Kwantlen Polytechnic University KORA: Kwantlen Open Resource Access All Faculty Scholarship Faculty Scholarship 11-2000 The Impact of Gender and Diversity, Creating Inclusion in the College Environment Facilitator Training and Implementation on Faculty in BC South Coast Post Secondary Institutions Alice Macpherson Kwantlen Polytechnic University Follow this and additional works at: http://kora.kpu.ca/facultypub Part of the Curriculum and Instruction Commons, and the Higher Education and Teaching Commons KORA Citation Macpherson, Alice, "The Impact of Gender and Diversity, Creating Inclusion in the College Environment Facilitator Training and Implementation on Faculty in BC South Coast Post Secondary Institutions" (2000). KORA Faculty Scholarship: Paper 7. http://kora.kpu.ca/facultypub/7 This Dissertation / Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship at KORA: Kwantlen Open Resource Access. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Faculty Scholarship by an authorized administrator of KORA: Kwantlen Open Resource Access. For more information, please contact kora@kpu.ca. THE IMPACT OF GENDER AND DIVERSITY, CREATING INCLUSION IN THE COLLEGE ENVIRONMENT FACILITATOR TRAINING AND IMPLEMENTATION ON FACULTY IN BC SOUTH COAST POST SECONDARY INSTITUTIONS by ALICE MACPHERSON Certificate of Qualification Motorcycle Mechanic Ontario, 1975 British Columbia, 1985 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in the Faculty of Education © Alice Macpherson 2000 Simon Fraser University November 2000 All rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without the permission of the author. APPROVAL NAME Alice Macpherson DEGREE Master of Arts TITLE THE IMPACT OF GENDER AND DIVERSITY, CREATING INCLUSION IN THE COLLEGE ENVIRONMENT FACILITATOR TRAINING AND IMPLEMENTATION ON FACULTY IN BC SOUTH COAST POST SECONDARY INSTITUTIONS EXAMINING COMMITTEE Chair Dr. Geoff Madoc-Jones ________________________________________________ Dr. Kelleen Toohey, Associate Professor Senior Supervisor ________________________________________________ Dr. Wanda Cassidy, Associate Professor Member ________________________________________________ Dr. June Beynon Internal/External Examiner ________________________________________________ Date of Approval_________________________________ ii ABSTRACT This thesis is a qualitative study of the experience of nine facilitators using Gender And Diversity, Creating Inclusion In The College Environment curriculum in BC south coast post secondary institutions. This self-selected group of nine instructors from various postsecondary institution participated voluntarily in an interview process intended to elicit information about their experiences as they implemented this curriculum. In addition, I examined the background events and climates that led these instructors to integrate elements of the curriculum into their instructional practice as they work towards creating inclusion. Analysis of the interview data reveals the complexity of the facilitators' interactions within the contexts of their post secondary communities. This thesis reinforces previous literature that states that change happens slowly and that it takes the personal, lived experiences of each individual to make small, incremental steps towards change within our larger social structures, particularly in post-secondary education. I began this research with the intent to hear and transmit the ever-changing story of inclusion in the college context. This thesis gives voice to these experiences so that others may access them iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This study is the end product of many people’s interaction and knowledge. As I finish my thesis I remember and want to acknowledge the many people who have been integral to this process. I appreciate the work done on my behalf by Diane Morrison of the Centre for Curriculum, Transfer and Technology as she arranged for permission to use the curriculum from all of the provincial management sources. Most of all I appreciate the participants who gave me such honest and open comments about their experiences. This valuable information is the heart and soul of this document. Dr. Kelleen Toohey is greatly appreciated for her many insightful comments, suggestions, and support throughout the process of research and writing of this thesis Wanda Cassidy triggered me to closer examination of my material and June Beynon guided me through her questions and focus. Many thanks to them all. I acknowledge the support and intellectual stimulation of my colleagues Linda Coyle and Harpreet Bachra as I wrestled with putting theory into practice in my work. I am grateful for my enduring shadow committee who gave me the personal and academic support to complete – Joan McArthur-Blair, Jean Cockell, and Pat Pattison. My personal partner, Doug Bird was a critical emotional support element in my work and made it easy to reach my goal. iv Table of Contents APPROVAL................................................................................................................................................. II ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................................III ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.......................................................................................................................... IV CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................................. 1 BACKGROUND ............................................................................................................................................ 1 TERMS ........................................................................................................................................................ 3 RESEARCHER .............................................................................................................................................. 4 RESEARCH .................................................................................................................................................. 6 SYNOPSIS OF THE THESIS ELEMENTS .......................................................................................................... 6 CHAPTER SUMMARY .................................................................................................................................. 7 CHAPTER 2 – LITERATURE REVIEW.................................................................................................. 8 EXCLUSION AND RACISM: SOME COMMENTS .............................................................................................. 8 LEGISLATED CHANGE............................................................................................................................... 11 NEED FOR INCLUSION PROGRAMS ............................................................................................................ 13 INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCY ................................................................................................................ 15 MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION CONSORTIUM OF B.C. .............................................................................. 19 DIVERSITY IN THE INSTITUTIONAL AND BUSINESS WORLDS .................................................................... 22 DEVELOPING AND IMPLEMENTING PROGRAMS ......................................................................................... 23 INDIVIDUAL CHANGE ............................................................................................................................... 26 ISSUES OF RESISTANCE TO CHANGE ......................................................................................................... 28 SUMMARY ................................................................................................................................................ 30 CHAPTER 3 – METHODOLOGY........................................................................................................... 32 SPECIFIC TECHNIQUES .............................................................................................................................. 36 v SELECTION OF INTERVIEWEES .................................................................................................................. 37 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS ...................................................................................................................... 39 RESEARCH PROCESS ................................................................................................................................. 40 CHAPTER 4 – FINDINGS ........................................................................................................................ 42 THE EFFECTS OF PERSONAL BACKGROUND .............................................................................................. 43 ISOLATION AND CREATING NETWORKS – PEOPLE / CURRICULUM ............................................................ 47 AVAILABLE RESOURCES ........................................................................................................................... 53 PRACTICE ................................................................................................................................................. 58 RESISTANCE TO CHANGE .......................................................................................................................... 63 BEING A CHANGE AGENT ......................................................................................................................... 66 SUMMARY ................................................................................................................................................ 70 CHAPTER 5 – ANALYSIS ....................................................................................................................... 73 PERSONAL BACKGROUND ........................................................................................................................ 74 ISOLATION AND CREATING NETWORKS – PEOPLE / CURRICULUM ............................................................ 76 AVAILABILITY OF RESOURCES ................................................................................................................. 78 PRACTICE ................................................................................................................................................. 79 RESISTANCE TO CHANGE .......................................................................................................................... 83 BEING A CHANGE AGENT ......................................................................................................................... 85 OBSERVATIONS ........................................................................................................................................ 86 ANALYSIS ................................................................................................................................................. 87 RECOMMENDATIONS ................................................................................................................................ 89 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................................ 94 LIST OF REFERENCES........................................................................................................................... 95 APPENDIX 1 – INTERVIEW SCHEDULE .......................................................................................... 101 INTERVIEW SCHEDULE ........................................................................................................................... 102 vi History .............................................................................................................................................. 102 Facilitation Training......................................................................................................................... 102 Application........................................................................................................................................ 102 Institutional Support ......................................................................................................................... 103 APPENDIX 2 – LETTER OF REQUEST.............................................................................................. 105 COVER LETTER FROM CENTRE FOR CURRICULUM, TECHNOLOGY AND TRANSFER ................................ 106 LETTER TO PROSPECTIVE PARTICIPANTS,................................................................................................ 107 FAX BACK FORM .................................................................................................................................... 108 APPENDIX 3 – LETTER OF PERMISSION FROM THE CENTRE FOR CURRICULUM, TECHNOLOGY AND TRANSFER ....................................................................................................... 109 RELEASE FORM ...................................................................................................................................... 110 APPENDIX 4 – SAMPLE OF PERMISSION FORM SIGNED BY PARTICIPANTS..................... 111 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY ................................................................................................................... 112 INFORMED CONSENT BY SUBJECTS TO PARTICIPATE IN A RESEARCH PROJECT ...................................... 112 vii Chapter 1 – INTRODUCTION Background The south coastal area of British Columbia is home to a diverse population. One of the primary challenges to the post-secondary education system is the provision of a rigourous and inclusive education, given the multicultural nature of the student population and their communities. Rising to this challenge, sixty five faculty members in twenty seven Colleges, University Colleges, Universities and the British Columbia Institute of Technology were designated by their institutions and have taken training to become facilitators of the materials in Gender and Diversity, Creating Inclusion in the College Environment (1995). The curriculum was developed by adult educator, Joan McArthurBlair and was intended to address the challenges and concerns of a multicultural student population within institutions that are primarily mono-cultural in their infrastructure, administrative framework and in the apparent curricular presuppositions in effect. The training was done in two cohorts, one in the spring and one in the late summer. The agenda of the training began with a distribution of the curriculum and general introduction to the five trainers. The bulk of the interactions over the two days of training were based on using the experiential exercises that are the body of the curriculum and then discussing their application in a meta-analysis approach from the facilitator’s viewpoint. The final portion of the training included action planning by institutional cohorts with coaching from the trainers. The major goals of the training were to distribute the curriculum to facilitators with a background in diversity and inclusion issues from the 1 BC post-secondary education system, to allow the facilitators to experience the curriculum as participants and to then facilitate the analysis of how the curriculum impacts on the individual and how it could be used to further create inclusion within each facilitator’s home institution. Since the training, done with two different groups of people in the spring and summer of 1996, there has also been a three-day retreat in December 1997 to discuss experiences and future plans. The experience of this group of peer facilitators was varied, with some having seemingly more success than others in holding workshops and/or integrating the concepts into curriculum, policy and actions within their setting. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the work done by facilitators of Gender and Diversity Training in B.C. south coastal post secondary institutions and to assess how the training has affected the institutions and the facilitators. This research will look at the impact on facilitators and trainers with a particular interest in how each person sees themselves as a change agent in their own institution. What has been the impact of Gender and Diversity, Creating Inclusion in the College Environment Facilitator Training and Implementation on Faculty in BC south coastal post secondary institutions? This question raises a number of sub queries. In this thesis, I will address the following questions about the facilitators and their work to create inclusion: • What brought them to this work on Inclusion? • What parts of the training were and were not useful to them? • What bias(es) did they encounter in trying to do this work? 2 • What were the effects of apparent biases within their institution on their work? • How do they perceive themselves in relation to this work and their capacity to make changes within their institution and community? • What are their perceptions of the changes that have occurred? • What is the apparent impact of this training program on policy and attitudes within institutions? This research and thesis are intended to be useful to/for persons within the post secondary educational system who are attempting to effect change in the area of inclusion at all levels of institutions. Terms Some of the key terms that will be used in this thesis include: Anti-Racism – the work of eliminating the systematic discrimination towards any person or group of people based on their race or ethnic background, particularly by individuals or groups denigrating or portraying other persons or groups as inferior, deficit or other stereotypical depictions. It is related to anti-sexism. Culture – a continuous and cumulative process that is collectively learned and shared by a group and is manifest in behaviours and values exhibited by members of that group. Dominant Culture – the societal culture of power in which one group of people holds the balance of power within a situation or system and dictates which cultural elements will be accepted, displayed or transmitted within that system. This domination may be implicit or 3 explicit. There is a tendency to tolerate, differentiate or suppress other cultural manifestations when they are different from the dominant one. Equity – the practice of treating each person and group according to their needs so that a balance of fairness is maintained that does not favour one over another in any over all way. This is distinguished from equality in which all people are treated exactly the same no matter what their individual needs are. Inclusion – deliberate acts and policies that acknowledge and involve all participants in an equitable way. Inclusive Curriculum – a wholistic course of study that includes the values, beliefs and voices of diverse individuals and groups (Vancouver School Board, 1995, p. 8). It reveals biases, opens up discussion and acknowledges points of view that move the process of education forward to giving more than the dominant culture a voice. Multiculturalism – encompasses the variety of cultures that individuals and groups bring with them, as they are part of the wider society. In Canada, this includes the nation’s native and immigrant heritages as well as the cultures that have and are developing in interaction with one another. Researcher I have spent most of my adult life in a male culture of tradeswork, the adrenalin culture of motorcycle roadracing and emergency work, the alternative culture of special events, and in a feminist culture of teaching self-defense to women and their children. I am a middle 4 aged white woman from a long line of displaced persons from across the British Isles and Northern Europe. I reside in a variety of cultural groupings that include working class, feminist, heterosexual, agrarian, and machinery oriented. I regularly interact with various people whose ethnicity and abilities differ from each other and from my own. I think of myself as temporarily able-bodied. Right now I am able bodied but there have been times when I have not been, and so my “community” has changed periodically. As I age, my interactions change as other people’s perceptions of me change. This thesis is part of an ongoing study and struggle on my part to explain the statement: "Different therefore equal” (a quote from Peggy Seeger, British folksinger). I continually seek for more insight into the manifestations of racism and discrimination so as to better understand the assumptions and presuppositions that support it. I then use that understanding to challenge and change my own thinking and to affect attitudes and behaviours of students and colleagues in a way that leads to the elimination of racism. I received training as a facilitator of the provincial curriculum written by Joan McArthurBlair in Gender and Diversity, Creating Inclusion in the College Environment (1995). The curriculum is developed around experiential exercises on culture, gender, diversity and inclusion. As I attempted to put into practice this curriculum and to integrate the activities of making inclusion an explicit concept in my practice in all the arenas in which I act, I found that there were difficulties and contradictions in how these ideas were received within my institution. I wondered what was happening for others who had taken the facilitator training. My experiences in using parts of this curriculum led me to want to find out more about what others had experienced in using this curriculum and other 5 methods of creating inclusion. My personal experience brought forth questions around implementation including: How could I connect with other faculty, students, staff and administration to talk about issues of inclusion? Research For the purposes of this thesis I interviewed nine facilitators from six post secondary institutions in south coastal British Columbia. Each interview was approximately 1 hour in length, taped and then transcribed. The interviewees were given copies of the transcribed interviews and their opinions on the transcriptions' accuracy were solicited. Synopsis of the Thesis Elements In chapter 1, I introduce the topic and the structure of the thesis and present a context for the facilitation experience in the subjects of diversity, inclusion and anti-racism. I also describe some of my own experiences that led me to my questions. In chapter 2 I review literature pertaining to the subjects of culture, diversity, exclusion, racism and the need for anti-racism and inclusive programs. This is a background of other people’s work that informs me about this topic. Chapter 3 is a description of the methodology models and general approach that I used as a framework for carrying out research. I also describe the research questions that were used to guide the investigation and were used as the basis for analysis and my observation/data collection methods. 