring about a solution to promote the SPRA. It may have looked like creating a project for a grade, but in doing so, we also achieved the larger goal: working effectively with this community partner despite our differences and even learning to appreciate and utilize each other’s different gifts for a common goal. Still, the step of realizing a solution may be where the most problems can arise. It is one thing to theoretically come up with solutions, but to actually enact them is another thing entirely. Logistics may get in the way, and communication issues can arise here. My group had to be very intentional in communicating our plans and progress with Mr. Crews. When we communicated in a timely and respectful manner, the project flowed smoothly. When we did not or we assumed Mr. Crews was aware of what we were doing, we encountered some problems as details got lost. We found the best way to minimize this is to implement consistent, effective communication between students. To have a solution be realized, our partnership needed to stay consistent throughout. We had to keep in mind we were merely the helpers of the community partner and approach all interactions with the community partner in a humble (and, again, respectful) way to ensure productive conversations. In pairing, we needed the

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community partner to affirm our efforts while clearly raising concerns with the project when they arose. With mutual communication and action, the project would be realized.

3 Benefits to Students and Community Partners An experiential learning project provides several benefits to both the community partner and the student. For community partners, one benefit is the ability to raise awareness simply by interacting with university students. Any organization committed to a cause that involves social change hinges upon education about and discussion of the cause. Working collaboratively with college students gives community partners the unique opportunity to facilitate both education and discussion. Community partners may also gain increased credibility by affiliating themselves with a university. Not only does this increase awareness of their cause, but it establishes the organization as reputable by affiliating with an academic institution. Finally, the community partners stand to gain the potential benefit of utilizing the projects and efforts of the students to advance their cause. Crews explained that was his primary goal in participating in the experience: he sought to increase awareness of the Saint Paul Recovery Act and educate students about the complexity and history of the issue. Students, on the other hand, also benefit by participating in a classroom-led project that aligns with a community organization. The primary benefit to the student is the interaction they have with a diverse community, likely different from their own, in a low-threat environment. This is beneficial to the student for several reasons, not the least of which being the chance to have their existing beliefs challenged in a safe place. In general, dealing with uncomfortable feelings in a safe and nonthreatening environment allows the student to gain the skills and experience necessary for any type of cultural competency (Bryant-Davis & Arrington, 2022). Resistant students, however, may not see this as a high priority. Therefore, it is important to stress what other benefits exist for the student. Sternberg’s (2001) balance theory of wisdom appeals to the student’s own understanding of what they can bring to the table and what they stand to gain from participating in a project. Despite a student’s own personal beliefs about a cause, the experience of working with a community partner in a diverse setting will be one they can use for their own benefit by referencing it in job or graduate school interviews, which may be the face value benefit for them. Due to the contentious nature of some issues with students’ beliefs, it is wise to provide at least two options of initiatives. By having options, students are empowered to choose causes that resonate with them. This way, if one cause seems dissonant with a student’s beliefs, they are able to choose another that may be more egocentric. Additionally, by making this a mandatory project for students, in lieu of traditional assessment tools such as exams, students who are motivated by achieving good marks will be more likely to put effort into the experience. Even if the intention behind a student’s participation is not helping the common good, the

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student will still have gained exposure to a new setting where they can employ cultural competency skills and, as a result, experience transformational and psychological effects (Bryant-Davis & Arrington, 2022; Glover & Friedman, 2015; Sternberg, 2001).

4 Collaborative Steps to Creative Solutions 4.1 Empower Community Partner Perspective The most important work for a project like this to be successful is done meticulously by both the community partner and the instructor, with the primary goal of empowering the community partner perspective. The instructor of the class is responsible for establishing a relationship with a community partner. The professor may reach out via email or through connections already established, but it is vital that the professor approaches the conversation by first asking what the community partner needs. This step is crucial for a truly collaborative effort. Too often, similar approaches begin with an instructor stating what they perceive the community partner needs. But a professor decentralizes the voice of the community partner and uplifts their own voice as the expert on the topic by imposing what they see as the main issue. While well intended, this approach can be harmful and lead to projects that do not actually fit in with the community partner’s cause and wasting both parties’ time. The community partner themselves needs to be given a chance to voice the problems students can help with. After the partner has been given an opportunity to speak to these things, both the professor and partner may work collaboratively to find projects that genuinely meet the community needs but also benefit the students as an outcome of their specific class. For context, the professor can mention details of the project, such as what class will be involved, what the students will be learning, and what kinds of projects the students could contribute that would meet the class requirements. The focus of this entire conversation should be to empower the community partner perspective, not insert the institution’s or professor’s perspective. As the process continues, the professor should make it clear to students that the community partner is the focus. This way, when logistical, practical, or social issues arise during the design process, the partner is free to critique them in a way that will make the project more beneficial for their cause. This, in turn, will make the experience more beneficial for the students as well, as their finished product will be more useful in real-life situations. The instructor must also bridge a relationship between the institution’s administration and the community partner, making each aware of the other’s presence and the offerings to the students they provide. If students are resistant to the cause, the institution may be as well; in which case, the instructor may need to present the benefits the students have to gain from participation in this project to administrators as well.

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Alternatively, community partners can also approach the university first, inviting them to a community meeting or presentation. From Mr. Crews’ perspective, this is a great way for the university to see what the organization stands for and how they operate and allow both parties to begin visualizing ways they can introduce the cause to students via class participation, internships, or other means. In this instance, Mr. Crews agreed to work alongside students in a classroom setting. Once a trusting relationship has been established between the instructor, institution, and community partner, the partner needs to be introduced to the class. The professor may choose to give a lecture on the background of the community partner and their organization or just briefly mention it to the students and encourage them to do more outside research before the partner introduces themselves to the class. Instructors can assign readings and links related to the partner’s organization and ask the students to come prepared with meaningful questions for the community partner, in effect showing them to also ask questions and let the partner speak before offering solutions. Depending on the content of the class, it may be helpful to include a brief description about how this project-based learning will fit into the curriculum. It is best to do this early in the class schedule to integrate the experience with in-class learning, but professors must be flexible and work within the parameters of the community partner’s schedule. For my specific class, Dr. Johnson had an unforeseen scheduling conflict and had to move Mr. Crews’ initial visit to the second day of class. While not ideal, Dr. Johnson used the first day of class to introduce the goal of the project-based learning model for the semester and mention the names of the people and organizations with whom we would work. He gave a brief overview of who Mr. Crews was and encouraged students to do some research on SPRA and Mr. Crews before the next class period. On that second class period, Mr. Crews stood warmly in the center of the room, excited to be a guest lecturer for the day. There was a sense from his demeanor that he was very passionate about whatever he was going to speak about. Mr. Crews believes this excitement must be coupled with other strategies in order for a community partner to effectively “sell” their potentially controversial cause. In his opinion, many people are simply too uneducated about the history of the racial wealth gap to see it as truly unjust. To meet his audience where they are at, Crews follows the least-common-denominator approach: start at the beginning. He began his presentation with a brief overview of the long, detailed history of oppression against Black Americans, starting with the institution of chattel slavery in 1619. He wove together the milestone historical events: the institution of the transatlantic slave trade, the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Jim Crow era, and the Civil Rights movement. He led the audience, referring again only to historical facts, to the present-­day disparities that exist as a result of the history. This brought him to introduce us to the Saint Paul Recovery Act. Crews purposely refrains from stating his speculative opinions on matters, as these may trigger some resistant students to put walls up. He seeks to present a very simple, logic-based argument that relies on provable facts, not opinions. By keeping the conversation academic and logical, Crews invites the audience into a space of discussion and collaboration that can be the foundation of a partnership.

