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Social Justice Education Initiative at Oregon State University: Facilitated Learning Opportunities

SJEI Workshops are the heart of the program. Through the sharing of information in research-based contexts, participants gain key insights that lead to both short and long-term impacts which enhance learning, teaching, and service environments in a multitude of tangible ways. An important institutional outcome for SJEI is the creation of calibrated vocabulary and conceptual frameworks for both envisioning and discussing topics of equity, diversity, and inclusion across the OSU community. The shared experience of the one-size-fits-all SJEI platform curricula creates a context for this visioning and discourse amongst colleagues, and this context is the foundational basis for institutional growth. SJEI is pedagogically aligned with DPD, OSU Advance and the Search Advocate program, further enhancing the context for institutional growth. SJEI workshop participation meets the continuing education requirement for the Search Advocate program.

All SJEI curricula are embedded with current research and promising practices in adult and social justice education for institutional growth. The design of the curricula encourages everyone to engage, regardless of where they may be starting from. SJEI helps make the invisible inequities in the world around us visible and invites us to decide how we want to interact with these things we can now see more clearly. Participants are encouraged to replace judgement with curiosity, especially across difference, and to develop a better relationship to their imperfections as they do so. There is an emphasis on empathy, on interruption, and on applying practical, research-based strategies.

SJEI has a two-tiered structure for standard workshop delivery:

Social Justice Education Initiative

Tier One Platform

The SJEI Tier One Platform provides faculty & staff a basic foundation for inclusive excellence. Instruction time for the Tier One platform program is 8 hours total; this is delivered in a series of three sessions, to allow more flexibility in completing the entire curricula.

A glossary is introduced and discussed, and we explore little-known Oregon history in a way that helps clarify our peculiar current context and surfaces dominant culture. Once we know more about how we got “here”, and what “here” looks like from multiple perspectives, we look at who we are and how that all fits together. Identity is explored as a social construct that, among other things, creates power hierarchies and is also intersectional and very complicated. Participants are asked to reflect on how this information changes what they think, believe, or feel, and what they might do differently in their work to ensure inclusive excellence across OSU. Cross-cultural communication is considered, and some practical strategies are discussed. An important conceptual framework is introduced for reflecting on and communicating our relationship to comfort, risk, and danger. Microaggressions are defined and their context explained, and the essentials of implicit bias are similarly reviewed.

Tier One Platform Learning Objectives:

  1. Apply a vocabulary of basic terms confidently with other participants
  2. Identify how history relates to the current context of Oregon and OSU
  3. Recognize that our conceptions of identity are informed by our social context
  4. Recognize that a dominant culture exists, even if it is invisible to you
  5. Understand that it is the social constructions of dominance that are problematic, not individuals with dominant identities
  6. Apply concepts and vocabulary that will support effective communication with colleagues
  7. Identify basic cross-cultural communication skills
  8. Identify opportunities for increasing professional efficacy and community-building
  9. Recognize the existence and impact of one’s own implicit bias
  10. Explain what a micro-aggression is and why they occur
  11. Summarize how dominant culture is normalized, creating exclusion

 

 

The SJEI Tier Two Next Level workshops are shorter, specifically focused, and often provide deeper practice on topics explored in the Tier One Platform series.

Completing the Tier One Platform series is recommended, but not required, to participate in Tier Two workshops.

Tier Two Next Level workshops vary in length and in topic. View the schedule below to review upcoming Tier Two Next Level workshop descriptions, Learning Objectives, and availability.

Social Justice Education Initiative

Tier Two Next Level

Standard workshops are open to all OSU faculty, staff, and graduate students.

 

Colleges, units, and departments may elect to offer SJEI workshops within as internal opportunities. Standard workshops can be modified or entirely new ones created to meet specific needs. Internal SJEI workshops provide increased relevancy and opportunities for colleagues to grow relationship and address specific contexts. To arrange for a custom workshop, contact SJEI Program Director Jane Waite.