6 Chapter 4 contains my research findings, which are selected from the interviews of facilitators around their experiences that I have conducted using the methodology described in Chapter 3. They include the experiences in practice of facilitators and this chapter is a summary of what was found through their words. In chapter 5, I provide an analysis of the findings along with discussion of possible models of inclusive practise that may be derived from and supported by this research. I look at the applicability of the research on facilitation issues. In conclusion I recommend ways to implement the models. Chapter Summary This thesis is a study of the experiences of a number of people from post-secondary institutions who have trained as facilitators in 1996 to use the curriculum of Gender and Diversity, Creating Inclusion in the College Environment. The terms used in this thesis have been identified as having particular meanings for the purpose of this document, however these are not the only possible definitions. I have approached this work from the personal place of ongoing change and a history of having a mobile point of the view. I strive to question my assumptions and to listen to the voices of others. In this thesis I endeavour to present and analyze some of the experiences of facilitators working with creating inclusion. I hope that the information in this thesis may be useful for anyone who is doing similar work around the questions of inclusions at any level in post secondary educational institutions. 7 Chapter 2 – Literature Review This chapter identifies the literature that relates to the research and findings in the areas of exclusion, inclusion and making change in educational environments. It will also identify gaps in the literature in the area of the experiences of facilitators of diversity programs. As I approached the subject of implementation of diversity programs, I read a wide variety of literatures. It seemed to me that there was a range of writing on theory and methods in educational settings and on implementing diversity programs, while there is very little literature about the individual experience of the facilitators of diversity programs. Joan McArthur-Blair in her curriculum Gender and Diversity, Creating Inclusion in the College Classroom, (1995) proposed experiential exercises to increase awareness, reflection and respect for a variety of cultural competencies. This curriculum of experiential exercises was intended to advance and enhance inclusive practice within the post-secondary area. The facilitators who were interviewed for this thesis studied and applied this curriculum in their post-secondary institutions in British Columbia. Exclusion and Racism: some comments There is a long history of exclusion and racism in Canada that is so deeply rooted that many people believe racism to be a "natural" relationship. Systemic means have been used to try to erase the racial identity and culture of whole groups. John Boyko (1995) details situations that Chinese, Ukrainian, Jewish, Japanese, Black, and Native people 8 faced and are still dealing with in Canada. This includes the “residential schools that were designed to kill Native nations by turning their children white” (Boyko, 1995, p 184). Canadian governments, supported by many privileged citizens, have acted to exclude certain groups from coming into the country and have deported people born in Canada from Canada to the country of their ancestors. Some examples of Canadian government policy are documented below. In the early part of the 20th Century, immigrants to Canada from the Indian sub-continent had to pay a $500 per person head tax and after 1907 the government of British Columbia disenfranchised them, despite their being British subjects. After the Asiatic Exclusion Act of 1907, they were forbidden entry as well. When the vessel Komagata Maru arrived in Vancouver harbour in 1914, it was not allowed to dock because it carried more than 300 Sikhs, all British subjects and therefore members of the British Commonwealth, who wished to immigrate to Canada. The ship was eventually sent back to India. There were many reverses in fortune for various people. In 1945, then Prime Minister Mackenzie King issued an Order In Council (PC7338) that “allowed the cabinet to continue the war measures act despite the fact that the war was over” (Boyko, 1995, p 144). This Order-In-Council was applied to deport five boatloads of people to Japan despite the attempts by some Canadians to stop the process. While the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms now forbids explicit acts of exclusion such as those documented above, we are still experiencing the effects of these actions. People who have experienced these actions or have grown up in the shadow of the effects of these actions carry with them internalized scars. 9 Racism is also perpetuated through the practice of assimilation. Nelson (1994) observes “In the first 70 years of the Century, multiculturalism in Canada tended to be based on assimilation. Immigrants were encouraged to fit into Canadian society” (p. 40). This approach did not respect the backgrounds and cultural values that were being replaced by an Euro-Canadian view of society. Individual acts of exclusion also characterize our Canadian culture and how anyone who is different may be treated. Penney, Ahluwalia, Nobel, Tremayne, & Thomson (1996) point out: A Vancouver high school student of Japanese ancestry is studying Canadian history. Although her grandparents have told her in detail of their internment during World War II, her history book doesn’t mention it. She begins to wonder whom to believe. An Aboriginal student who moves to a remote northern community toward the end of the school year is excluded from a field trip to visit a Hydro dam, a ghost town, and a southern university’s museum. The school says that the student did not participate in the fund raising, and because she was Aboriginal could probably not afford to pay her own way. A B.C. college ESL student whose religion forbids the eating of meat is forced to eat a traditional Thanksgiving dinner on the grounds that she must experience Canadian culture. (pp. 2-1, 2-2) 10 We also deal now with more subtle forms of discrimination. In schools, the history that is taught is often the history of conquest and oppression. Since history is generally written by the people who are in charge, the biases are those of a dominant point of view. As well, non-dominant groups within society are stereotyped with characteristics that are allegedly applicable to every member of the group. The natural differences that exist among all people are ignored and negative actions are justified on the basis of supposed logic derived from the stereotypes. Often the victims themselves are assimilated to such an extent that they accept or agree with the treatment that they are accorded. This is described as “internalized oppression” or “internalized racism” by Ricky SheroverMarcuse (1988) and can then lead to them reinforcing both the stereotypes and accepting the negative treatment as “normal”. Breaking the cycle becomes extremely difficult. Legislated Change Society has a moral and ethical obligation to change this reality. Bill Black wrote, in the 1994 B.C. Human Rights Review Report on Human Rights in British Columbia, that human rights legislation reflects “the society we would like to be, but the reality is that too often we fall short of these aspirations” (p. 2). Human rights legislation contains the elements of change but the status quo is deeply rooted within Canadian society. The ongoing struggle for change is fundamentally on a systemic level. Roxanna Ng (1994) points out that: [R]acism and sexism are not merely attitudes held by some members of society. I am beginning to think that they are not even just structural – in the sense that they are institutionalized in the judicial system, the educational system, the workplace, 11 etc., – which of course they are. More fundamentally, they are systemic: they have crystallized over time in the ways we think and act regardless of our own gender, race, and class position. (p. 240) Added to this difficulty of being lumped into categories based on race, gender, colour, disability and all of the other differences that separate individuals, then inequality takes on a larger shadow. Ng (1994) tells us: [T]here is a tendency to treat gender, race and class as different analytic categories designating different domains of social life. While I continue to experience gender and race oppression as a totality, when I participate in academic and intellectual work I have to make a theoretical and analytical separation of my experience and translate it into variables of ‘sex.’ ‘ethnicity,’ and ‘class’ in order for my work to be acceptable and understandable to my colleagues. (p. 224) Linda Carty and Dionne Brand (1993) inform us that : The Canadian State does not relate to all people(s) equally and as far as it related to women at all, it tends to treat Native, South Asian, Black, Chinese and other nonwhite groups of women as quantitatively aberrant and qualitatively homogeneous. (p. 207) They further point out that state involvement turns formerly “grassroots” organizations into “social agencies, so that now they have become quite bureaucratic. Much of the staff’s time is now spent fulfilling the requirements set by the bureaucracies” (p. 212). 12 Here, activities intended to support and improve the situation of particular groups are coopted into providing information for the government. Need for Inclusion Programs Chris Argyris (1990) writes that there is a “ladder of inference” that one progresses through so that stereotypes are reinforced rather than questioned (p. 87). He argues that this is how people normally “construct or enact reality” (p. 24). Peter Senge (1994) argues that some people can become stuck in a personal reality of self-generating beliefs that they neglect to test. They think: “That our beliefs are the truth. That the truth is obvious. That our beliefs are based on real data. That the data we select is the real data” (p. 242). Senge states that we tend to select data from what we observe, add cultural and personal meanings, and then make assumptions based on those meanings. We draw conclusions, adopt beliefs and then take actions based on the beliefs. But the data that we have chosen is shaped by the cultural/personal biases that we carry (p. 243). Some people have taken this data, shaped by their cultural/ personal biases and have proposed that this data is more important than any other data for not just themselves, but all others as well. E.D. Hirsch Jr. (1988), for example, sees “cultural literacy” as “a deep understanding of mainstream culture” (p. 10). Hirsch sees modern national culture as “transcend[ing] dialect, region, and social class and [as] partly a conscious construct” (p. 82). This consciousness implies a choice of which items are deemed important to put forth as part of the culture. When there is a need to include new knowledges for a changing culture, these new cultural constructs are not haphazard but are “selected and reinterpreted by intellectuals to create a culture upon which the life of the nation can rest” 13 (p. 83). He advocates that the school system has a responsibility to ensure that these elements are taught directly. While Hirsch argues for an intellectual "vetting" of culture to make sure what gets transmitted is worthy, he does not admit the influences of other “popular” elements of culture and the role of a variety of media in transmitting them. Although Hirsch advocates that this “transmission” is necessary for a culture to continue, Argyris and Senge point out that when this selected culture is combined with the ladder of inference it can lead to entrenched stereotypical beliefs and negative behaviours towards those who are outside of the chosen constructs. This then leads to alienation, conflict and struggles for dominance between and among competing interests. When a culture or language is an ‘unknown’ to a group of individuals, then they commonly seem to behave as if it were dangerous. The disruption feared by having to deal with another way of thinking or being seems to be paralyzing to some people. For others, it galvanizes them into securely established actions intended to avoid, negate or ignore the unknown. This self-generated perception of danger may devolve further into defining an enemy, often making any potential for critical analysis obscured by fear. When there is no understanding and no attempt to clarify is made, assumptions about others and their motives become dominant. Pragmatically, and to break down the stereotypes and negative attitudes, there is a need for members of the dominant culture group to learn about other cultures and for the members of other cultural groups to learn the code of the dominant group. This encourages meaningful dialogue to take place and to helps to avoid marginalization or exclusion of any individual or group. 14 Hirsch argues that a cultural group needs a common core of knowledge for meaningful communication and identity, and notes that it is “not the property of any group or class” (p. 10). He proposes that, as information is shared, “each group participates and contributes, transforms and is transformed” by this knowledge (Patterson, quoted by Hirsch, p. 10). While there may be no clear ownership to the knowledge, the dominant cultures own the majority share and those who show knowledge of this “cultural literacy” are in the club and better able to function within and change the current dominant culture. Individuals therefore need access to the dominant culture’s core of knowledge to function as members of the group so that they can become part of the process of change. They will also need to learn equivalent information to function in other cultural group contexts. Intercultural Competency C. Bennett (1992) defines the skill of intercultural competency as: The ability to interpret intentional communications (language, signs, gestures), some unconscious cues (such as body language), and customs in cultural styles different from one’s own. (p. 183) This leads to the ability to communicate in a multicultural way, a critical skill for thriving in a multicultural world. Ratna Ghosh (1996) similarly states that: “Intercultural Communication skills that span culture and nations are imperative in today’s world (p. 55). 15 Thus, in the views of Bennett and Ghosh, it is necessary to develop this communication to be able to arrive at an understanding of how each of our cultural practices might look from another’s viewpoint. This is a stepping stone to cultural synergy, where: “the total effect of several cultures working together is greater than the sum of their effects when individual cultures act independently” (Ghosh, p. 56). Students and instructors come together in educational institutions from a variety of contexts. The communities that they live in affect their background knowledge, skills and attitudes. Students and instructors bring with them advantages acquired by accident of race, gender and/or class. Those with advantage can leverage it to obtain more within a system of unequal curriculum and biased practices, or may not be able to depending on the dynamics of the situation and the types of relations which Cameron McCarthy (1990) defines as “competition, exploitation, domination and cultural selection” (p. 84). Emily Hicks (1981) supports this notion of individual negotiation around these relationships writing, “Not everyone is identical in terms of her consciousness, needs, material and psychological conditions, and desire for change” (p 220). These differences and the interaction of diverse people means that educational institutions neither are simple structures nor do they have easy-to-understand or effortless pathways for every participant within them. Both McCarthy (1990) and Hicks (1981) point out that the non-synchronous interaction of these various factors is very complex, having a variety of “causal motion and effects” (p. 84). These interactions “determine the dominant character and directionality of effect in the specific educational institution setting” (p. 84). Ng (1994) also supports this 16 thought when she writes, “it is important to bear in mind that definitions and meanings of ethnicity and race are social constructions that shift constantly, reflecting the changing dynamics of gender, race/ethnic, and class relations over time” (p. 227). Bea Wehrly (1995) says that a variety of cubical models “provide a three-dimensional perspective for viewing the process of multicultural counseling, which may help the learner understand the possible complexities of the process” (p. 46). This vast range of possible cultural and cross-cultural interactions within the realm of working with others seems to be at the heart of the educational endeavour. Structures like these allow us to contemplate the basis of the intricacies of interconnections that exist between and among the elements of multiculturalism and diversity within education. Anthropologists George and Louise Spindler (1994) preface their work by saying, “Culture is not simply ‘a factor,’ or ‘an influence,’ or a ‘dimension’ but .. it is in process in everything that we do, say or think in or out of school” (p. 2). The Spindlers see education as a “mandated cultural process and the teacher [is] a cultural agent. … The calculated interventions themselves have unanticipated consequences.” These “selected materials, skills, and ideas…carefully exclude a great deal of cultural content that is being or could be learned by the students” (p. 2). They approach the “dynamic and significant area of relationships and communication that is present in various forms in all schools, in schooling, and in the act of teaching” as “Cultural Therapy” (p. 3) with the intention of making “explicit unequal power relationships in the classroom, the school, and the larger society” (p. 5). 