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4.2 Empower Student Perspective After students have heard a presentation from a community partners and listened specifically to their needs, they can begin brainstorming with the professor about potential project ideas. After each student has chosen which community partner they wish to work with, they can form their own groups or the instructor can assign them. The size of the group may vary, but generally, it works best to have 4–6 students per group. This way, all members are contributing, and division of labor can be spaced out. Once groups have been established, the professor may want to assign a brainstorming activity and check in with groups about the ideas later. While this is happening, students in our course continued learning about different psychological theories on cultural competency and about experiential learning, such as the project-­ based learning model and the balance theory of wisdom. Over a few weeks, students should be able to come up with a few ideas of projects they can contribute that will help the organization in a tangible way. For example, projects may include things like making a promotional video, creating a simulation to experience life as a person the organization serves, making an informational pamphlet explaining the organization’s goals and history, writing an article for a newspaper or magazine, or hosting an event that brings in members of the community and raises awareness about the cause. In encouraging the students to come up with their own ideas, the instructor and community partner demonstrate trust in the students’ abilities to decide on and execute a viable plan. By empowering the student perspective, the student is more apt to listen to constructive criticism from the community partner and enter into negotiations without being defensive. At the same time, the student is likely going to be willing to receive the perspective of the community partner with an open mind (Adler, 1982, 1988, 1991).

4.3 Collaboration and Facilitation As the student perspective is empowered, the instructor assumes the role of mediator between the students and the community partner. If a student’s idea is not meeting a goal of the organization, it is up to the instructor to work with the student to see how they can still use an original idea but in a way that benefits the partner’s needs and is worthy of their time. Because of this, the instructor needs to be quite familiar not only with the organization’s goals but with the community partner themselves. The partner will likely not be able to be present for most class meeting times, so the instructor attempts to balance the expressed interests of the community partner while negotiating with students. This way, when the project ideas are eventually presented to the community partner by the students, most problems have already been addressed by the instructor. Still, all ideas should be brought to and approved by the community partner before proceeding, as oftentimes the

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community partner sees problems that the instructor and students cannot see from the outside. In order for this project to flow smoothly and achieve its ultimate end goal, communication from both the students and community partners is critical. While the instructor mediates, it is not their job to be a relay station between the community partner and the students. Rather, they are to help find and address problems so that communication flows easier between students and community partners. Because the step of realizing solutions is where most problems can arise, student groups need to create benchmarks to assess their progress. My group created mini-­ deadlines that helped all five of us stay on course. Our first deadline was to simply choose a project idea, but all of us had to come to class with one idea that we could use and explain why it would be beneficial to the community partner. After we decided on creating a promotional video, we created a deadline for scheduling a time to get footage of Mr. Crews. We also had a deadline for creating interview questions for Mr. Crews that he could answer on camera that day. The nature of the project required some uneven work, but one of our group members was particularly experienced in video editing, so she created the actual video with all of the shots. I am an experienced interviewer, so I prepared the questions and asked them on camera. Another group member took over communication and outlining plans with Mr. Crews. The other two group members found compelling background information we could include. We learned early on that we had to be intentional in communicating our plans and progress. Initially, our group tried to schedule times to get video footage of Mr. Crews too close to the date. When we forecasted further out into the month, we had more success in planning times to meet. Instructors can help mediate this as well by giving deadlines to students about when certain pieces of their project need to be done, on a case-by-case basis. Instructors also serve to help students connect their project ideas to class content. One particular area of challenge here happens when students run with one idea that they think would “work for everyone” while unknowingly ignoring the cultural dimensions present with the community partner organization. In doing so, they may create a project that actually contradicts the principles learned in class. In my class, one group of students planned a community event for youth but ignored that the community partner expressed difficulty connecting with youth and getting them to attend events. Dr. Johnson asked them to reconsider their project idea. While initially frustrating for these students, they were able to come up with a different project that fit the goals of the organization and class concepts much better. Once proposals have been accepted, students may begin work on them. The instructor should be clear about deadlines and have groups lay out their own timeline of when they wish to have pieces done so that they can achieve a quality product by the deadline. It is also beneficial for the instructor to provide class time for groups to meet and discuss their project progress. It can be difficult to line up schedules between six college students, and typically product quality is diminished if much time is required outside of class for it. By allotting some class time for group discussion, students will already be present and be able to enter a creative space of brainstorming and project management. This way, the professor can also be

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immediately available to give feedback for problems that come up in discussion. This regular touching base will not only keep things moving but give consistency to the schedule and make the project seem less overwhelming for students.

4.4 Presentation and Evaluation The final step in the process is for the student to reveal the completed project to the class, instructor, and community partner. If students create an educational presentation, such as a video, pamphlet or simulation, then the partner may be invited to campus to view it in front of the other students. If the project involves an event, the class, instructor, and community partner can all be invited to attend. The instructor can add any qualifications they deem necessary for grading the presentation of the final product, such as references to theories or strategies that prove the efficacy of said project type. My group gave a 20-min presentation on some background of the SPRA and Mr. Crews’ involvement with it including background research from psychological studies looking at the effects of experiential learning as well as the impact of video on memory and promotion (Zhang et al., 2021). After this, we played the promotional video we created for the SPRA website, featuring interview clips with Mr. Crews and footage of a demonstration he led at the state capital. We also outlined how Mr. Crews might evaluate the effectiveness of the video through tracking statistics and surveys. After the presentation of the project, the community partner should give feedback to the students. Following our presentation of the video, Mr. Crews warmly applauded and thanked our group for our efforts. He remarked that he would bring the video to his organization and see how they could use it for future promotions. Whatever the relationship is between the students and community partner or the quality/usability of the product, the community partner can affirm the efforts of the students and thank them for participating. This simple act of recognition may be enough for some students, particularly resistant ones, to be willing to engage in a process similar to this one again. Community partners have a unique opportunity after listening to the students’ projects to build them up and encourage them to approach their next encounter with someone of an unfamiliar belief, culture, and upbringing with empathy and cultural competency. At this point, an instructor may wish to assign a paper for the students individually or as a group that could include sections on the problem the organization is addressing, general research beyond the problem, a discussion of the project as a potential solution, and estimated effects of the project. This allows the student to synthesize all they have learned throughout their experience and apply some of the principles they have learned in the classroom. It may be beneficial for the instructor to provide an evaluation form of some kind to both parties. Though a section on how to evaluate the project could be required from the students in their paper, it is also helpful to have a survey of some kind

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where students can write their thoughts more informally of the whole experience. The instructor and community partner may then review this feedback and make tweaks for future classes. Additionally, a survey could be given to the community partner, where they could rate the effectiveness and practicality of different aspects of the project (such as site visits, communication with students, and cost-benefit analysis). Gathering this feedback enriches the experience for future students and partners and allows instructors to refine, rework, and expand on the approaches suggested by the projects. By the end of a MTSJ project, students have participated in helping an organization committed to a form of social justice. Students in my course learned academic principles that create cultural competency and practiced them in real-life settings. Mr. Crews worked with an institution and students within that institution to promote his cause. He shared with the next generation of students, who may very well become the next changemakers. The core benefits for students and community partners arise when both parties respect the perspectives of the other and support each other in contributing their unique skills and resources.

References Adler, A. (1982). The fundamental views of individual psychology. Individual Psychology: Journal of Adlerian Theory, Research & Practice, 38(1), 3–6. Adler, A. (1988). Personality as a self-consistent unity. Individual Psychology: Journal of Adlerian Theory, Research & Practice, 44(4), 431–440. Adler, A. (1991). The progress of mankind. Individual Psychology: Journal of Adlerian Theory, Research & Practice. Special Issue: Social interest, 47(1), 17–21. Bryant-Davis, T., & Arrington, E. (2022). The antiracism handbook: Practical tools to shift your mindset & uproot racism in your life & community (The social justice handbook series). New Harbinger Publications. Glover, J., & Friedman, H. L. (2015). Transcultural competence: Navigating cultural differences in the global community. American Psychological Association. St. Paul City Council Res. 21-77. (2021) (enacted). https://www.stpaul.gov/department/ city-council/city-council-reparations-efforts/city-council-reparations-legislative-0 Saint Paul Recovery Act. (2022). The racial wealth gap. https://saintpaulrecoveryact.com/ the-­racial-­wealth-­gap-­1 Sternberg, R. J. (2001). Why schools should teach for wisdom: The balance theory of wisdom in educational settings. Educational Psychologist, 36(4), 227–245. Zhang, J., Wen, X., & Whang, M. (2021). Empathy evaluation by the physical elements of the advertising - multimedia tools and applications. SpringerLink. Retrieved February 13, 2023, from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11042-­021-­11637-­x

Chapter 5

Embrace Process: Classroom Practices for Nonviolent Formation April Vinding

The clichés abound: To do good, we must be good. Nemo dat quod non habet. Nothing in the universe ever grew from the outside in. Practice what you preach. But as wise ones from Lao Tzu to Christ to Richard Wagamese have uncovered, the key in the clichés is that a good practice pays double: it is both a root and a path. Practitioners of the Dao and followers of Christ sometimes call this The Way. Today, our most prosaic understanding appears on grocery store shelves: organic. When we speak of food as “organic,” we are referring both to a motivating philosophy and the features of a resulting product. So how do we grow organic practitioners of social justice and advocates of diversity? What are the Ways—the interlocking approaches and activities—that simultaneously be good and do good so we can craft deep formation without repeating patterns of oppression, violence, exclusion, or manipulation?

