Social Inequality and Teaching in the Academy Part V: “Imagine Otherwise” – Ways Forward

We live in an unequal world; these inequalities do not stop at the university classroom door.

In this five-part series, I consider some ways unjust inequalities are (re)produced in the classroom. These inequalities affect the pedagogical relationship. Moreover, critically investigating them matters if the university is to be a site for challenging, not reproducing, social inequalities.

Elaine Coburn, Glendon

In Parts I through IV, I considered different ways that inequalities are reproduced in the university classroom. In this final contribution, in lieu of conclusions, I suggest some bases for moving towards university classrooms that challenge social inequalities.

My own arguments, following many others, point to the need for major, structural changes to the university. Institutional procedures cannot pretend to the neutral adjudication of professor-student disputes, but must stand firmly against racism, sexism, homophobia and other invidious distinctions made by (some) students, socialized into an unequal world, as well as by (some) professors. This requires universities, as institutions, to take into account empirical studies that demonstrate that student evaluations are, at best, problematic. Without a single explicit racist, sexist or heteronormative remark, student evaluations frequently condemn professors who do not fit with historical representations of authority as male, white and straight, among other characteristics.

Further, academic appointments must be secure if scholars are to truly practice intellectual freedom. The regularization of contract workers into secure employment is thus an important aspect of the struggle to transform pedagogy to reflect the whole range of the world’s voices and experiences.

We need to create new forms of solidarity, both inside and outside the classroom. This includes sharing our efforts to broaden the content of our syllabi to reflect knowledge that has too often been marginalized. Such sharing is rooted in an understanding that good teaching is never an individual accomplishment but realized collectively through collaborative efforts across departments and universities a whole. In addition, solidarity among colleagues includes hiring and then creating spaces for diversely marginalized professors to share, exchange and organize together.

The difficulties, challenges and inevitable opposition that will arise from powerful institutionalized actors who benefit from the status quo should not be underestimated. Nonetheless, it is worth emphasizing that the experience of transforming the pedagogical experience towards one of greater equality – for both students and professors  -- can be one of genuine excitement.

As University of British Columbia Professor and member of the Cherokee nation Daniel Heath Justice reminds us, we may exercise intellectual freedom by choosing to “imagine otherwise.” With institutional and collegial support, we may deliberately “make room for others to expand the possibilities of wonder and imagination in more diverse, more expansive, and more complex ways” in our classrooms, universities, writing and research (www.imagineotherwise.ca).

In short, the struggle to transform the university, imaginatively and practically, to become a meaningful site for knowledge creation and sharing for each and all, is an enormous and difficult task. Yet it is a necessary one; and it may be understood, not only as a tremendous challenge, but as an opportunity.

Internet Resources

Citation Practices Challenge http://citationpractices.tumblr.com

Collegium of Black Women Philosophers http://www.cbwp.ktgphd.com

Honouring Indigenous Writers #HonouringIndigenousWriters

The International Association of Women Philosophers http://www.women-philosophy.org

Society for Disability Studies http://disstudies.org 

Transgender Studies Quarterly https://www.facebook.com/tsqjournal/?ref=page_internal

Internationalization of the Curriculum http://web.uvic.ca/~sherriw/index.htm

Online Syllabi

*Thank-you to Professor Margaret Schotte

Decolonizing Science Reading List https://medium.com/@chanda/decolonising-science-reading-list-339fb773d51f#.7gsq8rqzp

Making the American Syllabus http://www.aaihs.org/making-the-american-syllabus-hashtag-syllabi-in-historical-perspective/

Geographies of Peace: An Annotated Bibliography https://www.academia.edu/28640614/Geographies_of_Peace_an_annotated_bibliography

Women’s Caucus of the History of Science Society http://hsswc.weebly.com/syllabus-project.html

Occupy the Syllabus http://www.dailycal.org/2015/01/20/occupy-syllabus/

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