17 To function effectively in this maze of influences, it is critical to facilitate learning from an understanding that every student and instructor is a human being with individual needs, wants, histories and cultures. The focus on the needs of the learner within the larger context of society leads to the concept of nonsynchonicity as described by Cameron McCarthy (1990) since Individuals or groups in their relation to economic, political and cultural institutions such as schools do not share an identical consciousness and express the same interests, needs, or desires ‘at the same point in time’ (p. 83). Education institutions are dynamic situations where at any given time, the interplay of the various needs, wants, history and culture of the individuals who are present interact and create impacts that cannot be easily predicted or timed. The informal and incidental elements extend beyond the formal curriculum to affect the learning environment and the effect on each individual. John Dewey (1916) focuses on schools as places where learning of attitudes takes place and he cautions us in Democracy and Education that [Formal learning] can become remote and dead – abstract and bookish … Hence one of the weightiest problems with which the philosophy of education has to cope is the method of keeping a proper balance between the informal and the formal, the incidental and the intentional, modes of education. When the acquiring of information and of technical intellectual skill do not influence the formation of a social disposition, ordinary vital experience fails to gain in meaning” (p. 5). 18 If any type of education seems too remote to the person, then it becomes an isolated instance, and is hardly likely to be applied to real life which is always much more personal and vital. Raymond Wlodkowski and Margery Ginsberg (1995) write “Any educational or training system that ignores the history and perspective of its learners is contributing to inequality of opportunity” (p. 26). So it becomes critical to ensure that there is a way for participants in education to make a personal connection with the curriculum. Who sets this curriculum and how participants connect to it will have the greatest impact on the learning of the participants. Ghosh (1996) underlines the importance of this “hidden curriculum”, defined as “the implicit messages transmitted by the teaching process and the school environment” (p. 76). These messages have a powerful effect on the participants. If the message says that only one culture is viable – the dominant one in the situation – then that effect is negative to the individual from another cultural background. People “tend to resist a world view that devalues them” (p. 76). This leads to a decrease in learning, and motivation to learn the official curriculum. What is learned instead is distrust and antagonism. Multicultural Education Consortium of B.C. The Multicultural Education Consortium of B.C. (MECBC) was established in 1990 to empower public schools and post-secondary educational institutions in responding to multiculturalism, anti-racism, employment equity and diversity related needs by providing a peer network, and resources. The representatives of the member agencies meet monthly to report on institutional initiatives and progress as well as to initiate and analyze research projects that identify areas of needs and guide the work of the 19 consortium. In one of these projects, the Lower Mainland Multicultural Education Project, Patricia Nelson (1992) suggested a number of priorities for the work of MECBC. These included: finding a home for the project and a champion of the cause; legitimization of the process; policy enactment and development; access and equity; inservice training and professional development; and networking and information exchange (pp. 49-62). These elements were seen as the steps necessary to create greater inclusion within the primary, secondary, and post-secondary education system in British Columbia. Byron Kunisawa (1999) writes and teaches that mainstream systems such as education and public services were developed for the majority of the people who were recognized at the time that the systems were developed. As times have changed and the population has become more diverse, these systems no longer meet the needs of the majority of the population and they are increasingly inadequate for the newer groups who are operating and recognized within the larger society. He argues that this has resulted in structured biases being built into our institutions. The changing demographics of service users over time lead to a need for change as the old systems become an increasingly poor fit to the needs of the population, and they simultaneously become more entrenched and more resistant to change. People for whom the systems still work believe that they are sufficient the way they have always been, yet these systems are meeting the needs of fewer and fewer people. He describes this as “Designs of Omission” (p. 1). Kunisawa proposes that it is not enough to create new but separate systems to serve these “other” groups whose needs are not being met by the mainstream systems. This creates a 20 division that is widened when resources are scarce and the new systems come into competition with each other and the older systems. Kunisawa (1996) states that everyone needs access as a unique individual rather than being boxed into special programs or exceptions that by design maintain a marginal status. He describes a solution of initiating the “development of Designs for Inclusion by requiring group representation and participation in all future planning, development, and reorganization efforts.” (p. 2). Rather than leaving these new systems at the periphery as a separate support for those who are “different”, Kunisawa insists that they must be stepping stones that need to be integrated over a period of time into the systems that serve the wider community. This time period is assumed to be at least several years and he acknowledges that instant change is neither particularly probable nor desirable. I believe that Kunisawa’s approach tends to support the status quo, as movement away from this is difficult and may increase the resistance to change, at least initially. However, the status quo is not desirable either as the opportunity costs of ignoring or downplaying diversity affect everyone. Resistance to any change builds and acts as an inhibiting force that reinforces the status quo. George J. Sefa Dei (1996) points out that when working to counteract this type of resistance, “classroom teaching must stress the relevance of what is taught and learned to the material conditions of everyday existence of all members of society” (p. 38). 21 Diversity in the Institutional and Business Worlds Trevor Wilson (1999) is at the forefront on measuring change and diversity in the workplace. Wilson puts forward the concept of an Equity Continuum™, which identifies a continuum of six stages that measure an organization’s orientation toward equity in the workplace. These start from ‘zero’ – designating companies that are “not motivated to pursue equity in the workplace, and have not yet begun to recognize the value of creating an organizational environment that supports a diverse workforce” to a ‘five’ (p. 1). The numbers categorize the companies as follows: A 1. Describes companies that pursue equity "Because they have to", 2. because they are “Do gooders", and 3. "because “They have business reasons". A 4. would describe a company in "Transition" and finally 5. would be awarded to a company with "Equitable Employment Systems". Wilson acknowledges that a 5. does not actually exist as far as he knows but he hopes that some will emerge in the near future. What is necessary is a way of moving into acknowledging and valuing difference. Wilson (1996) points out that diversity in the workplace or social institutions is not being acknowledged or accommodated, to the detriment of all concerned. He offers quantitative processes to measure diversity and potential profit impact practices on any business or social entity in the areas of hiring and retention, promotion and upward mobility of target groups, climate for diversity, employment equity and human rights complaints, flexible compensation and benefit programs, compensation equity analysis, employee development, diversity-related training, productivity, and marketing to diverse customers. He also points out other useful metrics to identify the benefits of diversity: 22 Workforce analysis: Analysis of the total workforce, identifying the current distribution of women, aboriginals, visible minorities, and persons with disabilities. Workforce profile: profile of an employer’s workforce that shows the distribution of designated groups and other employees by job title and corresponding salary range. Work/family program utilization Quarterly snapshots for business units showing hires/promotions, employee complaints, minority and business owned subcontracts Objective competency-based measures of performance Employee satisfaction Customer satisfaction Many companies who do set up diversity programs appear to be primarily just going through the motions. The programs are short and often do not target all of the work force or students/clients. Developing and Implementing Programs As I reviewed literature on experiences within the education system, one study that seems particularly apt is Rita Acton’s 1997 thesis on the Design, Intentions, and Implementation of Diversity Programs, which studies and comments on how diversity programs need to 23 be absorbed by the fabric of institutions before they have a real impact on changing institutional culture. Rita Acton (1997) suggests that Organizational contexts in which these diversity programs are delivered are greatly influenced by traditional paradigms which contrasts with the high level of emotional commitment diversity programs demand. … The interests of those in power in the organizations may not always be conducive to the long-term goals of diversity programs. (p 95) Diane Morrison (1995) writes about her research and analysis of a variety of ways that peer-based instructional consulting can be used to improve teaching practice through an integrated model of Professional Development, Instructional Development, and Organizational Development (PD, ID & OD). She reinforces these recommendations with examples from a number of Canadian and American institutions of higher learning. The concept of instructional consultation has faculty and teaching assistants asking for and receiving feedback on their teaching and reviewing this information in collaboration with peer consultants or peer partners. This type of collaborative faculty development encourages in-depth conversations and individual reflection on personal practice and teaching effectiveness while fostering collegial relations and has echoes in the experiences of the facilitators who were interviewed for this study. I consider this to be a crucial part of change as people within educational institutions struggle to move beyond the status quo to meet the diverse needs of the students. 24 If there is a will to proceed with real inclusion initiatives within an organization, Si Kahn’s (1995) advice seems a valuable resource. His chapter on Training (pp. 179-195) examines the various facets that an organization needs to polish to ensure that training programs are comprehensive and include personal development as well as meeting organizational needs. He gives clear suggestions for Who, Where, When, What, and How of doing this organizing. Lawrence Baytos (1995) identifies seven key actions for designing and implementing successful diversity strategies and programs, from the perspective of management, starting with developing a strategic perspective to guide efforts, and moving on through preparation for diversity leadership, securing commitment, focusing the organization, using research, developing and implementing actions plans and finishing with measuring diversity progress and maintaining momentum (pp. 1-5). Barb Thomas (1987) also lists seven steps for organizational change. Hers include answering the question, ‘Why change?’ assessing the situation, setting goals, making a plan, implementation, addressing resistance, and evaluation and next steps (p. 4). Finally, George Sefa Dei (1996) notes that: Educators and administrators will have to redouble their efforts to make educational excellence accessible to all students. Anti-racism educators need to work hard to promote and guarantee equitable education outcomes for all. It is not going to be easy. But it is important that we as a society recognize that there is a social and economic cost to every form of educational and social inequity. (p.135) 25 Individual Change While there are many templates for organizational change, I am most particularly interested about what happens at the individual level, as people set about to effect change in the existing climate and culture of an organization. The facilitators whom I interviewed all have connections to the existing culture of their institutions. This positioning has taken time and adaptation to develop. A person hoping to enter and be accepted by a culture must first learn language and behaviours that are acceptable within the culture to be able to survive in it and to have the opportunity of achieving success. Dan Pratt (1996), states that apprenticeship is as much about learning a role and identity as it is about a learning a set of skills or body of knowledge. The person must not just “learn about something but must learn to be something”(p. 11). This does not imply that they cease to be other things, only that they have learned to be something else as well. Further, Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger (1991) write: In any given concrete community of practice the process of community reproduction – a historically constructed, ongoing, conflicting, synergistic structuring of activity and relations among practitioners – must be deciphered in order to understand specific forms of legitimate peripheral participation through time. (p. 56) This “legitimate peripheral participation” is “engagement in social practice that entails learning as an integral constituent” (p. 35). Lave and Wenger (1991) equate this with the 26 traditional types of ‘apprenticeship’ that require a long-standing connection with, and practise of knowledges, skills and attitudes within a particular group over time. This idea of apprenticeship for learning diversity and inclusion is not a single answer to cultural conflict, but rather it is part of a process that is aimed at allowing everyone a chance at fuller participation and the potential of effecting change within the system. The negative attitudes of some people will continue the marginalization of individuals based on their gender, race, religion, age, etc., but it is important to get inside systems to create change. I believe that without learning the dialect of the culture that one is trying to enter that it becomes very difficult to gain entry and acceptance even if the members of that culture are sympathetic to the one making the attempt. In addition, change does not occur until new voices and points of view are heard from within the culture or system. … learning is never simply a process of transfer or assimilation: Learning, transformation, and change are always implicated in one another, and the status quo needs as much explanation as change. (Lave & Wenger, 1991, p. 57) Those in educational surroundings need to be very clear about what they are doing as they facilitate learning about diversity and inclusion. They need specific understanding and analysis of the situation facing them. As James Banks (1995) offers: Effective teachers in the transformative curriculum must not only have clarified personal and cultural identifications; they must also be keenly aware of the various 27 paradigms, canons, and knowledge systems on which the dominant curriculum is based and those that it eschews. (p. 140) Humans can be very adaptive to their surroundings and quite capable of informed choices in particular circumstances if they are given the information and a positive environment in which to act. A person may make a choice to accept, reject or enter and effect changes in a given social dynamic system (culture). The ability of a single person to change a large and complex system tends to be small, but the more people participating, the greater the potential for change. Issues of Resistance to Change Lawrence Baytos (1995) points out that while the seven steps that he outlines are a good template for increasing and sustaining diversity there are a number of elements that hinder their implementation. Unfortunately in many organizations there exist some fundamental impediments to long-term progress in managing diversity: Individual and interpersonal dimension, impact of organizational culture, impact of organization systems, and focus on the quick fix. (p. 305) Chris Argyris (1990) asks: [W]hy must individuals use concepts that contain such a high probability of miscommunication? And why, in many cases, do they do so when they are 28 simultaneously advising others not to do so (e.g., ‘The trouble with you is that you are putting the other person down.’). (p. 25) Argyris’ research on organizational change points out that the hardest part of any organizational change is the change of the individuals involved. As long as efforts at learning and change focused on external organizational factors – job redesign, compensation, programs, performance reviews, and leadership training – the professionals were enthusiastic participants. Indeed, creating new systems and structures was precisely the kind of challenge that well-educated, highly motivated professionals thrived on. And yet the moment the quest for continuous improvement turned to the professional’s own performance, something went wrong. … The professionals began to feel embarrassed. They were threatened by the prospect of critically examining their own role in the organization.” (p. 86) Jack Lindquist (1976) writes about the problematic process of change: I find it helpful to picture every leadership act in terms of two problem-solving cycles, the one the leader’s or change agent’s and the other the follower’s or client’s. (p. 248) He sees that there are a number of leader roles that will move the process of change along within a group or organization by implementing adaptive development. These include: rational planning, political perspective, collaboration, facilitation, provocation, and linking people, processes and resources. His research and analysis make it clear that there is no one way of instigating and nurturing change, but rather a diverse range of 29 possibilities that must be tailored to the people and institution in which the interactions take place. Then, once change has started to take place, there remains the issue of how can this change be maintained and continued. Adrianne Chan (1999) studied four institutions in BC and notes in her report, Sustaining the Work, that it cannot be the work of a few people, but needs to involve the fabric of the institution. Some of the key individuals in institutions have become strong advocates for multiculturalism and diversity. There is a need to integrate these issues into the institution as a whole, so they do not come to be identified solely with these key individuals. (p. 3) Within the framework provided by these readings, my research looks at the experience of “key individuals” and how they see their experience as change agents. Summary Within Canada's evolving multi-dimensional society, there is a history of racism and exclusion that has been countered over time by legislated changes. While legislation is a first step in making change, there has been and continues to be a need for inclusion programs to move society beyond mere tolerance to acceptance and on to intercultural competency so that we can interact appropriately with the rest of the world. Effectiveness in institutional and business matters requires the ability to value diversity not just to be inclusive but to also benefit from the diverse strengths and abilities that are available in a diverse population and workforce. 