1 Approaches 1.1 Classroom as Counterculture I grew up in the midwestern United States. My own father attended a one-room schoolhouse with an iron stove to keep off the frost. His academic year was bookended by harvest and planting, and the classroom as “the world of the mind” was a contrast to the physical labor, communal working, and earthy concerns outside it. Though the details are certainly different for others, my family history reflects a A. Vinding (*) Department of English and Journalism, Bethel University, Saint Paul, MN, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 A. J. Johnson, A. Vinding (eds.), Subverting Resistance to Social Justice and Diversity Education, SpringerBriefs in Social Work, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31713-2_5

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pattern in post-industrialized formal education where the classroom was a counterculture to students’ lives outside it. But as access to education and to information has grown, life inside and outside school has increasingly overlapped. Baling hay has become physical education classes, and we have the Encyclopedia Britannica and periodic table in our beach bags. Expanding education beyond the cloister of school is certainly progress, but in the process many classrooms have absorbed the surrounding culture rather than becoming a new counterculture. Students no longer need to come to school for information. Nor do they need school to reveal the wideness of the world. (In fact, interacting with a teacher in a classroom is now arguably more limited than an evening watching TV.) But as anyone with a petri dish will tell you, a culture is where things grow. We have culture, we are in culture, we make culture, and we are also cultured. A prime approach to forming students, especially those with resistance to social justice and diversity education, is to embrace the heritage and possibility of the classroom as a place of counterculture. Teachers, facilitators, trainers, and coaches can view their work as that of intentionally and directly crafting counterculture. Professors joke of being “benevolent dictators,” but school remains one of a fading number of social spaces where one individual can expertly shape the time, attention, and interactions of a group of others. Where else does this opportunity exist without the threats of economic exploitation, power grabbing, or political gain? Universities and educational institutions are notoriously lumbering, but the classroom itself is agile. When granite meets granite, everything gets bashed. Educators can spend our time and energy trying to make the world more like the classroom or the classroom more like the world, but that’s unlikely to be fruitful—and we inadvertently cultivate homogeny and hegemony. But if we can embrace difference ourselves—and see the potential for classrooms to be autonomous, distinct spaces—the very heaviness and persistence of resistant attitudes, sluggish bureaucracy, and embedded injustices can become a granite bank from which to launch a waterfall. One definition of conspiracy is to “act against the existing matrix.” If we define the matrix as stability or human rights, then conspiracies inhibit flourishing and threaten the greater good. But when we recognize injustice and oppression as systemic issues, the matrix becomes racism, sexism, and ableism—the ills we have inherited and risk continuing without interception. When injustice is the existing matrix, conspiracy is a fine model for educators committed to building thriving communities.

1.2 Subverting Resistance Through Process But isn’t the creation of counterculture and conspiracy simply using our power as facilitators to force our views on others or, at best, an invocation of an ends-justify-­ means approach? As a White, cisgender woman, I have experienced more privilege than many, but even my own limited experience includes economic damage,

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parental restriction, spiritual trauma, and professional limitation from entrapment in personal and institutional systems of coercion. Knowing some of the damage from the inside, I refuse to be a perpetrator of coercion or to work in ways that would undermine students’ ability to trust their own perceptions. So what allows educators to challenge and incite deep change while maintaining students’ personhood and dignity? In the academy, we tend toward deconstruction. But breakthrough does not require breakdown. Subversion is the act of steering and diverting existing energy: when we aim to subvert, we begin by acknowledging existing power and being. Resistant students admit—in their very opposition—that we’ve entered conversations that matter to them. We can share this. Though we may begin with different perspectives, contention itself reveals we share an understanding something important is at stake. Subverting resistance can occur with dignity and intellectual nonviolence when we focus on process. Cousin to conspiracy is conspire—to breathe together, to “act in harmony toward a common end.” When a teacher makes process the shared foundation of the classroom, they can harness students’ inherent energy and investment in a topic while sidestepping much of the obstinance and bickering that can appear in direct confrontations between philosophies. Process is stretchy and inclusive in ways that ideologies and propositions are not. For example, a White male student of mine was writing an essay on the Black Lives Matter movement. He was critical of the movement in nearly every way. We could have discussed his claims and opinions, as would have been appropriate for a one-on-one paper conference and responsible of me as an anti-racist educator; instead, we talked about process—both the process of his thinking and his process of assembling the text. Why do you have a strong opinion about this issue? What evidence could you share for the critique in this section? Our ideas and ideologies were in opposition, but by focusing on process, we could both be fully and genuinely present. I could wholeheartedly support his learning (rather than being tempted to withhold my skills or resent their use), and he could openly examine his ideas (rather than become rigid in them through defensiveness). Process also provides equal access. One of the perpetual challenges of teaching is facilitating learning when students’ readiness and knowledge can vary so widely. A colleague of mine teaches a course on World War II. As the class examines antisemitism, he could focus on content, asking students to identify what and who. The answers to these questions are concrete and defined, and the questions hold students accountable for understanding and are easy to assess. However, what and who can also hold buried value propositions that can block formation or submerge aggression. What is discrimination? Who was discriminated against? Students can give the “right” answers without necessarily understanding or believing anything about discrimination, and they can participate by decoding the professor’s views rather than interrogating their own. Subverting resistance by focusing on process asks why and how instead. Why was there discrimination here? How did it operate? Whatever level of understanding—or agreement—students may have about discrimination, they are equally able to engage in discussion that will be revealing and formative.

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1.3 The Romance of Justice But isn’t this too soft? Injustice wrecks people and communities, and power is not good at sharing. Doesn’t the degree of damage and urgency of change demand we fight? It can. But we can also fixate on the moral rightness of advocating social justice or diversity and lose sight of one of their goods: they work. The child of justice is justice. If we embody systems of justice and diversity, we will cultivate them. bell hooks, Audre Lorde, and Paulo Freire notably recognized that deeply formative education involves kinds of intimacy between teachers and learners. There is a form of cheap teaching that depends upon cults of personality, but teachers’ passion, authenticity, and genuine interest can attract students and draw them into relationships with people and ideas they never expected. Entrapment and ambush have no place in the classroom, but we can manifest our values as we pass them on if we work to woo. Every intimate relationship begins with some form of invitation. Among the typical and inherited power structures of formal education, we can forget to invite students into the critical work of understanding and advocacy. Anyone will resist an ambush (and resent entrapment), but welcome and hospitality open doors literally and figuratively. This work in the classroom includes very practical acts of power-­ sharing as we will explore with the activities below, but foundational to those are a leader’s attitude of equality and mutuality. So how can we genuinely engage learners as equals and partners when we hold expertise, experience, and responsibility that they do not? Let’s revisit the grocer. A good farmer loves the land, not the crop. Enacting pedagogy and exacting outcomes manages the crop, while tending students as persons is nourish the land. This does not mean reducing rigor, but remembering to teach students—not pound policies. To my sophomores, bias regarding parental rights means more before the visits of Family Weekend, and in my majority-White classrooms, addressing inequality in access to education means acknowledging that affirmative action limits their possibilities while expanding those of others. A teacher with a narrow agenda is like a monoculture farmer: they care about only one product and, in their pursuit of that commodity, can poison other forms of life. Would it be better if my students supported education equality because it’s the right thing to do and without forefronting their own benefit or loss? Yes. But if I’m only trying to produce that apple in the orchard of the classroom, an entire tree of oranges—say, students understanding that inequality in access to education hurts real people—would be counted a failure. If I am willing to teach my students intimately, in a spirit of hospitality, and as persons, I can approach the work of social justice and diversity education with a goal of fruitfulness rather than a narrower productivity and thereby avoid poisoning the very diversity we advocate while expanding the harvest.