30 Educational programs are part of the response to the need to value the diversity and multicultural aspects of society. There are many recommendations on how to implement successful programs but little feedback from the people who teach and facilitate these classes and workshops. There is some acknowledgement that people, in general, are resistant to being changed. Even when change has been started, the question remains on how to continue and maintain it. 31 Chapter 3 – Methodology This chapter outlines the methodology that I have used in this research. The purpose of the research was to discover the similarities and differences in facilitation practices among a diverse group of facilitators of the Provincial curriculum, “Gender and Diversity: Creating Inclusion in the College Environment" in BC south coastal post secondary institutions. While it would have been possible to do a quantitative study to collect data on the types of and frequency of inclusive measures in education, I believe that quantitative research would not have provided the depth or richness of information that I was seeking. Qualitative methodology is more appropriate to uncover and discover the curricular interconnections, interactions and interdependencies of inclusion and exclusion and the diverse humans and their interactions. Catherine Marshall and Gretchen Rossman (1992) point out that “the unique strengths of this paradigm for research that is exploratory or descriptive, that assumes the value of context and setting, and that searches for a deeper understanding of the participants’ lived experiences”. (p. 39) I come at this research from my awareness that education environments evolve at the points of human interaction which are fueled by individual attitudes and beliefs. My search is not for one single truth, but rather to uncover and examine the richness of experience that evolves in diverse settings. The phenomenological aspect of qualitative research allows me to “attempt to understand the meaning of events and interactions to ordinary people in particular situations.” (Bogdan and Biklen, 1982, p. 31) 32 The flexibility inherent in qualitative research allows for the identification of emergent design and the ability to focus data collection to expand the depth of the information gathered. I have used ethnographic interviews to elicit “the cognitive structure guiding participants’ worldviews.” and “ participant’ meanings for events and behaviors”. (Marshall & Rossman, 1992, p. 81-82) These interviews are a type of ethnomethodology in the way that they bring out the individual experience of the facilitators who were interviewed. They are “people in various situations in our own society.” (Bogdan & Biklen, 1982, p. 37) I contacted the interviewees through the Centre for Curriculum, Transfer and Technology in Victoria, who sent out a letter to individuals who had trained as facilitators in the Gender and Diversity curriculum. Nine people responded and I have interviewed these nine faculty members from several post-secondary institutions using the Interview Schedule in Appendix 1. This Interview Schedule consisted of five major areas of questioning: • History. What brought them to this work. • Their experience with the facilitation training and it’s usefulness to them personally. • Application of the materials in a workshop or other setting and their experiences with the application of the curriculum. • Institutional support for them and the type of work that is exemplified by the curriculum. Also, the expectations of the institution and bias that they have encountered in application. • The next area was any about and changes in perception that they could identify for themselves around inclusion. 33 • Finally, each person had a chance to give any information that was not covered by the set interview schedule. The interviews were audio taped with permission from the interviewees. I have transcribed these interviews from audiotape and then placed the tapes in a locked filing cabinet for safekeeping. The interviewees, their home institutions, and everyone else named on the tapes were given code names to ensure their anonymity. The transcriptions were shared with the interviewees to ensure accuracy and understanding of what was said and although no requests were made, I would have amended them as appropriate if they had not been deemed accurate by the interviewees. After data was collected, I read and re-read the transcriptions, identifying themes and issues. The analysis of the data consisted of examining the answers subjects provided to the research questions and presenting as accurately as possible their opinions of the challenges and triumphs of their work on inclusive education. Emerging themes and issues that were not initially anticipated through the questions were grouped and followed as my analysis progressed. This involved “working with the data, organizing it, breaking it into manageable units, synthesizing it, searching for patterns, discovering what is important and what is to be learned, and deciding what (I) will tell others.” (Bogdan & Biklen, 1982, p. 145) Further refinement of the research goal emerged from the grounded theory developed in the research results. Following a grounded theory approach, I used a “systematic set of procedures to develop an inductively derived grounded theory”. I believe that I have built “theory that is faithful to and illuminates the area under study.”, (Strauss & Corbin, 1990, p.24) namely: the experiences of the facilitators. 34 As the interviews were completed and transcribed, a clearer design emerged, revealing new areas and unanticipated information. I have dealt with these items by expanding on them and linking them to the themes that were initially expected in the interview schedule. As the analysis progressed the theory became more grounded and focused as I grouped the data into concepts and elaborated on the linkages among the concepts. Because this area of creating inclusion in the college environment is part of fluid social development and change, it was difficult to identify what part was actually played by the curriculum, the individual and their personal motivations, the particular college situation, or by the interaction with diverse groups of colleagues, administrators and students. The cross impacts of these and other influences were difficult to separate and influenced the emerging design of this study through the connections and comparisons of the facilitator experiences. By clearly bringing in the voices of the participants, this research illuminates their experiences and opinions. My intention was to give them a larger place in the research than is available through a quantitative process. I hope that I have been able to give them a place of prominence in this thesis so that the thesis becomes “a midwife for (their) words” (Minister, 1991, p. 27). In doing so I have gained a broad view and deep understanding for myself of the impacts and potentials of inclusion curriculum and where the “heart” can be found and expanded. Like my colleague, Joan McArthur-Blair (1997), “I’m more interested in how they care about the knowledge and skills they [students] take out of the classroom.” (Unpublished interview) than in the skills and knowledges that have been taught and/or learned. I 35 looked for attitudes and practice that supported the caring and attention that they bring into education. Specific Techniques Interviews with participants were used to identify and probe their reasons for becoming involved with the work of teaching inclusive practices in an educational setting. This led to discussing their experience in using curriculum that was developed to promote inclusion in BC post-secondary institutions. The interviewing was both “across” and “up” as the participants ranged from actively conducting workshops to using the curriculum in their regular classes to revising their own materials in their curriculum. My personal connection to and interest in this work means that I have performed the same facilitator functions within my own institution and so therefore I was comfortable with the language around the process. This meant that there was no need for any translation of specialized language to gain a reasonable depth of information and I felt I was able to achieve “theoretical sensitivity” through professional experience to the meaning behinds their words (Strauss & Corbin, 1990, p. 42). These interviews were audio taped. I wanted to be aware of and capture the non-verbal communications and gestures that gave more of a feel for the interactions between the participants and myself, so I made extensive field notes about what I observed and felt as soon as possible after the interview to provide a supplement to each interview as encouraged by Bogdan and Biklen (1982). As humans we communicate in many intricate 36 ways. Being able to follow a theme through a variety of methods made it possible to share opinion and insights in a more meaningful way than if only one method was used. The intent of this thesis is to elaborate on the themes rather than prove or disprove a theory or to provide triangulation for transferability. There may or may not be transferability, since the topic area is affected by the cross impacts of many situational and cultural connections particular to this curriculum, diverse institutional settings and so on. Selection of Interviewees I wanted to interview participants within post-secondary education in the urban areas of British Columbia who were consciously using or not using the curriculum to promote inclusion. The interviewees were self-selected through a letter (see Appendix 3) sent out by the Centre for Curriculum, Technology and Transfer, in Victoria, who are the copyright holders of the curriculum. I received permission from them (see Appendix 4) to do this research and they undertook to contact the facilitators who were trained in the delivery of the curriculum. Those having a personal interest in the research contacted me and I arranged suitable times for each individual for the interviews. I did not intend to provide proportional representation or a random sample. I did interview six female and three male participants from diverse backgrounds and faculty groups who had been trained as facilitators. The interviews were done face-to-face and lasted for approximately one hour. With the permission of each interviewee, they were audio taped. 37 The questions that I used in the interviews were developed from a combination of my experience with the curriculum, current readings, and the collected opinions of others with a background in the area of inclusion. All the questions pertained to or were background for meeting the research goals. The questions were intended to explore the range of subjects' thoughts concerning the topic. Because I was "interviewing across" as a peer, I needed to become a “least” player to allow the interviewee to take control of the content while I attempted to record the interaction and keep it on topic (Adler, Kless, & Adler, 1992). While there is no doubt that “observer effect” existed, I wanted to minimize it by being able to blend into the community of facilitators doing inclusion work. I did find it difficult at times to be an intent listener and not to drive the conversation with my own ideas, but with some exceptions, I was able to manage this. My observation field notes are a “holistic description of events and behavior” that tried to look at the bigger picture while trying to capture my feelings and perceptions at the time (Marshall & Rossman, 1995). This description of how the events of the interview unfolded and the ways in which the participants behaved and we interacted were inferred by words, interactions, and speed of response as well as artifacts. I used personal observation to examine, as well as possible, the position of the interviewee in their institutions and the process that was and is taking place for them in their work with inclusion. My personal research journal helped me capture my thoughts and questions as I conducted the research. It is also the repository for scraps of conversations that are placed 38 in time and space but not within the research as yet. This is a set of “field notes” for, on, and by myself that helped me to focus and to keep moving. Even the practise of “just writing” made easier the process of transcription and analysis. This was also a place to document my biases and my personal changes as the research progressed. Answering the question of “Who I am in relation to who the participants are?” was an important clarification in relation to the various points of view for the analysis and writing up phases. While on one hand I felt very close to the themes that emerged, my experience and theirs were separate and followed paths that both converged and diverged over time. This allowed me to step back and reflect on the similarities and differences that exist within this field of work and to examine how each person went about being a change agent for themselves and within in their environment. Ethical Considerations Ethically, I hoped that I could give as much to my participants as I was collecting from them. I went into this research to try to make clearer the work and practice that is being done by others. I am aware that my sample is subjective due to the self-selection process that the interviewees chose, but I believe that as stories are revealed they plant the seeds in others to look for further stories. I have attempted to minimize possible harm that may be caused by the research by ensuring that the interviewees had access to my writing and were invited to comment. I have endeavoured to hear them and to respond to their comments in a positive way. I wanted everyone to be able to have an active and powerful a role in the research, to the extent that they wished, while I took on the charge of data collection and sorting. 39 Without imposing a heavy framework of feedback on the research, I still wanted everyone feeling free enough to give feedback or suggestions as we progressed. I intended this to be primarily a documentation of their views augmented by a jointly constructed narrative of the background and implications that they and I could see. My presuppositions included my belief that individuals who are actively doing work on inclusion would be willing to expose themselves to the wider world in areas of personal belief and actions. I continued to check this assumption as I went through the research process by presenting material to those who wished to review it and then responding to their comments and concerns. The issue of confidentiality was important and I kept confidential anything that was requested as such by the participants. The transcriptions were also edited to remove any reference to the participants, their institutions, or to any other person except Joan McArthur-Blair and myself. Pseudonyms were used for all other persons and places. I worked to ensure that my methodology was gender neutral in a way that emulates what Judith Stacey (1991) was describing when she quoted the statement, “A methodology that allows for women studying women in an interactive process will end the exploitation of women as research objects” (Deulli Klein quoted by Stacey, p.112). Research Process I interviewed the nine participants during the months of April 1999 and May 1999, by visiting them in a location of their choosing and at a time that we negotiated. Each interview was audio taped. After each session I made fieldnotes to capture my 40 impressions and reflections on the interview. Over the next several months I personally transcribed the tapes into an electronic format. I re-read my fieldnotes to remind myself of my feelings and observations during the interview. I changed all recognizable names and sent a copy of each participant’s interview to them electronically as per our discussions and their agreement, via email through the server at my home institution. In one case I also sent a paper copy. I began coding the interview material with advice from my senior supervisor, Kelleen Toohey. I read the interviews numerous times and at times listened again to the tapes to ensure that I was clear about the tone of voice that they used and what the person meant. I began writing early in this reading process and made many editing changes as I came to understand more about what I had been told. After several false starts, themes began to solidify and I was able to again review the transcripts and find more information that linked the ideas. During this time I continued to work full time as a faculty member, including facilitating Inclusion and Anti-Racism workshops. This work also informed my attitudes and the depth of my ability to understand what the participants were telling me. I continued to write fieldnotes about my observations and insights, but at a lesser volume than during the initial interviewing process. I completed a rough draft of the thesis in July 2000 and with the help of my senior supervisor and my committee, finished my writing in the early Fall of 2000. 41 Chapter 4 – Findings I developed interview questions through a consultative process with a number of people. My intent was to ask open-ended questions that would give the participants scope so that they could feel free to respond about information about which they felt strongly. All had teaching roles and three of them also did administrative duties for particular program areas. There were six females and three males, a ratio that was close to the actual training gender split. Each facilitator has implemented and integrated parts of the Gender and Diversity Curriculum into their institutional practices, identifying the themes and linking them. The following five themes seemed most salient after detailed examination of the interview data. • The Effects of Personal Background • Isolation and Creating Networks – people / curriculum • Available Resources • Practice • Resistance to Change These themes have numerous connections that emerge as the individuals involved try to make inclusion a more explicit concept. The themes are also connected to their work in numerous other areas of which the Gender and Diversity curriculum was just a part. 42 The Effects of Personal Background The information gleaned is complicated. Participants' personal histories had strong effects on their perception of differences and how they responded to them. This Gender and Diversity curriculum does not exist in a vacuum. Facilitators came to this work because of their interests in these and related areas and they bring many skills and contexts with them. The interviews revealed that they all came to do work in this area because they were personally touched by racism, sexism, heterosexism, anti-Semitism, privilege, or by their experience of struggling when they did not fit into the mainstream of society in some way. Bob had a number of personal historical issues that led him to this work. My background is Portuguese and I grew up in South America. I came to Canada as a foreign student, so the diversity issue I dealt with personally. I’m also gay so I was dealing with some of those issues along the way. For Mathew it was a number of cumulative personal experiences. Well, I’m a gay man so certainly that would be a lifelong experience of coping with growing up in a family that was not a gay family and then the various issues that you deal with in that. Certainly having lived in other cultures I was aware of being an outsider, what it felt like to be an outsider. Not having a voice, having to adapt and not always wanting to. Not minding adapting but wishing that there were some sort of acknowledgement that you were adapting. 