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1.4 An Additive and Protective Intersectionality Intersectionality is a key approach to understanding the functioning and effects of injustice, trauma, and oppression, and recognizing the complex way forms of discrimination overlap and compound has been critical in current theory and praxis. We use “intersectionality” to describe a Way that is harmful—a set of interlocking approaches and activities that has negative effects on individuals and systems. However, in the spirit of subversion and process, the set of approaches and activities here may have the potential to harness intersectionality and transmute it into an additive power. Teaching social justice and diversity cannot be a monoculture, the building of empires, or reliant on binaries. As such it would not be countercultural and becomes philosophically invalid and intellectually illegitimate. The approaches and activities here have been nourished by widely varying tributaries, including biodiversity and biodynamic practices, blessingway rites, creative process theories of Sawyer (2012) and Kleon (2012), decolonial sexualities (TallBear), ecology, emergent strategy (brown, 2017), feminist pedagogy, Miller-McLemore’s (2006) feminist theological paradigm shift from productivity to fruitfulness, Janeway’s Powers of the Weak (1980), Lee Duckworth’s work on grit, mindfulness practice, non-resistance, nonviolent protest, negative capability, philosophies of Teilhard de Chardin and their application to cosmology by Delio (2013), queer theory, Schreiner’s work on thriving, trauma-informed practice, and Noë’s (2015) concept of strange tools. Practices that are at the crux and overlap of several ideologies can be richest and most effective. These overlaps can also be protective against bias and bolstering of universal design in that they inhibit instructors from settling into a singular approach. Also, intentionally intersecting justice and diversity education with other philosophies and fields directly addresses student resistance in two ways. My own resistant students tend to be of two main types. One is the apathetic and disengaged student, for whom the issues are “irrelevant.” For this student, intersecting issues of justice and diversity with widely ranging schools of thought welcomes and woos their interest. The other resistant student I encounter most is one who is significantly privileged and therefore smart and opinionated, and also therefore not (yet) experienced or wise. This student has the ability (and tendency) to nitpick or delegitimize social justice or diversity endeavors because they disagree with or deconstruct a premise. Drawing from multiple fields and approaches can confound and implode such a student’s ability to sidetrack or dismiss the conversation. Therefore, embracing overlapping and diverse paradigms in justice and diversity education can not only expand the basis but also enhance the effectiveness of our approaches.

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2 Activities So what can teachers, facilitators, leaders, and coaches do to orchestrate this jazz of frameworks into a lively and effective speakeasy of a classroom? The following sections suggest activities, assignments, and policies in a range of scales that make the classroom counterculture, subvert resistance through process, woo learners, and interleave approaches to amplify effect.

2.1 Give Voices Power Listen first: • Second-day syllabus Don’t distribute the syllabus on the first day of class. Get student input on policies and procedures that can be flexible. • Learner dossier Have an initial assignment that allows students to tell you (while they simultaneously reflect) about themselves and their experience. Model this assignment after the classic spy movie “Agent Dossier,” asking learners to identify and share their (1) strengths and weaknesses, (2) previous training, (3) past and future missions, and (4) upcoming training goals—as relevant to your course or subject matter. This could include an (optional) visual or media aspect, especially if your subject doesn’t typically work in such formats. Offer choice: • Choice of content Consider areas where students could have a range of choices. This might include book clubs where students choose from a collection of relevant readings and discuss or present the content in small groups. Or offer sets of texts (scholarly articles, short stories, documentaries, etc.) where students can choose between content that is PG-13 vs. R-rated or can opt in (or out) of content that may be identified as “Challenging,” “Confrontational,” or “Stretching.” • Choice of format When students present their work or thinking, offer options for format. Each format maintains the same objectives, but allowing students to share their learning verbally, in writing, publicly, or privately makes way for them to engage more fully—rather than censoring to accommodate what they would willingly speak aloud to their peers or be able to articulate in a formal paper. • Choice of autonomy/community Yes, students need to learn to work on diverse teams; but, if this isn’t an explicit objective of your course or workshop, support the individualized ways they learn best by offering options of partnerships, small groups, or individual work. Again, the objectives and rubrics can remain the same while offering choice of working style. Format feedback: • Formative feedback Offer feedback on work in-process rather than on final drafts. This allows instructors to focus on process and on why and how. Phrases

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like “This position isn’t yet clear” or “On your next draft, be sure to address how this affects [rural] communities…” shift the posture of feedback from critique (with potential contention) to conversation. Guided peer feedback We can ask students to imagine multiple perspectives but better to engage them with multiple perspectives. Guided peer feedback is effective for building multidimensional skills (Kelly, 2015; van Zundert et al., 2010), gives learners a broader and more diverse audience, and allows instructors to focus development on the most important or relevant issues (using guidance like “Is the writer’s position excluding in any way?” or “Discuss the ‘Yeah, but…’ for this topic: How might an intelligent reader of goodwill disagree?”). Midterm survey Gather formative feedback yourself. Midway through a course, season, or workshop, distribute an anonymous survey—and use the input to shape the remaining learning. Questions might include the following: What’s been your most significant lesson or area of learning so far? So far, what in the teaching of this course has been effective for your learning? So far, what in the teaching of this course could be improved to aid your learning? When you consider your own practices, attitudes, and engagement, what has been effective for your learning? What could you improve? Debriefing/community check-in days Establish a rhythm of reflection and community processing. At the end of each unit, field visit, or body of work, have students reflect on their own learning (i.e., What did you learn about [the craft of creative writing] this unit? What did you learn about your own [writing] process? What did you learn about what it means to be human?) Then make a “we”: So what did we learn? What was a challenge for us? Professor Sara Shady, who has taught gender studies courses in contexts of religious patriarchy, facilitates 3–4 community days per term during which the class explicitly discusses conflicts, disagreements, or silences and how those are affecting them as a learning community. Legacy pro-tips At the end of a term or session, have learners in small groups identify 3–5 “Pro-Tips for Being an Emerging [Social Worker].” This can facilitate closure and link students to legacy. The next time you teach that course, share the pro-tips with the new students on the first day. Ask them, “What do you notice? Any surprises?”

2.2 Lead with Experience and Encounter Label after experience  The typical academic approach offers students information and terminology first and leads them next to application. Instead, lead with an experience: Read a poem, visit a mosque, or navigate campus in a wheelchair. Position a lecture or reading on prosody, Sharia law, or the Americans with Disabilities Act after students have had an experience of emotion, humanization, and complexity.

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Require exposure not acceptance  Avoid a gradebook that could manipulate students into façades or duplicity. If learners are required to encounter ideas, persons, or positions quite new or different from their own, make space for their honest engagement (and for the possibility of incremental learning) by grading those encounters on submission or completion. Utilize non-objective research  My graduate school professor  Larry Sutin said, “The work will teach you to do the work.” Professor Ken Steinbach leads students toward independent and self-initiated professional practice by assigning non-­ objective research. Rather than a more-traditional assignment of outcome, this approach assigns time-on-task. Rather than telling students what they must learn (i.e., describe how the US government violated treaties), an instructor designates what students must do (i.e., read two treaties and listen to two oral history accounts). Practice the practice  Before students participate in an activity or assignment, create a microcosm to prepare and practice in a sheltered, guided environment. Before students interview an elder, see a Chinese opera, offer tax preparation at the Somali Community Center, or begin field experience in a special education classroom, invite an elder into the classroom, host the costume designer by Zoom, sample gashaato, or invite a young adult with Trisomy 21 to share about their experience in high school. During the classroom activity, model the interactions and conduct students should adopt; afterward, ask what clarifying questions they have about the assignment or the expectations. Exercise problem finding  A chemical engineer doesn’t make a new polymer as an exercise; she makes it because hip-replacement joints are being eroded by enzymes in the body. Instructors often define a problem and instruct learners to solve it, but the first step in formative and creative processes is finding the problem. Initiating learning by having students look at a situation and identify “What isn’t working?” can help assure engagement, belief in the issue’s validity, and relevance. Harness storytelling  Engaging students in story—whether telling stories or listening to them, verbally or in writing—is power-packed (McDrury & Alterio, 2003). Storytelling can expand inclusion (Hoffer 2020), heal (Sunwolf et al., 2005), and act as a form of resistance to oppression (Comas-Díaz, 2016). Stories allow us to facilitate learning when some students in a classroom are unaware of their privilege (or deny it exists) while others have been oppressed or harmed by that injustice. When the platform for engaging is a fact or conclusion (i.e., “Systemic racism causes harm”), students’ differences in experience can become a wedge. But if the platform for engaging is story (i.e., “Tell about a time you were excluded” or “Tell about a time you saw someone be excluded”), a wide range of experience is welcomed, and everyone can learn.