43 For Margaret, there were family attitudes relating to gender that made her more aware of diversity issues. My upbringing was – on almost a daily basis – “Girls don’t go to university. Don’t even think about that. Boys go to university. Your brothers can go if they want. If you work really hard you might get to be a stenographer with the provincial government.” Brenda’s experiences in industry and at home brought a very personal connection to the work of inclusion. I was a design consultant in the construction industry, where I experienced losing the odd contract … I remember specifically a client saying to me, “We’d really like to have you do that work, but you know, I play golf with so and so and I just needed to give him that work.” That was the first time it just smacked me in the face that I wasn’t part of the “old boys club”. I am an adoptive parent, which in itself has issues around adoption and secondly we’re a mixed race family. So, I have been very much aware of issues around racism. I have been doing work in terms of racism and family situations. I’m a member of the Afro-Canadian adoptive parents association, which deals with parents of Afro-Canadian children. Sharon has been involved for a long time in a number of initiatives. I have been working in what has been called unlearning racism movement. I’ve worked largely in the women’s community and I’ve been to a number of really big 44 workshops on unlearning racism that take three days, at White Rock. And a whole bunch of others too. I was part of an organization called “Deco na lam” which means, “Repairing the World”, which worked with unlearning anti-Semitism. I worked in the lesbian movement doing unlearning homophobia, which I now call unlearning heterosexualism since about 1974. So, when the Gender and Diversity came along, I was thrilled because I saw it as institutionalization of something that a whole bunch of us in the so-called counter-culture had been working with for a couple of decades and I was really pleased to see it become mainstream. Motivation came from diverse sources. Some participants have come from privileged positions in North American society and have become involved because they feel that it is important to help others. Laurie explained that what brought her into the work of creating inclusion in the college was her experience in the health care industry. I actually came to this because I’d been in an area of the province where there were mostly Caucasian people. I moved over here and was working in a facility with people, sort of the lower ladder in Health Care. I’d sit down in the morning with staff and I’d be the only Caucasian out of 12 or 13 people, so, I became aware of the diversity immediately. What I realized was that it was really hard on the morale. People at that time didn’t have the education but they also weren’t very understanding with each other and there were a lot of fights and things. What happened, people would speak their own language over the elderly people in the 45 facility. Then when the Gulf War happened we had one woman attack another woman with boiling water and throw it in her face. I had decided that I wasn’t going to go back to work in the college [after working in the field], but then I felt that I could do more in the college system than I could out in the field. Obviously I felt that I really wanted to do something to help people learn get along with each other in diverse groups. Jack also had experiences in industry that influenced him to be involved in making inclusion an explicit concept in relation to gender and diversity. I worked in industry most of my life, I’ve been in the private and the public sectors. I’ve worked globally. I think that there is a need. That there are still a number of dinosaurs out there that are not aware. I have been interested in my students and the international flavour of the student body at [my] College. Tami explained: I don’t know if anything brought me to this work or it was just kind of an awareness that things were just not fair for everybody. I started noticing those things years and years and years ago. Things just didn’t seem to be quite fair for women, for persons with disabilities, for people of colour, and that concerned me. Other participants have felt and continue to feel discrimination against them and their practice is based on doing something to effect positive change for themselves and others. Mathew pointed out that he had this experience: 46 Being part of cultures where it didn’t matter what you did. I lived in Quebec for awhile and at least at that time there were some people with whom it didn’t matter what you did, you were not francophone so you were always an outsider. So those were experiences. Also having good feminist friends who politicized me around feminist issues. Only one person said that it was their job that made the connection to this work for them. Diana noted that: I’ve been involved off and on. Most recently over the last ten years with an international organization that looks at intercultural education, training, and research. Diversity is part of that, although we are looking across cultures and not so much at cultures within a specific country. Within the work that I am doing now, we are responsible for a very large hosting program for international students. Each person’s background has influenced them to become involved or more involved in the work of inclusion. Whether is was gender, class, religious belief, sexual orientation or through their involvement with groups who have had to deal with discrimination all of the facilitators have had experiences where they have been sensitized to issues around inclusion. Isolation and Creating Networks – people / curriculum The institutional setting in which they worked has implications for individual’s respective experiences as facilitators. These facilitators often describe themselves as being isolated from the larger group of people within their institution. There is the isolation in feeling 47 alone and the reality that the respondents didn’t know who else was doing what in their institution. Some work on committees, a few team teach but most are just aware that there are others working on creating inclusion in their own institution ranging from general work to very specific activities. Where individuals were the only ones from their institution or took part in different training sessions than others from their institution, there was less connection to others within the institutional setting. Where several people went to the same training from an institution, there is internal support among that group. Tami has used her union’s Status of Women committee for support and to help her raise awareness about inclusion. Just having the Status of Women at the table has raised awareness and shifted attitudes about the importance of having women involved, having women of colour involved, women with disabilities and people with disabilities, people of colour involved. I think that there has been some shift of attitude there, for sure. Diana is now part of her college’s diversity committee through being involved with this initiative. The board and the president have mandated a Diversity Committee at the college to come up with a policy and I’m on that committee primarily because of my attendance at things like this workshop. Margaret had the experience of being part of the work of gender and diversity in two institutions. She found her experiences in the two institutions to be quite different. 48 You know that the interesting thing there is that in one of the institutions I was part of the team and in the other institution I was it, no one else had done the training. That piece of having a team come from the institution is very powerful. To be the lone person who has experienced it and has trained in it and is looking for a way to integrate it … very difficult, even in a place that’s receptive it’s very difficult. For her the contrast in levels of support were vivid and highlighted her difficulties with being alone in her work in another setting. Where for some a committee has been a helpful support and a chance to create networks of like-minded individuals, in Sharon’s case, existing committees have actually been a source of resistance. They’ve got the Staff and Faculty Equity Committee, who banter around terms. I sat on it for two years. And it became clear in that two years that they didn’t really wish to make any changes. What they wished to do was to conform to the government measurement and nothing more. In one case that included Margaret, a team was created which led to more work with diversity and support for that work. The Diversity Task Force was formed by people who took the facilitator training and then were acknowledged to a limited extent by the management at the institution. This gave support to the facilitators so that they did not feel so isolated. 49 We met on a regular basis. We looked for opportunities, so instead of waiting we would go out and say to, the union for instance, “Would you sponsor us to do a workshop for your members?” However, this didn’t completely erase the feeling of isolation, as the response to the scheduled training and workshops was not strong. Margaret points out in her case: I’m very uncomfortable with the response. Basically there wasn’t any. Basically there was a small group of us, the Diversity Task Force, as we dubbed ourselves just to give us some sort of legitimacy. It became our thing. Even when more than one person from an institution went to the training, communication among facilitators was limited. Most people found their feelings of isolation compounded by the fact that they were doing their own individual work with specific groups of students and not communicating with other facilitators. Sometimes they felt that perhaps others might have a better overall view of how the institution was doing in this area. When asked when and how the curriculum had been implemented in his institution, Jack said: I don’t know. If you contacted Edyth or you are going to, she might have a better handle on the overall picture than I do. Brenda was also vague about implementation and connections at her institution: I don’t know about that curriculum so much. It happens as part of the content in a lot of areas. … Team building talks about inclusion. 50 In one case the lack of other people who had done the training slowed or halted any sort of implementation. Diana pointed out that if others had been sent for training then the results might have been different. I think that when I got sent off to the workshop there was an assumption that there would be other participants that would attend subsequent training and that we would actually do something with it. When this didn’t happen, she found it difficult to do much implementation by herself. Being recognized within your institution for doing work in the area of gender and diversity gave some of the facilitators an opportunity to speak out and open up a dialogue on the topic. In institutions where there is a harassment or human rights office there has often been an explicit charge to speak out. For Margaret, this was the situation that she needed to help her make connections. It seems like it is (connected to the role of the harassment or human rights office) and it needs to be connected there and that that’s where the energy can come from. So the good news is that there is a place and the bad news is that because that office is often marginalized there is a danger that this work can also get marginalized, the more that it is connected with that office. In the follow up from the initial interview Mathew said: My only addition would be to say that the situation has not gotten better at the college. The new human rights person explains that she is swamped with work and thus unable to lead any internal diversity promoting committee. As a result, the lack 51 of commitment to diversity issues by senior admin has been made clear at a systems level. Sharon experienced the isolation of being the “designated person”. She was part of a team in the area of Instructional Skills Workshops. This was a place where she could add the gender and diversity materials to an existing framework. I’m part of an ISW team, and as a part of, I’m the person on the ISW team who’s the designated radical. So all cultural diversity issues that come up through ISW or through the Centre for Teaching, somebody calls me. When they do the diversity stuff in the ISW, which in the NPU model we do on day three, I run ‘em. By default, somehow, I just seem to get it. There can be a down side to being recognized as an expert. It can mean that others delegate to you and do not become involved themselves. It may also mean that the issues become compartmentalized so that they appear to belong to someone else, as Sharon points out: People say, “I don’t want to touch that.” I have worked very hard not to be perceived as an expert because that’s counterproductive. It undermines the whole thing that we are doing here. I feel quite isolated. I love ISW, but I’m the “designated” person. And it happens every single workshop. It’s not an agreement among the facilitators, it just works out like that every single time. Because I’m the “designated radical” I think that I don’t get heard as much at the table, the facilitator table, because that’s just “Sharon spouting off again.” 52 Sometimes a person has been hired specifically to address the area of diversity within the institution. Margaret was in a new position where she has been designated to do work in this area. The reality is that although when I was hired that I was supposed to be doing diversity training I can’t find the place for it here and haven’t really had a chance to. It’s only my fourth month and I’m up to here. (I) haven’t really found a place for it. Feeling isolated was the norm for the facilitators. With the exception of one institution, which had taken a team approach among the facilitators that were trained, no one felt that they were part of a team or network that was specifically working together in this area. Their sense of needing and valuing interpersonal networks was balanced with being seen by some as the keeper of this type of work and this may also add to the feelings of isolation. Available Resources The question of available and needed resources was very integral to implementation issues. The facilitators are all quite self-directed. They have made this work part of their job even if it isn’t part of their job descriptions. Some of them were able to assign resources to this work while others were willing to do the work as an overload or “off the side of their desk”. When management approves it, time resources were sometimes allocated to accomplish the work. Jack told me: 53 As student affairs advisor I get basically a section’s release for the academic year. Which is half a section in the spring and half a section in the fall. So, yes it is and that one section release is one hundred and eighty hours so I’ve got sixty hours per semester. I don’t keep a note of how much time I do. It’s probably about a fair one. It is probably about twenty hours a month. His time was specifically to work with students and not to implement the curriculum, but he felt that the work he was doing with the students was closely related to the work addressed by the curriculum. In some cases, time was not allocated but it was taken. When asked if she was given time and resources to implement the curriculum, Tami found the concept amusing. That’s interesting. Because my job is very self-directed, I decide that it is part of my job and I give myself time and resources to accomplish it. (laughs) I’ve never been told that I can’t. Brenda pointed out that it became another added part of what she did. Considered part of my job, yes. For which I am given time and resources to accomplish? I’d say no, because it is part of your job so therefore it is just rolled in. Mathew said that his institutional expectation about the implementation of the curriculum was that: We are given no time and resources. It is not part of policy implementation except to the extent that somebody like Margaret would make it so. 54 Most often, people built it into their routines and assumed that the time could be found within their job description. Some people had more leeway to do this than others did. Sharon told me: It is considered part of my job. I’m not given any resources; I have to create my own 100% of the time considering that I get paid to teach. That’s it. It is part of the course that I teach because I’m teaching it. I launched this course so if I ever hand it off to anybody it will be part of that. Well, I’ll give it to them. Diana was quite clear that a lack of resources stopped the training of facilitators in her institution. One of the reasons that nobody else went to the workshop is that … Within my own department I have freedom to do what I want in terms of taking time in lieu to do things. A couple people who showed an interest in this workshop were told that they had to do it on their own time. It was a weekend. People just weren’t willing to do it on their own time when they were being asked by the college to do it. I think that also shows a lack of understanding in the institution in terms of the kind of support that they have to give to people to do this kind of work. So that also answers the second one. It’s not considered part of my job and I haven’t been given any time and resources to do anything. Even the Diversity Committee has been added on to (existing workload). Some, like Diana, are active in committee work to further inclusive practices, and this is just an extra piece that they accomplish any way that they can. 55 In Margaret’s case, there was verbal support from her senior management but it stopped there. I would extend that beyond me and use the diversity task force because we would get ourselves on the agenda for senior management. We would go and say this is what we want to do. And they would say, “That’s great. That’s wonderful. Now go away and do it.” So we’d ask the questions, “Are there resources to do this?” No. “What about release time from regular duties?” No. And that’s true, even when it is an assigned part of the role. Yeah, “Do it … and we guess that you’ll give up something else but we don’t know what it is that you can possibly give up.” Margaret also found that this was also true in her new position. The expectations are unclear. “We’ve hired someone and we expect you to do something and we don’t know what you’re going to do and anything that you do we will be happy with.” Is it considered part of your job? Yes. Are you given time and resources? No. On one hand people felt that they had the freedom to act, while on the other hand this did not seem to include a commitment for resources. It appears that despite having assigned or allowed employees to take the facilitator training that many institutions seem to act as if it doesn’t exist. Mathew was clear about his perception of the situation. I get no sense of the administration expecting anyone to be there. It is not in any way integrated into the institution. To be honest, if you went to the Education Council or whatever group when all the deans are together and said, “What about 56 the Gender and Diversity curriculum?’ They’d say, “What are you talking about?” That doesn’t mean that they haven’t been told but I don’t think that it is high on their priority list. Others were more proactive. When pressed to expand on why she felt that she could just implement the curriculum, Tami elaborated: I just assume that I can (laughter). I think that it is part of policy implementation at the college, because we do have policy. We have employment equity policy, we have harassment policy, and we have duty to accommodate. That’s why I say, because we have existing policy. I would hope that we have policy so that we can implement them and is not just “policy, isn’t that nice.” Although I think that that happens sometimes too. Support from the administration is not explicit in any of the institutions. As Mathew said, The biggest thing is there is not leadership from above that says “Well, I don’t have time to do it, Mathew, but I’m glad you’re doing it.” Or “Diversity Task Force, good work.” This hasn’t stopped people though. As Mathew points out, Recently I wrote a proposal and a couple other people helped me through the drafts, and we got some money from Safer Campuses to continue work on this. Explicit in my proposal was the idea of trying to get release time so that in a sense the college is saying, “Yes the work that you do is worth being paid for.” So my salary doesn’t look any different. 57 Everyone recognized that their time was the most valuable resource in doing their facilitation work with issues of diversity and inclusion. While some institutions designated time to the work, in other cases, the facilitators had to seize the time with or without permission or to apply for the time. Money, other than for time release, was not an issue for these facilitators. Practice This curriculum and the facilitator training was broadly distributed to a variety of people, who possessed a wide range of skills. Each person trained had to have a recommendation from their institution and have an identified background in some aspect of diversity work. It made for a rich environment at the facilitator training as people arrived with many existing skills. There was a lot of material that worked well for the trainees themselves and was personally useful. Brenda shared her experience: I went into the session looking around the room at forty, mostly middle aged women working in an educational environment and thinking, “Well, how diverse are we?” Then when we did a couple of activities, recognizing, “Oh yeah, we’re very diverse.” That made me open up some of my own preconceptions and realize that not all of our diversity is visible. Diana felt that it added to her knowledge: 58 I certainly came away from it feeling like I had gained something. I have done a lot of workshops and training around diversity issues. I had never done one that pulled together diversity and gender, so I found that aspect good. It made me think about a lot of things around gender issues that certainly has helped me at looking at a number of things that we do with our international students. The trainees thought that it added to existing skills and connections. Tami noted that: I knew it up here (points to head) before but until I actually experienced what it felt like it was hard to actually say, “Oh, okay, I understand this a little bit better.” More at a gut level kind of thing. I’ve actually seen that happen in classroom or in groups that I’ve been involved with now, that whole dominant culture. To be able to identify it, to be able to say I know what that is. I thought that this is really useful. It definitely enhanced my skills to be able to identify it and to facilitate “What’s going on here?” and “How can we get ourselves out of it?” Mathew saw the experience of the training on more than one level. I think that having people doing activities and they’re supposed to be learning about how to use these activities but, of course, in actual fact they are doing the activities and having the experience at the same time. I’m a person who very much likes meta leveling and meta meta leveling so it was quite wonderful to be a participant and at the same time to be processing what it would be like to be conducting this training. I enjoyed that part a lot. That certainly enhanced my ability to train other people. 