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2.3 Make Containers Curate  Rather than following more traditional paradigms of pedagogy where learners are considered blank slates and instructors insert information and knowledge, diverse and inclusive leadership models practice power-sharing (Washington, 2021). To sidestep ego—including your own—consider the metaphor of curator as you approach teaching: envision your work as collecting and arranging rich and potent objects, which all in the classroom can equally encounter with curiosity. Construct neutral space  The third time my office got moved, Philando Castile had recently been killed 5 miles from our university. My new neighbor was a Black professor who had installed a display on our shared exterior wall naming persons of color killed by police. Every time I walked that hallway, I was moved and challenged, and now I was proud to have my nameplate associated with this public call for remembrance and justice. But as the semester approached, I was challenged to consider what would be the best teaching tool: Personally, I want to act in advocacy and stand in solidarity, but was my university office a space for my declarations? A place to receive students? (Were those in conflict?) What would cultivate the most learning? Ultimately, I risked a conversation with Dr. McKinney and asked to shift the display to begin at her office door rather than mine. She agreed. I still wonder if shifting the display was the best decision, but in the context of resistance, advocacy and solidarity can look different than we expect. In this case, my children came to campus to help me move the papers, and we talked about each of the people as we touched their names. During that semester, some of my students drafted papers in support of Blue Lives Matter; because we sat in a neutral space, they could receive my challenging feedback as more than political positioning and instead ingest it as formative. Give away structures  Whether students struggle with material because it is demanding or because they are resistant, giving away forms can create more space for learners to engage content. Instructors might provide scripts for asking challenging questions, outlines for a reflective journal entry, process steps for projects, or models for imitation from professionals or from past student work. Practices over products  Rather than building a course or workshop around products (an analysis, then a group presentation, then a term paper), identify key practices in the field or discipline, and arrange the course to run students through as many iterations of those practices as possible. Nurses, for example, produce chart notes that are born of patient interview and observation processes. Imagine a preceptor wants to increase cultural competency and the student is resistant. Focusing on the product of a patient chart allows cultural competency to become functionally optional—the student can ignore it or fake it and still complete the product. But if the focus is on process, cultural competency can become a skill-in-development, an ongoing thread in the fabric of learning, and the conversation between preceptor and student can become a collaborative how-to.

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Craft curiosity  Academics are accustomed to claims, propositions, and arguments. Especially in the culture of the United States, this means making statements and preparing defense. If we approach resistant students this way, they are likely to double-down on their resistance (as many are also teenagers, after all, and individuation is appropriate for their developmental stage). Professors can make way, particularly for social justice and diversity education, through wondering. Rather than presenting answers, ask questions. Make the class or workshop a corporate inquiry— which invites student curiosity and keeps material fresh for instructors too. Run routines  Stable, repeated routines reduce structural stress, manage cognitive load, and minimize anxiety. Writing instructors know good learning leads to bad grammar—that is, the more students are stretched by the ideas in their work, the worse they are at the mechanics (Bean, 2011). Instructors can help students manage the inevitable stress of stretching by implementing relatively simple routines such as predictable deadlines (i.e., quizzes on Mondays or essay drafts due every Friday) or organizing class sessions in a pattern of I do, we do, you do.

2.4 Get Real Center the body  Many privileged or majority students occupy what fiction writers call the “non-marked state.” The term is illuminating in that many of these students also resist diversity and social justice education because their experience of culture is akin to the proverbial fish in water: surrounding culture for them is a kind of blank, more absence than substance. In these circumstances, it can be easy for them to believe -isms and other forms of injustice are largely abstract or theoretical. Classroom practices that assert the reality of the body can affirm diverse students while unmasking for resistant students the ongoing functioning of limitation, vulnerability, and power dynamics. In addition, we live in an era where process is largely invisible (no more wastebaskets of crumbled drafts or blueprints in the basement), which can leave students believing change, growth, or work occurs instantaneously or by magic. Teachers can model the how and why of diversity and social justice when we make the process of learning embodied. • Use a visual syllabus Charts, graphs, and calendars make the process of intellectual and social work visible—and affirm that they take time and space. • Be a jester Make the lesson manifest: use your body and what you do in the classroom to illustrate your points. (A colleague of mine jams a piece of dark paper between her teeth before talking to students about distractions in presentation.) • Let there be potholes An awkward silence in the discussion, students not reading the instructions, shortened time for grading exams because your mother is sick—don’t minimize these. A smooth road makes speedy passage, but speed is rarely fruitful in learning.

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• Show your work Learners who respect you as an authority or source of wisdom can deify instructors they admire; meanwhile, students who discount a teacher’s voice can do so believing the “party line” the teacher advocates has nothing to do with the student’s own experience—both students separate the teacher from the embodied, experiential process of learning. Similar to beginning with problem finding, disclose your own process of becoming: reveal where you began on the issues, what you still wrestle with, mistakes you’ve made, and conflicts that have arisen. Compost  In the paradigm of organic farming, there is no “waste.” Scraps become soil; excrement becomes fertilizer. Rather than ignoring or banishing resistance, misused terms, blatant assumptions, misunderstanding, confusion, hostility, irrelevant comments, immaturity, or just plain crankiness, teachers can consider them inevitable and focus instead on how they can be utilized in the learning process. Give students a toilet—a container for the ugly, stinking, or rejectionable stuff: Why might a school district resist gender-neutral bathrooms? Why might people be drawn to White supremist movements? What have I as the teacher done in this course or classroom that’s been offensive to you or ignorant in some way?

3 Dignity and the Classroom as Weight Room In addition to creating counterculture, utilizing process, wooing, and seeking additive intersectionality, these approaches and activities have students inhabiting another pairing of contemporary and ancient terms with their own subversive potential: the nonbinary and the Buddhist tradition of the “third way.” Whatever lessons students may or may not have learned in the course of the course, they can leave with habits, imprints, and ways of approaching and engaging that are formative, and that will continue working after a course is complete. By giving up the power to control what they learn and focusing instead of how learning happens, we give students freedom to come to their own conclusions. That’s dignifying. We set up processes that offer students dignity and freedom and end up training them in ways of engaging that cultivate dignity and freedom. Whatever they think, students can leave a course behaving in ways that create spaces for encounter, understanding, and openness. By refusing to engage the classroom and the teaching of diversity and social justice as an outcome-based zero-sum game where we either win or lose and students either accept or reject, we can harness process as a form of training. This is also sustainable for instructors because it is an act of realistic hope. We cannot force students to be advocates for diversity and justice—nor would we wish to—but by engaging processes that build the muscles they would need to enact justice, we can train them to be prepared. Then, if and when they find or uncover the will to fight or advocate, they will have the strength to do heavy lifting.

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References Bean, J. C. (2011). Engaging ideas: The professor’s guide to integrating writing, critical thinking, and active learning in the classroom (2nd ed.). Jossey-Bass. brown, a. (2017). Emergent strategy: Shaping change, changing worlds. AK Press. Comas-Díaz, L. (2016). Racial trauma recovery: A race-informed therapeutic approach to racial wounds. In A.  N. Alvarez, C.  T. H.  Liang, & H.  A. Neville (Eds.), The cost of racism for people of color: Contextualizing experiences of discrimination (pp.  249–272). American Psychological Association. Delio, I. (2013). The unbearable wholeness of being: God, evolution and the power of love. Orbis Books. Hoffer, E. R. (2020). Case-based teaching: Using stories for engagement and inclusion. International Journal on Social and Education Sciences, 2(2), 75–80. Janeway, E. (1980). Powers of the weak (1st ed.). Knopf. Kelly, L. (2015). Effectiveness of guided peer review of student essays in a large undergraduate biology course. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 27(1), 56–68. Kleon, A. (2012). Steal like an artist: 10 things nobody told you about being creative. Workman. McDrury, J., & Alterio, M. (2003). Learning through storytelling in higher education: Using reflection and experience to improve learning. RoutledgeFalmer. Miller-McLemore, B. J. (2006). In the midst of chaos: Caring for children as spiritual practice. Jossey-Bass. Noe, A. (2015). Strange tools: Art and human nature (1st ed.). Hill and Wang. Sawyer, R. K. (2012). Explaining creativity: The science of human innovation (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. Sunwolf, Frey, L. R., & Keränen, L. (2005). Rx story prescriptions: Healing effects of storytelling and storylistening in the practice of medicine. In L. M. Harter, P. M. Japp, & C. S. Beck (Eds.), Narratives, health, and healing: Communication theory, research, and practice (pp. 237–257). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers. van Zundert, M., Sluijsmans, D., & van Merriënboer, J. (2010). Effective peer assessment processes: Research findings and future directions. Learning & Instruction, 20(4), 270–279. Washington, M.  L. (2021). Examining culturally relevant leadership best practices in different educational environments. Journal of Leadership, Equity, and Research, 7(3).

Chapter 6

Embrace Complexity: Anticipating and Neutralizing Student Resistance in Undergraduate Education for Transgender and Gender Identity Justice Christine M. Robinson

1 An Urgent Agenda for Education The urgency of education for transgender1 and gender identity justice is hard to overstate. Cross-national research (Edelman, 2020) shows that transgender and gender-expansive populations are “among the most vulnerable minorities, with few countries respecting or protecting their fundamental human rights” (Dicklitch-­ Nelson & Rahman, 2022, p.  537). Both the visibility of transgender people and movements for gender self-determination over the last decade have been met with severe backlash on a global scale that has targeted transgender youth and educational institutions (Adelman & Byard, 2022; Cannon, 2022). Being in school can be perilous for transgender students (Miller, 2019), especially those who are nonbinary and multiply marginalized (Bulge et al., 2020). They are less likely than their cisgender peers to complete high school or apply to, attend, and complete college (Sansone, 2019; Wilkinson et al., 2021). Transgender college students experience a lower sense of belonging and higher rates of harassment and violent victimization than their cisgender peers, as well as mistreatment by faculty and staff, which endangers their mental and physical health (Conron et al., 2022). More than half of transgender people in the United States between ages 13 and 24 seriously contemplated suicide in 2022 (The Trevor Project, 2022). Scholars have observed the need for greater complexity in teaching and scholarship about transgender people to avoid deficit-based approaches that can reinforce cultural tropes and victim narratives that they are damaged, mentally ill, and live tragic lives (Havercamp et al., 2021), which causes harm and feeds attitudes and C. M. Robinson (*) Department of Justice Studies, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 A. J. Johnson, A. Vinding (eds.), Subverting Resistance to Social Justice and Diversity Education, SpringerBriefs in Social Work, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31713-2_6

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beliefs that underlie student resistance. Stolzenberg and Hughes (2017) identified several ways transgender students in the United States demonstrated strengths and agency relative to their peers in dealing with challenges they face in college. They were more astute in financing their education, more active in creating social support networks, more likely to seek professional guidance when struggling, more civically engaged, and more committed to social justice. Teaching about how transgender people exhibit agency and build resilience counters these narratives and fosters well-being (Shah et al., 2022). Learning about gender complexity and justice remains infrequent and elective in higher education. Laws prohibiting discrimination and harassment based on gender identity and expression oblige institutions in the United States that receive federal funds (and that do not have religious exemptions) to address inequities (Cannon, 2022). Pressure to fulfill these obligations will increase. A survey (IPSOS, 2021) of 27 countries examining gender identity by Western demographic cohorts shows 4% of people born since 1997 (Gen Z) are transgender, nonbinary, gender nonconforming, gender fluid, or other than male or female (compared to 2% of millennials, 1% of Gen Xers, and less than 1% of baby boomers). In the United States, 5.1% of young adults have a gender different from their sex assigned at birth, and 3% of them are nonbinary (Brown, 2022).

2 Resistance to Gender Complexity There is a substantial scholarly literature on student resistance in social justice and diversity education (Bryant-Davis & Arrington, 2022; Johnson & Vinding, 2023; Kite et al., 2021). Resistance refers to ways students devalue, discredit, and disengage from learning, including how they mistreat and undermine faculty members, particularly those with minoritized identities (Higginbotham, 1996). Resistance is engendered by macrolevel ideologies and structures that reify and obscure systemic inequalities (Sensoy & DiAngelo, 2017). The scholarship of teaching and learning about transgender people and gender complexity in higher education largely neglects an accounting of how student resistance materializes (Jaekel & Nicolazzo, 2022) as well as methods to address it. Resistance frequently manifests in ways that invalidate and objectify transgender people (Walker et al., 2021). Invalidations include denying the authenticity of gender variance, referencing someone by pronouns or titles contrary to their identity (e.g., gendering someone who has no gender identity and “misgendering” someone who does), and “deadnaming” (addressing someone by a name they no longer use). Resistance also commonly appears as “objectification,” or preoccupation with the bodies and gender expression of transgender people, and fetishization, a sexualized form of objectification, which is more commonly experienced by transgender women (Nicolazzo, 2021; Totton et al., 2023). Transgender educators have described how cisgender students and colleagues have invalidated, objectified, and fetishized them (Jaekel & Nicolazzo, 2022; Pitcher, 2017; Simmons, 2017; Walker et  al.,

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2021). Nicolazzo’s (2021) student blamed her professor’s transfeminine appearance for interfering with her concentration and learning. Borck (2019) recounts a colleague asking if he could choose his penis size. These experiences exact personal and professional consequences, particularly for untenured educators and others whose employment is less secure. Preventing and protecting employees and students from these harms is an institutional responsibility we must collectively share. Student resistance can be active, passive, intentional, unintentional, conscious, and unconscious. It is vocalized, corporeal, silent, and disengaged. It transpires in and beyond the classroom, via email, through discussion boards, and during office hours. Resistance is an indicator of something that interferes with a student’s learning or openness to it. Because its expression can injure others and disrupt learning and teaching, both the signifier and the sign must be addressed.

3 Author’s Positionality and Philosophy of Justice I enter and bring to my teaching and writing a great deal of privilege as a cisgender, White, middle-class, US citizen who is employed full-time as a tenured, full professor. I also experience heterosexism, sexism, and, to a lesser extent, ableism. My work with students is a deep calling, and I endeavor to approach it with care, integrity, and humility. My degrees are in sociology. I have been teaching for 25 years. My social justice pedagogy centers relational justice. The questions that animate my practice include the following: How are we implicated in our own and in each other’s lives (as individuals, as members of groups and communities, and in our roles)? What does justice require of us?

4 Anticipatory and Emergent Strategies This chapter focuses on three approaches I use to prevent and address student resistance to learning about social justice generally and about transgender people and gender complexity specifically. They are informed by insights and findings from scholarly literatures on resistance, beliefs and attitudes about transgender people, and evidence-based interventions that mitigate what often underlies student resistance. These approaches include: 1. Building and growing authentic, affirming relationships with and between students; 2. Encouraging student buy-in by emphasizing the value of social justice education for equipping students with essential knowledge and skills for personal and professional success in an increasingly diverse work environment; and 3. Incorporating course content and teaching strategies that have been demonstrated to reduce prejudice and promote positive attitudes.