59 Laurie found the training and the curriculum helpful to her in her application as a graduate student. I used a lot of the curriculum in my own work when I did my Master’s program. A lot of this training I used, because I did a couple of papers and actually was planning on doing a curriculum for health care workers on Gender and Diversity. Getting the curriculum accepted and used has included a certain amount of being in the right place at the right time. Sharon recounts how in one instance, she was available when a particular program was being set up. This led to her being asked to provide curriculum that would enhance the program. [The person who was running the program said] “We need something with a little jazz in it here. What have you got?” and Lyn called me and said that this is a very, this is a group of heavily privileged, hostile people, can you work with them? I said yes. I came in with the pilot and it was a big hit. Therefore it got incorporated into the curriculum. Sharon has had positive experiences with her classes as she uses experiential exercises from the Gender and Diversity curriculum and other sources with the class participants to encourage personal learning on their part. In my classes they [the experiential exercises] are always a huge success. It is. Really, you can see lights come on inside people. It’s transformative. There is also something that happens when many people have experienced an epiphany together. 60 While few people have put on entire workshops using the curriculum, everyone has used some part of the material in some way. Some are embedding the activities into their curriculum. Laurie liked the fact that: Any kind of work around gender and diversity brings up biases. One of the ones that comes immediately to mind – I told you that I always do core values at the start – one of the core values is always diversity, acceptance of diversity. What I do is we write them all up, I have everyone agree on them and they are typed up. Everyone is given a copy. For Tami, it was more a matter of seeing a chance to use the material and then inserting suitable activities from the Gender and Diversity curriculum into that moment with whatever group she is working with, rather than using the material in a formal way through a special workshop. In other classroom settings or other environments, I’ve been able to recognize the dominant culture, stereotyping, bias, whatever. Or even talk to people of privilege or using privilege and to speak up for other people, but, not in a formal way, with a lesson plan and all of that. It was more like “This is an opportunity for me to use this right now.” I’m not really using the curriculum per se. I see it as a resource though. If I wanted information about it I know where I could go to find it, which is good. Bob found a number of activities that could be adapted to fit for his participants. 61 Other stuff that I’ve found to be very useful – there’s an exercise around building culture where students get a sense of the elements of culture, what’s involved in values, activities, … so that’s a way of grasping culture. Then I also think, just because of the gender aspects that are there for students starting to appreciate that culture isn’t just ethnicity. What I teach in the class I do ethnicity, demographics, and culture by association. The way the curriculum is set up does leave it open for a very diverse version of what culture means. Some facilitators use specific activities frequently. Sharon also used various activities: I’ve used that culture exercise all kinds of places. And I’ve modified it in a couple of ways. I’ve used a couple of the others too. I also use the stereotype exercise in a serious kind of way, in my classroom. What I do is divide people up into small groups and I give them a file card and they write the name of one stereotype that they have been called on each side of the card. Then, I gather them up and I hand them off to different tables. Everyone holds up their little card and talks about it for one minute. Then other people at their table can participate. Others liked the experiential format in which the curriculum was presented. Diana said: Telling people and putting it in writing doesn’t seem to work. That is one of the reasons that the curriculum is helpful because it does show you the kinds of activities that could be adapted. Margaret found that what she used went beyond the activities themselves. I certainly use the principles from the curriculum and the ideas and the awareness. 62 Few have used the curriculum as a whole. Most have used parts of it to support the work that they were already doing and to further their own understandings. It is a reference and it has been adapted. Diana said: I haven’t directly gone back to the curriculum for anything in particular in the last two years. I have referred to it and a couple of times I have looked back to it in preparing something that I am doing. Personal success stories focus on how the material has been changed to become more relevant for the participants. Each facilitator’s practice has incorporated parts of the curriculum while changing it to fit their context and tailored to their participants. In some cases this has been specific exercises and in other situations it has been used as reference material. Resistance to Change There was resistance from a variety of sources outside of the facilitators. This resistance to training or change emerges as the most frequent discussion point. Resistance on the part of potential participants to attending any training in this area was seen in some cases as relating to a perceived lack of relevance. Mathew pointed out: Then there is a whole large group who doesn’t come, who are the people who don’t see why these issues are important. Who are afraid that they are going to be asked to change. Who are in defense mode. Who don’t want to look at what they are 63 doing. Who are afraid of the idea of political correctness. Probably, they just don’t see it as a priority, as being important to them. For Bob there was a sense that this resistance was in some cases discipline oriented. Within faculty the group that is the biggest challenge would be the sciences. … and sometimes, strangely, business, but especially the sciences, where they would say, “Why is this relevant at all? We teach 1 + 1 is 2, regardless. No matter what colour you are or whether you are male or female. So, the relevance of it for a supposedly a-cultural discipline is a bit hard to sell. He could see other factors that led to resistance as well. In terms of other faculty I think the sense of “Oh god, one more piece of work. One more way I have to adapt my material. I have to take new stuff.” It’s a question of workload. People feeling overloaded as it is. From top management’s side of it … Many of them – I can think of one or two that are different – they don’t see the need the need and relevance in terms of money. It’s a nice thing to do, but until it can be shown that it has an impact on the budget of the college or the financial success rate of the students, then it is just a “nice thing” to do. Tami had encountered biases in using the curriculum. Her good-natured response when asked about this and what effect that it had was: 64 … people’s biases, yes, absolutely. Biases around gender for sure and I would say biases around culture, for sure. The effect is … you feel like your hitting your head against a brick wall. That’s the effect! (laughter) There were expressions of the belief that workshops in this area were beneficial but that there is an initial resistance to be overcome by people so that they can see the value for themselves. Laurie offered: My perception is that it takes a lot of energy to do this kind of teaching. I think that there are people within our faculty who are not prepared to get involved in this kind of topic. I think there is a lot of fear around it. I think that they have a lot of discomfort. I think that they feel that they already know a lot and no one is going to tell them differently. I think that sometime it means that they have to dig at issues that they don’t want to dig at in themselves. I think also that a lot of them are older and they are not prepared to change their teaching styles. Laurie also noted that in her institution there was initial resistance to the training as a new thing. It has needed more time for other people to really see its value. It was brought in and there was an impact. People then needed time for it to sift down. I remember when the first pilot started, people were very nervous about it, afraid to go. I think that there was a lot fear around it. Perhaps some of this fear, because change takes 65 time, has perhaps dissipated a bit. I think that people are not as worried or concerned about it. Even within organized classes some resistance continued among the participants. One of Sharon’s experiences included a breakthrough. One time, it became a big dispute. The way we broke through it was on the issue of being fat. Because one of the guys suddenly recognized that yes, he hadn’t gotten a particular job because he was fat and suddenly made the connection, that “Oh, right!” All of a sudden, you know, then we can start doing it. It is a condition; I call it, “Not having ferry service to all of your islands.” You have the information but you can’t connect it up. Being a Change Agent Everyone interviewed believed that more should be done. They all have a commitment to ongoing change and development. Although there was noted resistance to the curriculum and the workshops when it was used there were also good results. Tami spoke of doing part of the curriculum at a union conference. It went really well! People were really interested. Now, in that situation you are dealing with people who are fairly progressive in their thinking. It wasn’t huge resistance to the information that I was giving them. It was good because sometimes people don’t consider that. They can get into blaming and that is what was happening there, they were blaming people, “Well, why don’t they…?” this or that or the other thing. So then I asked them that, “Why do you think that they don’t 66 (this or that or the other thing)? What is going on for those people?” So we came to realize that maybe there was culture things or some things that were going on for these people that were stopping them from getting involved or standing up for their rights or whatever it was. Maybe there was some dominant culture things going on where they felt that they were at the bottom part of the pecking order and they didn’t have the self-esteem or the assertiveness or whatever to speak up. We talked about privilege and that since they were in that position they could use that position to speak on these people’s behalf. It just fit. It absolutely went over. It did the same thing for them that it did for me. “Oh! Well, yes. Wait just a minute here. Maybe that isn’t the reason that they are doing that. Maybe there is something else going on.” For some people, there are people who embrace the concepts and others are seen as being more reluctant. Brenda offered: I’m really impressed with the number of people who work with inclusion in this institution, and the number of people that are in tune to it, as much as I had said earlier that sometimes you run across a level of, not quite resistance, but reluctance or something. In the end, many of the participants felt that this curriculum and the concepts of inclusion should be integrated into all curriculums. Tami spoke to this: I think it needs to be in everything. Not just an add-on piece at the end if you have time. I think that we definitely have to have more inclusive curriculum no matter 67 what we are teaching. I think that we have to sensitive about that and aware of that as instructors because we have a big influence on people’s lives. What better opportunity when we have them in our classroom to be able to have a discussion around this whole issue, to have a discussion about tolerance rather than intolerance. Sharon spoke about the need to call this work by another name to get past the resistance. I do see the need to make inclusion an explicit concept. And the concept inclusion itself as I have used this word a lot, is difficult for many people. I find this beyond their scope. They don’t understand the notion and have shrugged it off as one of those politically correct terms. I have a whole other set of issues on the non-ironic use of “politically correct” so, yes, we need to make inclusion an explicit concept and part of how we need to do that is to call it something other than inclusion which has just become one of those words that makes a buzzing noise in people’s heads. The question of how to encourage change had many angles. All the participants saw themselves as change makers within their institutions. Laurie said: I started out a little bit of a crusader and I learned that that is not the way to do it. [laugh] I think that one of the things that you have to do is be patient. Laurie saw herself getting the best results as a role model. By being a role model, I think things change, but you have to be patient because it takes time. I’m not always the most patient. I can see that it has happened. That we 68 have more of this and it catches on. I feel that I have made some gains. Some people that you work with are probably never going to take on all of it or even any of it and you just have to be aware that that is just the way it is. For Margaret, being a change agent is better now that she is in a new job. I was hired in this position because of my experience including conflict management. In that way my role hasn’t changed from the other institution. I’m doing, in addition to a much bigger role, specifically being a change agent. It is an assigned role at this point and what’s different here is that it is an appreciated role. Mathew found that being a change agent wasn’t quite what he had expected. As a change agent … I am perceiving myself more as doing that successfully. I think that it’s been a new role for me. It has been one that I always wanted but didn’t know how to do it very successfully. I thought at one time that you just went in kind of told who you thought the powers that be were, “This is how it should be.” And they would listen and say, “Oh, what a clever idea.” Then they would do something. [laugh] I’ve learned that this is just not how it happens. So I think that I’m getting better at seeing opportunities. I guess the part of that is going where the opportunities are. That doesn’t mean that is it necessarily easy. For example, I’m presently working with the first nations educator on aborignalizing the curriculum, trying to include an aboriginal perspective – first in the ESL curriculum but then hopefully in other areas. 69 Resistance to change has been seen by these facilitators as normal and somewhat frustrating. However, it has not stopped them from pushing for change. If anything it has honed their abilities to look for places to effect change, even in small ways. Each person has found a path towards change that works in their institutional environment and when stymied in one direction they turn to another. Summary While there are common threads running through these themes, there are also very diverse paths that have been followed by the individuals. Each person has very different motivations and methods that have been strongly influenced by their own experiences and the context in which they operate. Each participant’s experience is unique but there are commonalties in various areas of their experiences. During the interviews they shared their experiences as facilitators of this specific curriculum within in the context of a larger whole that included their work in numerous areas. In the area of personal background, the effect of personal experiences and developments revealed the breadth of history that each person brought with them to the work of creating inclusion. The variety of experiences as outsiders within their families, schools, and work lead each person to an awareness of how hard it is to be an outsider both for themselves and others. There was a sense of isolation and a variety of responses to this feeling. Many were able to build formal networks with others within their institution through committees of individual connections. People found ways to connect with other like minded people in 70 support of diversity work whether inside or outside of their school in most cases. However, implementation of this curriculum was slowed when there were not other people in the same school who had taken the training. There was a difference in experience between those who were able to assign resources to this work and others who did the work as an overload or off the side of their desk. This also impacted how many people attended the original facilitator training when individuals were informed that they would have to do it on their own time. Everyone has still been able to do something within their own situation. The facilitator training was considered to be a positive experience for the interviewees with a rich variety of interactions and content. When they returned to their institutions, each one had to examine their strategies and decide how they might use the curriculum. There were a number of positive experiences in classes, workshops, and presentations as the facilitators had the chance to put the training into practice and in their groups. The ability to absorb and adapt the curriculum was a strong point. While there were people within each institution who had embraced the concepts presented by the facilitators, resistance to training or change was a common theme. Examples were given of breakthroughs in understanding occurring in various places, where people became interested in the concepts after overcoming initial resistance. Everyone felt that they were change agents within their institutions and while expressing 71 some frustrations about the pace of change, they were all willing to continue with their work in this area. 72 Chapter 5 – Analysis In this chapter I discuss my findings in the context of identifying models of inclusive practise for facilitation. I analyze the ways that facilitators have found ways to implement activities and inclusive practise into their institutions while working within or around the existing hierarchies that they have encountered. The analysis is descriptive and generally follows Bogdan and Biklen (1982). My goal was to analyze the information given in the interviews so that it had a place within the discussion of how to implement diversity initiatives within the education system. I have been aware throughout the research phase of this work that I could analyze the information from a variety of angles. There are many ways in which the statements of those interviewed might be seen. As I was conducting the interviews there seemed to be an enormous number of ways that this information could be examined. At this time I have settled on looking at the interviews in the light of several theories. I decided the information would be best presented by letting the analysis follow a natural flow as I integrated my findings with the literature on the subject to obtain a more detailed analysis and recommendations. Every facilitator interviewed has a strong commitment to influence and encourage change that will result in their home institution and the larger community becoming more inclusive of a variety of people in all of their genders, races, abilities, ages, and other diversities. This has arisen from their own various personal experiences of exclusion and a developed determination to ensure that others have a chance to be included. 