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4.1 Building and Growing Authentic, Affirming Relationships To build and grow relationships, I invite students to get to know me and I regularly demonstrate interest in learning about and supporting them for their personal, academic, and professional success. A first writing assignment asks students to reflect on their perceptions of their strengths and challenges as learners and their professional aspirations. In my experience, students are more likely to engage productively in courses when the instructor consistently demonstrates care and invites written reflection, which also provides an outlet for students to process thoughts and feelings that underlie resistance (Higginbotham, 1996; Pugh, 2020). Cultivating respectful, affirming relationships between students begins with discussing course policies and expectations that serve as ground rules for inclusive learning in our community. This includes university policies on nondiscrimination and harassment, guidelines for how to approach learning and engage productively in social justice courses (see Sensoy & DiAngelo, 2017), practices that respect and affirm all genders starting on the first day (Chu, 2018), and proscribing disparaging remarks about individuals and groups (Capper et  al., 2006; Case et  al., 2009; Nussbaum, 2017). Centering the value of equal respect for all (Nussbaum, 2017) and practicing care for our relationships as keys to learning yield more constructive engagement. Treating others with respect is especially relevant for reducing resistance and transprejudice. Research shows cisgender men and individuals who score high on measures of religiosity and religious fundamentalism consistently show higher degrees of transphobia and transprejudice (Campbell et al., 2019; Kanamori & Yonghong, 2022). The literature on resistance suggests these populations may be more likely than others to verbalize resistance (Case & St. Amand, 2014; Higginbotham, 1996; Kite et  al., 2021; Markowitz, 2005; Sensoy & DiAngelo, 2017) or disengage (Pugh, 2020; Todd & Coholic, 2007). Michelson and Harrison (2020) conducted a series of experiments which demonstrate that identity threats, real and perceived, can activate defensive reactions and increase transprejudice, particularly in men. Conversely, bolstering self-esteem, appealing to shared values, and promoting identity reassurance can reduce transprejudice. Michelson and Harrison (2020) developed identity reassurance theory as a method to help people alter negative attitudes by affirming their preexisting sense of themselves as moral human beings, which can reduce prejudice. Political scientists Kalla and Broockman (2020) found that canvassers who non-judgmentally listened and mutually exchanged personal experiences and narratives were very effective in changing negative views about transgender people. They found that people are more likely to listen to others’ perspectives and consider evidence that contradicts their beliefs when their values are not threatened and when their self-worth is affirmed (Kalla & Broockman, 2020). Both of these studies support proactively building and growing affirming relationships and orienting students toward fruitful engagement with each other to help prevent resistance and promote learning.

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To operationalize “relational justice” and practice key skills, I assign Brown’s (2021) podcast on the “anatomy” of trust to help students understand what trust is and why it matters in relationships and to reflect on their own and others’ trustworthiness (as individuals and as members of groups). Brown uses the acronym BRAVING to help people remember the elements. This teaches students about the importance of establishing and respecting boundaries, being reliable, demonstrating accountability, exhibiting integrity, holding confidences (“the vault”), exhibiting non-judgement, and making generous assumptions. We use these concepts throughout the semester to guide our responsibilities toward each other in our relationships. Learning what builds and breaks trust in relationships and helping students practice holding themselves and each other accountable are essential for restoring relationships and repairing harm. Transgender microaggressions, which can range from unintentional slights to hostile expressions of resistance, are common, and they are harmful (Nadal et  al., 2012), even when they are unintentional. Transfeminine, transmasculine, nonbinary, and agender people often experience them differently (Pulice-Farrow et al., 2017). Restorative approaches are much more likely to reduce transprejudice and resistance because they help everyone maintain a positive self-­ image and work together to repair harm and restore relationships (Kalla & Broockman, 2020). Sue et al. (2021) found addressing hostile microaggressions in a calm and measured manner is more effective than anger to neutralize and disarm biased behavior. Scholars (Michelson & Harrison, 2020; Woods & Ruscher, 2021) note allies can have a significant positive impact in reducing prejudice by using a non-confrontational approach that educates and affirms the person’s self-image, rather than shaming, which can escalate resistance and damage relationships. There are excellent resources for managing transgender microaggressions, unconscious gender bias, and vocalized religious resistance to transgender education that model this approach (see Brown et al., 2022; Case & St. Amand, 2014; Green & Maurer, 2015; Kite et al., 2021).

4.2 Encouraging Student Buy-In: Professional Development Framing A recent survey administered in 21 countries found the primary reason students go to college is to secure employment (Erudera News, 2021). It is helpful to appeal to students’ self-interest by framing social justice education and relational skills as essential assets for success in increasingly diverse professional environments. In classes, I emphasize that these are the most frequent issues prospective employers and postgraduate programs want faculty to address in recommendations. I reinforce this point by projecting a photo from the US Department of Justice website (2022) that offers a training program for law enforcement officers called “Engaging and Building Relationships with Transgender Communities,” and by sharing my

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experience of providing a reference for a former student to an FBI agent. The agent asked if the applicant would work effectively with diverse groups of people, without discriminating on the basis of any category covered by US federal law. The agent read the entire list of categories, including sexual orientation and gender identity. This approach has been very effective and can also reduce student disengagement. Undergraduates surveyed in the United States reported that the most significant way professors can stimulate their interest is to relate course material to their future careers (Alonso, 2023). To help students further professional skills and to promote familiarity and comfort with transgender education and gender complexity throughout the semester, I assign and incentivize opportunities for students to complete trainings and educational workshops outside of class (some of which can be documented on resumes). These include Trans 101/102 workshops and the online, asynchronous Safe Zone training, as well as programs on restorative practices and conflict management. Students enjoy these opportunities, which also pays dividends for our work together in class.

4.3 Evidence-Based Pedagogical Interventions A wealth of research illuminates the factors that shape positive and negative attitudes and feelings toward transgender people that underlie resistance. Negative attitudes most strongly correlate with no or low interpersonal contact with transgender people; beliefs that gender is binary and that men and women should have different gender roles (Hackimer et al., 2021); beliefs that sex determines gender (Axt et al., 2021); beliefs that gender normativity is natural and gender variance is chosen, caused by trauma, or represents mental illness; political conservatism; authoritarianism (Perez-Arche & Miller, 2021); social dominance orientation (McCullough et al., 2019); and religiosity and religious fundamentalism (Campbell et al., 2019; Kanamori & Yonghong, 2022). Research shows that attitudes toward transgender people in the United States vary widely among Christians, who hold more transprejudice than Muslims, or than Jews, who are the least prejudiced among these three groups (Lipka & Tevington, 2022). Because the factors that fuel bias can vary cross-­ culturally, interventions should be tailored to the context (Kite et al., 2019). Evidence-based approaches that most effectively reduce prejudice, discomfort, and fear in a wide range of contexts include (1) fostering positive interactions and/ or other forms of contact with transgender people and (2) increasing knowledge and accurate information about gender variance and dispelling myths and misinformation about transgender people.

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Fostering Contact Cross-cultural research shows cisgender people who hold positive attitudes toward transgender people are more likely to have prior contact with them (Kite et  al., 2019). Forty-three percent of US-Americans report knowing someone who is transgender (Minken & Brown, 2021). Having contact with or knowing someone who is transgender (Minken & Brown, 2021; Tadlock et  al., 2017), having at least one friend who is transgender (Barbir et  al., 2017), and having interpersonal contact with lesbian, gay, and bisexual people (Hackimer et al., 2021; McCullough et al., 2019) all significantly correlate with lower transprejudice. Contact reduces anxiety and discomfort and increases empathy (Tadlock et al., 2017). Evidence-based contact interventions demonstrate efficacy for lowering prejudice, reducing stigma, and increasing positive attitudes and feelings. These include speaker panels (McDermott et  al., 2018; McMillian-Bohler et  al., 2022; Walch et al., 2012), electronic or mediated contact (Boccanfuso et al. 2021), brief social-­ contact videos (Amsalem et al., 2022), webinars (Mizock et al., 2017), and even imagined contact (Glazier et al., 2021; Moss-Racusin & Rabasco, 2018). To protect guest speakers from harm, it is important to be intentional about selecting speakers and preparing students for respectful interactions and questions. There are helpful resources that provide guidance on these topics (Green & Maurer, 2015; National Center for Transgender Equality, 2016). The research literature also includes a variety of other interventions as vicarious or parasocial contact. For example, Case and Stewart (2013) used an emotional intervention in the form of an actual letter published in 1996 by a transgender youth to his parents as well as a media intervention (a documentary segment about transgender college students) and found these to be effective in increasing empathy and reducing transprejudice. Additional vicarious or parasocial interventions that aim to humanize transgender people have been shown to reduce transphobia, transprejudice, and discomfort among undergraduates and other populations. These include writing exercises, such as “perspective-taking” (Flores et al., 2021), and exposing students to informational vignettes and visual representations of facial images of transgender people (Flores et al., 2018; Tadlock et al., 2017). Jones et al. (2018) found that positive views of transgender people were strongly correlated with television consumption in the United States (but not with other forms of media). Some fictional media interventions have been effective in reducing prejudice with undergraduate populations. Exposing students to positive portrayals of transgender individuals in a fictional television show in the United Kingdom increased positive attitudes among political conservatives (Gillig et al., 2018). Taracuk and Koch (2023) found that students who viewed an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation titled “The Outcast” (Taylor & Scheerer, 1992) significantly increased positive attitudes (in comparison to a control group that did not). The episode focuses on a genderless society that punishes its members who have a gender identity by subjecting them to “treatment.” Contact interventions can be implemented in a variety of educational settings and modes of delivery. They may be particularly useful for targeting populations