73 What is problematic about this quest for inclusion that each facilitator has undertaken is the very diverse nature of each institution and the non-synchrony that exists among the diverse members of the institutional community in regard to their needs and approach to working within this diversity. In each community the facilitators felt that people were not interested in the issues and that they did not see them as important. Yet, they also found that when they had a chance to interact with people that those interactions were for the most part positive and growth inducing when their participants could see diversity issues as touching on their own lives and the lives of those around them. Personal Background The studies conducted by Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger (1991) in Situated Learning identify that being part of a group is a process of enculturation in which the person gaining entrance learns to conduct themself in a way that is acceptable to the group. In any given concrete community of practice the process of community reproduction - a historically constructed, ongoing, conflicting, synergistic structuring of activity and relations among practitioners – must be deciphered in order to understand specific forms of legitimate peripheral participation through time. This requires a broader conception of individual and collective biographies than the single segment encompassed in studies of "learners." Thus we have begun to analyze the changing forms of participation and identity of persons who engage in sustained participation in a community of practice: from entrance as a newcomer, through becoming an old-timer with respect to new newcomers, to a point when those newcomers themselves become old-timers. Rather than a 74 teacher/learner dyad, this points to a richly diverse field of essential actors and, with it, other forms of relationships of participation. (p. 58) I believe that change within a group requires members of the group to make small changes and adaptations in a way that is acceptable to the existing group. In this way they can open the group culture to accepting ideas and behaviours that might previously have been considered foreign and therefore unacceptable. The facilitators came to their training in the gender and diversity curriculum from the specific culture of their institutions. This personal background has shaped and affected how they see the world and influenced their decision to engage in the work of creating inclusion. This ranged from direct discrimination and how this both blocked access to resources while also strengthening an individual’s resolve to achieve personal goals to the observation of discrimination by others. The experience of being an outsider allows one to see and be aware of experiences that may not even be noticed by people who are fully enculturated into the situation. This position of awareness makes it easier for individuals to become aware of issues of privilege, bias, and exclusion that are often not apparent to others. When the facilitators returned from their training they found that the learning that they wanted to impart to others could be aligned with most of the prevailing policies within their institution. However, while being given permission to attend the training, most of the facilitators were not offered legitimacy by their institutions, even though these prevailing institutional policies indicated that it was important work. 75 In other words, they had the verbal support to implement the work of creating inclusion through the elements of gender and diversity but were not given the support of resources or clear directives from administration. Instead, each person seized or forged legitimacy for their actions. These facilitators were the ones who were ready to ask the questions and ready to act in whatever way that they could within their institutional settings. Isolation and Creating Networks – people / curriculum Multicultural education in Canada has tended to focus on those who are racially and ethnically different from the dominant group. This is linked to the concept of equality as “sameness” and coming closer to the norm which, within a Eurocentric society is an impossibility for those who are visibly not white, middle class, male, heterosexual, or able-bodied. To make change within this environment requires a real shift of the dominant systems, one that is not likely to happen overnight but rather in small increments over a long time. The interviewees were all aware of the need to integrate diversity initiatives into the institution as a whole and particularly to not be seen as the only person doing this work. Each one of them is going about this in their own best way, using the techniques and tools that they have acquired over their careers to work around and within their system to implement change. There were indications of isolation when they were seen as the “designated person” and therefore responsible for the issue of diversity within a team setting, so while they were team members, there was still aloneness. 76 Some worked alone and had only tenuous links to support within their institution for their application of this curriculum. This may have been reinforced by the way that their work was structured to focus on their student contact. It is significant that most of the participants have had minimal success when they tried to use the curriculum as a stand-alone workshop. As key individuals working with a small audience, they became isolated with limited networking. Chan (1999) notes the impacts of this problem when she says: Some of the key individuals in institutions have become strong advocates for multiculturalism and diversity. There is a need to integrate these issues into the institution as a whole, so they do not come to be identified solely with these key individuals. When sole identification occurs, these individuals may become marginalized and thus the topics become minimized as only being important to the individual and not to the institution. This also occurs when there is a positioning of funding and resources with one priority versus another. (p. 4) When isolated workshops did not reach their intended audience, they all moved to integrating elements from the curriculum into their daily instructional practice. Here, each of them has been able to utilize and build on concepts of inclusion and diversity in the context of education settings that are intended for a variety of purposes, often not directly linked to the concepts of gender, diversity, or inclusion. 77 Availability of Resources The search for resources was an ongoing theme since various resources were integral to issues of implementation. The issue of limited or non-existent resources was also very much a road block for these facilitators. They found that there were no extra resources available to them. Some people were able to seize the resources from the amount that was made available to them for all of their work while others felt constrained by a lack of resources and an increase in expectations that they would just do the work within their job descriptions, including adding extra committee work. For those who had resources, they were free to use them as they saw fit within their already designated roles. For those who did not have access to resources for implementation, they found themselves frustrated by the inability to gain access. They were aware and presented evidence of what they might do with the resources but although they had the good wishes of their administration they did not have access to resources to reach out to an audience wider than those who were already committed. Resources like funding and time allocation are part of the equation around implementation. Si Kahn (1995) argues that any organization committed to a change – such as building an inclusive environment – must support the development of their human resources. Those resources include the people, their time as well as the training and education that they receive. Therefore attention must be paid to ensuring that there is approval and support for personal and professional development. 78 Practice While all of the facilitators had some feelings of isolation, they were also active in creating networks in which information can be given to others and change effected within the organization. Everyone was committed and working on the piece that they see as most important or most easily approached. They crafted their offerings within their institutions to fit in the places where matches could be imagined. The question of how to encourage change has many angles with so many systemic issues that it truly is difficult to figure out where to begin, so these people begin from where they are. The people who did come to the workshops were intellectually and emotionally aroused by the experiences within the group, with an enthusiasm to share the information being reported. Those who took training and found it useful frequently said that they felt there were others who would benefit and who ought to take the course. Adrienne Chan (1996), in her work with the Lower Mainland Multicultural Education Consortium identified some of the steps that groups within institutions use to initiate change within their community. Institutional change teams began to identify community partners, links to the community, and in some instances, work with their boards, as a part of the greater picture of implementation. With some change teams, there were opportunities to begin consultations with stakeholders. (p. 9) She (1999) further observed that for change to occur with diversity work there needed to be a structure in place. 79 While structures varied across institutions, the need for a cohesive structure was integral to the process. “Champions” developed over time. Significant factors in the composition of these groups included: representation from different sectors and levels of the organization, reporting mechanisms to administration, whether or not the committee had perceived power, and how the group was established – either organically or with a set mandate. (p.12) William Bergquist and Phillips (1975) identify three essential components of effective faculty development as being personal development, instructional development, and organizational development, otherwise referred to as PD, ID, OD. They believed that a comprehensive program that includes all these elements helps to build an organizational environment supportive of teaching and leading supported by increased instructional skills, as well as encouraging instructors to examine the ways in which their personal values influence their work practice and their personal life. Si Kahn (1995) expands on the concept of personal development by saying People in the organization need not only skills and knowledge. They also need to develop self-confidence to be able to work effectively. They need to begin to root the work they do in their own personalities, so that it’s real and has the force of coming from who each one is as a person. (p. 25) Diane Morrison (1995) notes that teaching challenges are increased as student population diversity increases. She recommends that any peer-based instructional consultation to 80 enhance teaching skills should be supported by the administration of an institution through policy, resources, and direct support of programs. By encouraging instructors to work together using a variety of collaborative inquiry approaches, access to instructional consultation activities can be expanded. The current study also suggest that participation in peer-based instructional consultation programs can lead to a variety of positive outcomes including increased selfconfidence as a teacher, enhancement of teaching skills, ongoing involvement in instructional inquiry activities, and enhanced collegial relations.” (p. 365) In terms of how to implement inclusion initiatives successfully, Chan (1999) makes comments and recommendations that relate to the situations faced by the facilitators acting within their institutions in this study. Colleges face an inordinate number of demands on time, workload and priorities in the face of changing student population, community requests and Ministry priorities. ... However, this is also a paradigm from which the colleges need to work from or to redesign. In sharing templates and models, colleges have learned from each other and have initiated collaborative demonstration projects to facilitate the work of diversity and institutional change. Sharing of information, sharing of resources, developing awareness, and an overall communication is important for the success of the college. The “general” awareness of college staff, faculty and administrator needs to be raised and engaged in terms of the issues of culture and diversity. Awareness should also be linked to 81 prevention of discrimination and harassment, building inclusive learning environments and workplaces. The role of the existing working group is key to future developments and success of the work ... Leadership is a vital part of the process and developing more leaders, advocates, and “champions” within the college is part of maintaining and sustaining the work. Sustained leadership also means that the principles that guide the work will become embedded in the institution. (p. 16) In their practice of creating inclusion and working with their peers and other employees in their institutions, these facilitators remained open to any possibility. Sometimes opportunity came in the form of requests for classes or by the mandate that they had to present information in their programs. Other times they had to go out and seek for a chance to use the materials. They apply “situational leadership” (Hersey, Blanchard & Johnson, 1996) within their institutions to take advantage of opportunities as they arise. The facilitators have used the Gender and Diversity curriculum as a reference, adapting it to meet the needs of the situation. In general their practice was not in using the whole curriculum, but rather in applying parts of the curriculum into existing or new situations. They like the way that the format leaves the curriculum open for this necessary adaptation. Most have used parts of the curriculum to support the work that they were already doing and to further their own understandings. Some have embedded the activities into their own curriculum while others are more active on committees where they perceive that there is a chance to instigate change. This variety of activity has 82 allowed their practice to blend into the culture of their institution while they are still pushing for and supporting a greater inclusive and equitable environment. With this intention in mind, there is also the possibility that they themselves will be affected and will accept a lesser change than was hoped for. This possibility is balanced by their own individual motivation to be involved in this work of creating inclusion. Resistance to Change While it seems obvious (to myself and others) that diversity is a benefit rather than an problem, the facilitators discovered that many of the people in their institutions were disinterested in taking part in any discussions about inclusion. These people felt that the subject of inclusion was not particularly important at the time, either to them personally or to their students and subject matter. Resistance was seen as relating to a perceived lack of relevance. Their colleagues were accepting of their information but often remained neutral to the concept of change. The policies and administrative support were seen by the facilitators to be “cool” and rational. As Chris Argyris (1990) observes, people become embarrassed and distant when the examination of actions is turned towards them and becomes personal. Facilitators questioned whether anybody was interested and spoke of their struggles to make it personal, particularly for those who are not being reached. Their analysis of the reasons ranged from the belief that people felt defensive or not needing to change, to feeling overloaded, to there needing to be time for people to see its value, to fear of change. There was also an opinion that it wasn’t quite resistance, but rather a reluctance on the 83 part of those who were not responding. One suggestion was that the work that they were doing might be better accepted under a different name. There were also individuals and groups who actively did not want to change. The existing system had served them well and any change would, in all likelihood, erode their positions of privilege and power. George Sefa Dei (1996) supports the notion that sharing power need not lead to irretrievable loss and that gains can be made. For most of the facilitators, this was a continual issue that they were working with constantly as they endeavored to get their colleagues to see that inclusion was as much about them as it was about the “others”. The labelling of various groups as “special interest” when they attempt to increase the equity of dominant systems is a way of reinforcing the existing norms of who is in charge and who is valued within institutions. When these norms exclude a large number of the people within the institution from the students, staff, and faculty, then issues and conflicts arise. These issues and conflicts are often addressed by the formation of committees, mandated by the administration to examine problems and suggest resolutions and changes. Committees exist in all the institutions in which the interviewees work. The work of these committees has had various effects on the culture of the institutions. In all cases, they are intended to be working groups who meet, discuss, and make recommendations for change to the administrations that constituted them. In the experience of the facilitators, they are at best, groups that struggle towards change slowly and at worst, bastions of the existing structure with no commitment towards critical examination of the inequities of the 84 existing norms. Rather, such groups reinforce the concept that those who request inclusion are “special interest groups” trying to challenge the proper norms. In these cases, the committee acts to minimize the influence of these groups and their impact on the normal exclusionary practices. Being a Change Agent The people who took the facilitator training for Gender and Diversity all expressed their awareness of the need for change and their commitment to making change wherever possible to make their institutions more inclusive. The resistance that appeared slowed the facilitators at times but did not stop them entirely. Everyone gave examples of the changes that they were able to effect. They were enthused by the positive responses that they have received which gives them energy to continue. Each one was taking a different path that they felt fit with the place that they held in the context of their institution and all were committed to continuing the pressure for change. Here, the need to analyze and adapt to the situation is played out in practice. The facilitators who were interviewed were self-reflective and aware that they were only making minor change within their institutions. They all believe that more should be done and have a commitment to act within the culture of the institution while attempting to change the culture through developing and supporting inclusive structures and activities. Success has come through concentrating on helping the participants make personal connections with the concepts and how they would relate to them, both personally and in an environment of social interaction whether at work or leisure. 85 Lave and Wenger (1991) identify the elements of “legitimate peripheral participation” as a solid template for any type of behaviourally based education, including the implementation of diversity and inclusion curriculums in the educational community where there is a need for continuing practice and coaching to have a chance of being accepted by the cultural group. And as Dan Pratt (1996) points out learning to “be something” does not cause individuals to lose something but, rather adds to their abilities and competence. Observations The various experiences of these facilitators had many parallels, not the least of which was their feeling of isolation and different experiences in attempting to implement inclusion initiatives. They saw similar processes through very different eyes, giving a wide diversity to the ways that inclusion is being addressed in the post secondary education system in British Columbia. This curriculum and the facilitator training were wide ranging in scope. In most cases, the trainees thought that it added to existing skills and connections. Everyone has used some part of the material in some way. Some facilitators have their favourite activities. Others are more vague about which specific parts they use but acknowledge that the experience and information held learning for them. They identify that more of “something” is what people want. More skills training, more action ideas, more of something that is not clear to them yet, but which they are searching for. They see the curriculum as a “best kept secret” that is out there, but doesn’t grab the imagination of very many people because they resist this course of study. 86 I initially thought that there would be concrete applications of diversity curriculum with best practice examples to be gleaned from my interactions on several listservs that deal with adult education and issues of diversity. I planned to see if the themes and designs that emerged from individual interviews could then be compared to the currently developing theories and opinions that are woven through listserv and newsgroup discussions and virtual interactions. I saw those as the backdrop, in front of which the interview participants could elaborate on their experiences and intentions. In reality, the listservs mirrored the comments of the facilitators interviewed in elaborating on the individualistic and small group struggles to bring about change relating to the increasing of diversity and inclusion in various institutions, both public and private. Analysis Change happens (slowly). There are many aspects to the slow rate of change. People have deep-seated beliefs about the value of one approach over another based on their interpretation of their own experiences. These personal beliefs and values are deeply embedded and hard to change, even when evidence is presented supporting the value of a new approach. In this research on the experience of facilitators of a provincial curriculum about Gender and Diversity in post-secondary institutions, and what has happened to them and their efforts since their training, several themes have emerged. These facilitators are all people who are aware of the privilege that they have in relation to some others, institutionally and societally. They are also aware of the areas where they are denied privilege because of a number of factors such as: sex, age, socio-economic status, religion, ethnic origin, in short, all of the prohibited grounds for discrimination 87 that exist in the Human Rights Act (BC). This is primarily what brought them to doing this work coupled with their individual constructs of ethics and human rights. As they reach out and attempt to make their own institutions more inclusive they find the difficulty of changing entrenched systems of privilege overriding existing conditions. Some people do not want to change or even consider minor adaptations to educationally assist others who are unlike them or who may threaten their positions of privilege. A major theme which emerged is that change doesn’t happen until circumstances where discrimination exists and the change that is needed hits home in a personal way. There are supporting examples of how change needs to happen on all levels within the institution and that authority to make this type of change can be grasped “de facto” before it becomes “de jure” and even longer before it is part of the “common law”. The “just do it” energy of people bent on being inclusive and breaking down barriers seems to work well. There is a synergistic effect when more and more people agree. However if people sit back and wait for someone or some other authority to effect change, nothing much happens. As I write this, I’m aware that it all seems logical, so I don’t feel that I have uncovered some new and startling truths, but I do find it important and sustaining to know that it is worthwhile to keep working for change and that I am not alone in this work. 88 Recommendations Given that most children and adults are involved in a lifelong learning cycle that includes using the structures and resources of educational institutions as well as situated learning, it is necessary that schools be active in ensuring inclusion and equity for all community members using the institution's services. A monolithic approach employing only one culture and only one language leaves many members of our society perpetually on the edges while allowing a minority to dominate merely by virtue of fortuitous accidents of birth. There is great potential for conflict when peoples and individuals are denied validation of their own culture and background and then denied access to the dominant power structures except as (supposedly) ‘inferior’ players who will not be allowed to participate fully. This may be active discrimination or through benign neglect, but it still has a devastating effect on those excluded and there is a tremendous loss of enrichment for the larger society when any peoples and/or individuals are excluded. The educational institution can affect attitudes positively by expanding the horizons of knowledge, encouraging understanding of others and providing guidance and examples of good practise. George Sefa Dei (1996) sees both micro and macro pressures on power and privilege affecting inclusion. We must approach the solution to human problems through a critical examination of how micro- and macro- structures of power and privilege work in society. In the schools, workplaces and organizational settings, to share power and privilege ensures the opening up of spaces for alternative viewpoints to flourish. (p. 133) 89 Educational institutions need to reinforce the validity of all cultures and to link those that are present through the students and community to the curriculum – both overt and hidden – within the educational institution. Doing so strengthens the self-esteem of individuals and groups, which in turn reduces the tendency to separate and judge that is so quickly evident when there is official permission to identify difference and discriminate on that basis. The microcosm within the educational institution is a reflection of the larger community. Power, privilege and conflict issues that exist external to the educational institution are reflected in the classrooms, shops, hallways and precincts of the institution. These interactions are not always positive or supportive to the individuals involved and often embody strong competitive win-lose behaviours with negative results. This community context influences what is possible in the educational setting by predisposing the players to behave in certain ways or to expect others to behave in certain ways. These behavioural biases may be the result of a number of factors, such as, fear of the unknown, lack of training, selective perceptions, or a desire to simplify and stereotype because it is easier than listening and seeking understanding of others. The students will not always be in educational institution and the outside world is an increasingly broad and diverse one where successful participants have knowledge and understanding of more than one culture. To move effortlessly between cultures requires a depth of knowledge about those cultures that may start simply with the day to day trappings of dress and celebrations, but which needs the depth of understanding of the 90 subtleties of relationship, continuity and interdependence that allows a person passage and acceptance to interact with and within the culture. I also believe that inclusive diversity programs are necessary for any type of professional development work for instructors and staff in educational institutions, and they are particularly appropriate for work with creating an inclusive learning environment both inside the classroom and within our post-secondary institutions. A multi-pronged approach is needed to ensure that there is no place that the light of inclusion does not shine. Theory must be tied to implementation plans and actions. Policies need to be linked to practice. Indications of success will come when multiple cultures are seen as a benefit rather than a problem and diversity is actively sought and celebrated. It takes sustained energy and application to move from enthusiasm about diversity initiatives to embedded practice. To meet the needs of students, faculty and staff there must be a commitment from administrations and boards of governors to continue the work necessary to move to a truly open format that values diversity. This work cannot be left only in the hands of a few dedicated individuals without endangering its existence. There must be a continuity of training sessions available and not just limited to skilled facilitators. The scope should be broadened to include as many people from those who are interested as possible, using the skilled facilitators as a trainer base. Developing peer-based consultation processes to encourage the conscious and active inclusion of diverse viewpoints into the curriculum of each course and program is key. Ensuring that there is talk about issues of facilitation as well as the gender and diversity issues and linking people who have taken facilitation training will also help to 91 support change by creating a support network of practice. Setting up an infrastructure to allow networks to form that stretch beyond single departments will help to limit isolation and to build energy so that the work can continue. Integrating this practice into existing Professional Development, Instructional Development, and Organizational Development activities within institutions and across institutions will create a broad foundation for change. It is important to seek support from all quarters so that diverse voices can be brought into the learning environment. These conversations are a necessary part of ensuring that the institutional point of view does not become stagnant while surrounded by a society in continuous change. Each person in an educational setting can help to build diversity into their daily routines. This can begin by making sure that diversity is made explicit in every group assembled, every policy written, every audience that the institution reaches out to, and all the resources that are developed. It may be helpful to have protocols in place at the beginning, a set of questions or benchmarks set to use until they are memorized and everyone thinks of them automatically. It means that we cannot pretend that there is no difference between people or groups. We need to get to know people who are diverse regarding gender, race, ethnicity, ability, and class. While this may seem simplistic, if everyone around a person is white and middle class, they are not going to think of other groups automatically, just as we do not notice the air around us or fish do not notice water. 92 We need to ensure that the print, video, electronic resources used in the institution include people from all races, abilities, and classes. Send back and refuse to buy those that are not inclusive to let publishers know why you are doing so. We also need to identify and make explicit the issues of privilege and open up the discussion to include analysis of privilege and how it impacts on everyone’s ability to achieve equity. When working with people who will probably be resistant, it is important to not compound that difficulty by insisting that change must be instantaneous and complete. It is necessary to be aware of and address all of the known reasons they may find change threatening and undesirable and prepare for this resistance ahead of time by anticipating and opening for discussion the results of their racism, sexism, classism and the cross impacts of all of these. It is vital to speak up and not to be silenced by the indifference or direct opposition of others. Silence signals acceptance of the status quo. Change agents must be the people to talk about difficult subjects first. Such agents strive to find ways to bring in the topics of culture, gender, race, class and more, so as to encourage dialogue about them. 93 Conclusion The adaptability of the facilitators and the mutability of the form of the work that they do around inclusion encompass the themes that run through this thesis. 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San Francisco, CA: Women’s Educational Media. 100 Appendix 1 – Interview Schedule 101 Interview Schedule History What brought you to this work? • What personal experiences have increased your awareness of issues involving gender and diversity? • How do you perceive the need to make inclusion an explicit concept? • In what areas are you comfortable with the response to gender and diversity issues in your institution and / or your area of study and work? What areas still need work? Facilitation Training What, if any, part of the training was useful to you? • Were your skills enhanced? • Was the information in the curriculum and bibliography useful to your application of this material in your work? What, if any, part of the training was not useful to you? • Was this part redundant, inappropriate or …? Application Have you conducted any workshops using this curriculum? • How many? • Who were the participants? (characteristics rather than direct identification) • What brought them to the workshop? • Who didn’t come? (characteristics rather than direct identification) 102 • What prevented them from coming? How did the workshops go? • What elements did you perceive as successful? • What needs more work? How do you presently perceive yourself in relation to: • The curriculum (are you using all, some, parts of the material?) • Your role as a change maker / agent within your institution. • Other facilitators of this curriculum inside and outside your institution. • The workplace. Institutional Support Who does work with Inclusion in your institution? How is it supported? What forms does this support take? • Advisory (or other) Committees? • Connections and work with other facilitators? • Connections and work with other groups within the institution? Are there areas in which there is an apparent lack of support? What expectations did/does your institution have about the implementation of this curriculum? • Is it considered part of your job for which you are given time and resources to accomplish? • Is it considered to be part of policy implementation? 103 • Where and how has the curriculum been implemented? • Who is expected to attend the workshops? Have you encountered biases as you use this curriculum? What sorts? What was/is the effect of apparent biases within your institution to this work? Has this initiative changed your perceptions around inclusion in your institution? How? What, if any, attitude shifts concerning Inclusion have you seen within your institution? What questions would you like to answer that I did not ask? What else would you like to add? 104 Appendix 2 – Letter of Request 105 Cover Letter from Centre for Curriculum, Technology and Transfer Dear We invite your participation in an interview process on behalf of Alice Macpherson who is doing research for a Master’s thesis on Gender and Diversity, Creating Inclusion in the College Environment. She is exploring the impact of Gender and Diversity, Creating Inclusion in the College Environment facilitator training and implementation on faculty in BC south coast post-secondary institutions. You are being contacted because you completed facilitator training in this curriculum in 1996. Attached you will find a letter from Ms. Macpherson, copy of her proposal, and a form that can be faxed, mailed, or emailed back to her if you choose to participate in an interview. Thank you for your time and consideration. Sincerely (For the Centre for Curriculum, Technology and Transfer) 106 Letter to prospective participants, My name is Alice Macpherson and in April 1996, I took the Facilitator training session for Gender and Diversity, Creating Inclusion in the College Environment, at Vancouver Community College. The Centre for Curriculum, Training and Technology, who organized that training, has sent this letter to you for me. I am now working on my thesis for my Master's degree in Education at Simon Fraser University. At this time I am hoping to interview other people who took this training from various institutions in the Lower Mainland and on Vancouver Island and I would like to interview you about your experience of using this curriculum. I am enclosing my proposal document for this thesis so that you can see what my intentions are. I appreciate that your participation in this process will take time and energy. Should you decide to participate, I will do everything possible to limit any impact. If you would like to discuss this further or are willing to be interviewed at a time and in a place that is convenient and comfortable for you, please contact me. You can return the enclosed form by fax or call me at 604 876-9047 (home) or 604 599-2697 (work) or email me at alicemac@kwantlen.bc.ca. I am enclosing copy of my proposal, and a form that can be faxed, mailed, or emailed back if you choose to participate in an interview or wish more information. Thank you for your consideration of this matter. Alice Macpherson 107 Fax Back Form To: Alice Macpherson Fax: (604) 599-2716 Phone: (work) (604) 599-2697 (home) (604) 876-9047 email: alicemac@kwantlen.bc.ca Mailing address: 2349 St. Catherines St., Vancouver, V5T 3X8 From: _________________________________ [ ] I am willing to be interviewed about my experiences with the curriculum and delivery of Gender and Diversity, Creating Inclusion in the College Environment. [ ] I would like to talk to you further about this project before I decide. I can be reached at: phone # _(___)__________________ best times _____________________ 108 Appendix 3 – Letter of Permission from the Centre for Curriculum, Technology and Transfer 109 Release Form The Centre for Curriculum, Transfer and Technology agrees to allow Alice Macpherson to utilize the Curriculum and workshop outlines from Gender and Diversity, Creating Inclusion in the College Environment. The Centre further allows Alice Macpherson to have access to the list of facilitator trainees for this curriculum in order that she may conduct interviews with those persons willing to do so. It is our understanding that: • This information will be used to provide a foundation for discussion of the impact of this curriculum on the facilitators who were trained to use it. • This work will not be used to form any evaluative viewpoint of the curriculum or of the facilitator training experience nor will it infringe upon the anonymity of any individual or community college. Name: ___________________________________ Signature: ________________________________ Date: ____________________________________ 110 Appendix 4 – Sample of Permission Form signed by Participants 111 Simon Fraser University Informed Consent by Subjects to Participate in a Research Project The University and those conducting this project subscribe to the ethical conduct of research and to the protection at all times of the interests, comfort, and the safety of subjects. This form and the information it contains are given to you for your own protection and full understanding of the procedures. Your signature on this form will signify that you have received a document which describes the procedures, and benefits of this research project, that you have received an adequate opportunity to consider the information in the document, and that you voluntarily agree to participate in the project. Any information that is obtained during this study will be kept confidential to the full extent permitted by law. Knowledge of your identity is not required. You will not be required to write you name or any other identifying information on the research materials. Materials will be held in a secure location and will be destroyed after the completion of the study. However it is possible that, as a result of legal action, the researcher may be required to divulge information obtained in the course of the research to a court or other legal body. Having been asked by Alice Macpherson of the Education Department of Simon Fraser University to participate in a research project, I have read the procedures specified in the document titled, “The Impact of Gender and Diversity, Creating Inclusion in the College Environment Facilitator Training and Implementation on Faculty in BC South Coastal Post-Secondary Institutions”. 112 I understand that I may withdraw my participation in this interview process at any time. I also understand that I may register any complaint I might have about the interview process with the researcher named above or with the Dean of the Education Department of Simon Fraser University. I may obtain copies of the results of this study, upon its completion, by contacting Alice Macpherson. I have been information that the research material will be held confidential by the Principal Investigator. I understand that my supervisor or employer may require me to obtain her or his permission prior to by participation in a study such as this. I agree to participated by being interviewed for one and a half hours about my experience as a facilitator of the materials in an educational package entitled Gender and Diversity, Creating Inclusion in the College Environment as describe in the document referred to above, during the time period of April, 1999 to August, 1999 at a mutually agreed upon location. Name (please type or print legibly): _________________________________________ Address: _______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ Signature: ________________________ Witness: _______________________________ Date: _____________________________ 113