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that have low or poor prior contact and that consistently show high degrees of transprejudice, such as cisgender men (Boccanfuso et  al., 2021) and highly religious individuals (Hackimer et al., 2021; Kanamori & Yonghong, 2022). Contact is not a panacea, however. Contact that is frequent, positive, and meaningful shows the strongest impacts (Michelson & Harrison, 2022). Because resilience for transgender people is fostered through engagement with transgender communities (Rothbaum et al., 2022), providing opportunities for community connections can also promote well-being. Increasing Knowledge and Dispelling Misinformation and Myths Negative attitudes toward transgender people are strongly correlated with a lack of exposure to information about gender variance and transgender people, as well as with believing myths and misinformation (Rad et al., 2019). In many societies, lack of interpersonal contact combined with exposure to media representations of transgender people that reinforce stereotypes of transgender people as dangerous, mentally ill, deceptive, and likely to be sex workers has a strong negative impact on attitudes (Richardson & Smith, 2022; Totton et al., 2023). Transnational research shows some of these narratives are promulgated by organized anti-LGBT and anti-­ transgender organizations and networks, which are predominantly Christian (Robinson & Spivey, 2019). DISCLOSURE (2020) is an outstanding documentary that dispels a broad range of myths and stereotypes, addresses important topics (such as objectification), and is intersectional. Those who have prior exposure to education about transgender people and gender complexity have more positive attitudes (Mizock et al., 2017), as do people who have degrees in liberal arts, humanities, or social science fields (in contrast to other degrees), which promote critical thinking, self-reflection, empathy, tolerance, and communication (Gorrotxategi et  al., 2020; Maloy et  al., 2022). Those who have completed post-secondary education are also less authoritarian (Carnivale et  al., 2020), which is correlated with lower transprejudice. Research shows that assumptions and beliefs about what gender is and how it is determined significantly shape attitudes toward transgender people (Anderson, 2022; Reiman et al., 2022). The belief that there are only two genders and that biology/sex assigned at birth determines a person’s gender is correlated with holding more negative attitudes (Rad et al., 2019; Schudson & Morgenroth, 2022). These beliefs are strongly correlated with myths that purport to “explain” gender variance via environmental factors (such as the idea that gender-variant identities are chosen or caused by childhood trauma) and the myth that gender variance is a mental illness that can be treated through therapy. Believing any of these myths significantly predicts transprejudice (Elischberger et  al., 2016; Glazier et  al., 2021). Educational content to undermine myths can be found easily online (see American Psychological Association, 2021). While dispelling these myths, it is also important to not exacerbate mental health stigma, which is ableist (Clare, 2017).

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Evidence-based interventions demonstrate that dispelling myths and correcting misinformation about transgender people and gender variance in key areas can significantly reduce transprejudice. Some research even shows that reducing transprejudice and transphobia can increase support for the rights of transgender people (Flores et al., 2018; Michelson & Harrison, 2020). What kind of educational content is most useful for reducing resistance? Research on attitudes provides helpful direction. People who are aware that gender variance has existed in history and across cultures have more positive attitudes, lower prejudice, and warmer feelings toward transgender people (Glazier et al., 2021; Schudson & Morgenroth, 2022). There are many ways to incorporate educational content about gender-variant individuals in history and gender diversity cross-culturally including biographies, documentaries, lectures, and primary source materials from online transgender archives (Green & Maurer, 2015; Stryker, 2017). Harley et al. (2020) found that a mobile app of queer history effectively decreased transprejudice and promoted empathy toward gender-­ variant people. Like contact interventions, strategies that increase knowledge and dispel myths and misinformation are versatile and can be implemented in a variety of settings, with limited resources, and through various modes of delivery. Effective informational interventions that reduce prejudice can be as basic as providing students a list with factual information about gender identity and transgender people while correcting misinformation and dispelling commonly-held myths (Case & Stewart, 2013), or they can be more protracted, such as teaching a semester-long course (Gorrotxategi et al., 2020). Mizock et al. (2017) developed a webinar using lecture slides to educate about appropriate terminology, the meaning of gender identity, appropriate pronoun use, negative consequences of transphobia, and the qualities of respectful interaction with transgender individuals, including quiz questions to assess comprehension. The authors modified the webinar to incorporate videos featuring the narratives of transgender people, which were particularly effective in reducing stigma (Williams et al., 2021). Perhaps the most effective approaches integrate contact, increase knowledge, and dispel myths.

5 Conclusion Education for gender complexity and justice is urgent. The current backlash targeting transgender youth and educational institutions makes our efforts in higher education more difficult and more necessary. Resistance can be mitigated by implementing evidence-based interventions that enhance knowledge, correct misinformation, promote empathy, and foster contact. These are versatile approaches that effectively reduce bias, undermine and erode what underlies resistance, and have potential to increase support for the rights of transgender people. Research can help us identify strategies that maximize learning, generate student investment, support professional skills, and tailor our approach for the type of institutions and cultural

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context in which we work. Educating for transgender and gender identity justice is an institutional responsibility we must collectively share and embrace. Note The lexicon of gender identity and expression is complex and varies by culture, region, subculture, and historical context. Identities and expression can be stable or fluid. In this chapter, I used the word transgender to refer to all of the diverse groups of people “who move away from the gender they were assigned at birth, people who cross over (trans-) the boundaries constructed by their culture to define and contain their gender” (Stryker, 2017, p.  1). This includes people who embrace a specific gender identity (such as transgender, two-spirit, gender fluid, nonbinary, etc.) and those who do not have a gender identity (agender).

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Index

A Attention, 2, 5, 7–11, 22, 23, 58

H Higher education, 39, 70, 77

C Classroom counterculture, 62 Cognitive dissonance, 5–7 Collaboration, 16, 19–25, 29–40, 46, 51–54 Community engagement, 19, 21–22 Community partner engagement, 19 Creative problem-solving, 19, 23 Critical self-reflexivity, 33–36, 39

I Intersectionality, 10, 24, 61, 67

D Diversity, 1–11, 15–21, 25–27, 38, 57, 58, 60, 61, 66, 67, 70, 77 E Education, 1–11, 15, 17, 20, 21, 43, 49, 58, 60, 61, 64, 66, 69–78 Emotion management, 23 Empowerment, 2, 9, 18, 23, 45, 49–52 Epistemic justice, 36, 37, 39 G Gender identity, 3, 10, 11, 16, 69–78

N Nonviolent formation, 57–67 P Problem finding, 64, 67 Process model, 39 Project-based learning, 4, 9, 10, 19–22, 25, 33, 43, 46, 51, 52 R Racial wealth gap, 43–45, 51 Relational partnership development, 11, 29–40 Reparations, 21, 43, 45–47 Resistance, 1–11, 15–17, 22, 25, 58, 59, 62, 64–67, 70–74, 77 S Social justice, 1–11, 15–27, 29, 31, 33, 35, 39, 44–46, 55, 57, 58, 60, 61, 66, 67, 70–73

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 A. J. Johnson, A. Vinding (eds.), Subverting Resistance to Social Justice and Diversity Education, SpringerBriefs in Social Work, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31713-2

85

86

Index

Social presentation, 3 Student resistance, 1, 2, 7, 11, 17, 22, 61, 69–78

U Undergraduates, 3, 69–78 Undergraduate students, 2, 43, 44

T Teaching methods, 16, 26 Transgender, 11, 69–78

W Wisdom development, 17, 18, 22