Program Design for “Combating Oppression and Championing Empowerment in Higher Education Workplaces”

Alyssa McGrath

Lisa Melby

Michael Szajewski

3/5/2017

EDAC 634 Program Design

Program Design for “Combating Oppression and Championing Empowerment in Higher Education Workplaces”

Group Member	Roles	Commented On
Alyssa McGrath	Group Member (Brainstorm, Provide feedback, Help identify components of rationale including practical program examples)	Experiential Learning, Self-Directed Learning
Lisa Melby	Group Member (Brainstorm, Provide feedback, Help identify components of rationale including practical programs)	Group 3
Michael Szajewski	Group Leader (Brainstorm, Write first draft of program)	Humanistic Learning, Experiential Learning

Introduction and Purpose Statement

Our program, entitled “Combating Oppression and Championing Empowerment in Higher Education Workplaces”, is a proposed 8-week human resource training course required of all new faculty and staff employees at Ball State University.  Its main objective is to teach new employees the value of, and strategies for, developing an empowering workplace and learning environment that identifies, acknowledges, and rejects forms of oppression.  The course design is rooted in and influenced by feminist pedagogy, built upon core values of this teaching philosophy including:

• Challenging hegemony and the construction of knowledge
• Exploration of interconnectivity of gender, power, and exceptionality
• Acknowledging intersectionality
• Acknowledging the roles of emotion and experience in knowledge creation
• Engaged pedagogy

The goal of the course is not to “teach feminism”, but rather to use pedagogical methods influenced by feminist theory to develop and reinforce at Ball State an educational space that values empowerment and rejects oppression. The course will meet for 90 minutes, once a week, for 8 weeks, during normal working hours.  The ideal “class” size for this program would be 20-25 students. The program will engage participants in a variety of interactive and self-reflective activities that are both structured and open-ended.

As the program is designed for both teaching faculty and non-academic staff at Ball State, content will be applicable to both the classroom and the workplace, and will broadly support the aims of a higher education institution with a diverse workforce. The course will also seek to correct observed biases in human resource development educational settings that are often male-centric and less willing to challenge authority and hegemony.

Rationale

Feminist Pedagogy and Human Resource Development

Human Resource Development is an ideal medium in which to teach new employees the value of, and strategies for, developing an empowering workplace and learning environment that identifies, acknowledges, and rejects forms of oppression.  Feminist pedagogy was chosen as the preferred theory-based approach.  Not only does feminist pedagogy involve consciousness-raising, activism, and a caring and safe environment, due to its critical thinking component, this theory strongly encourages participants to analyze the power structures within a society.  “Critical thinking…is not an abstracted analysis but a reflective process firmly grounded in the experiences of the everyday” (Shrewsbury, 1997).  Critical reflection allows for analysis of oneself and the prejudices that we connect with.  Within the ideal feminist pedagogical learning environment, students discuss topics openly and freely while remembering to be respectful of each other’s perspectives.  This process of self-discovery is integral to the succession of the overall program design.  

The patriarchal perspectives of our unchallenged past are being questioned with vigor now-a-days by feminist pedagogy groups in several arenas.  Within Human Resource Development, a relatively new field of study, writers and researchers are stressing the importance of “creating new knowledge of essential importance” by utilizing the framework of feminist pedagogy.  Human resource departments (HRD) within organizations have, among others, the responsibility to ward off discrimination of all kinds.  At an academic conference, authors Bierema, Tisdell, Johnson-Bailey, and Gedro presented that HRD does not do a sufficient job and also feel that it should incorporate a feminist pedagogy approach.  We feel here, at Ball State University, that a program design, utilizing the feminist pedagogy approach, is aligned with Ball State’s mission statement which says, “In the 21st century, college graduates need to be prepared to live as global citizens. They will need to acquire knowledge of the diverse people with whom they share this world”.  Not only do we want to prepare students for this globalized 21st century, we need to prepare our employees as well. Thus, Human Resource Development and feminist pedagogy theory will jointly serve as highly useful theoretical underpinnings for our  “Combating Oppression and Championing Empowerment in Higher Education Workplaces” course.

Challenging Hegemony and the Construction of Knowledge

Other major scholars have been especially influential in articulating various components of feminist pedagogy that have been are used as a framework for this program.  One critical pillar of feminist pedagogy is challenging hegemony and the construction of knowledge. Well-known scholar bell hooks (1994) proposed that this deconstruction and calling out of oppression is a desperately needed practice for the academy. She writes, “The call for a recognition of cultural diversity, a rethinking of ways of knowing, a deconstruction of old epistemologies, and the concomitant demand that there be a transformation in our classrooms, in how we teach, has been a necessary revolution—one that seeks to restore life to a corrupt and dying academy” (pp. 29-30). This passage demonstrates how feminist pedagogy is especially relevant in higher education spaces.  

Furthermore, this concept emphasizes the rejection of the neutrality of information. In a feminist educational space, the educator and the learner acknowledge that knowledge produced by a particular culture reflects, and can be biased by, power relationships that exist in that culture. The powerful have the capability to produce and disseminate knowledge that serves their own needs and sustains their own power. Gouthro and Grace (2000) describe feminist pedagogy as a positional pedagogy that is rooted in analysis of the cultural/social position of the knowledge creator and learner, explaining that such pedagogies “interrogate relationships of power in larger social and cultural contexts, and they investigate how the power-knowledge relationship affects the production, exchange, and distribution of knowledge at the macro-level in education and culture” (p. 136).  Similarly, Tisdell (1998) describes the notion of seeing with a “third eye” as being aware of the biases that power relationships have on knowledge, writing “to see with a third eye is to recognize that the self (or the author) constructs knowledge in relation to others, and both the self and others are situated and positioned within social structures where they are multiply and simultaneously privileged and oppressed” (The Construction of Knowledge and Giving Voice section, para. 1).

In an educational setting, this pillar of feminist pedagogy can be realized through the selection of readings and examples that are written by diverse people so that the classroom does not continue to promote and normalize privileged voices.  This idea can also be incorporated through the development and design of classroom activities that engage students in the challenging of traditionally accepted knowledge and sources of authority.

Acknowledging the Roles of Emotion and Experience in Knowledge Creation

The construction of knowledge can be challenged in the framework of feminist pedagogy is through embracing emotion and personal experience as legitimate and valuable sources of knowledge instead of through of a more traditionally male-centric focus solely on non-personal and rational forms of knowledge.  Weiler (1991) argues, of knowledge-seeking through emotion, that “this kind of knowing through an exploration of feeling and emotion requires collective inquiry and constant reevaluation. It is a contingent and positioned claim to truth” (465). Daniele Flannery & Elisabeth Hayes (2001) suggest that “the traditional way of viewing ‘authority’ emphasizes a mode of rational argument and excludes other, more diverse ways of knowing” (p. 35). These authors argue for more acceptance of alternative modes, such as using personal experience as a valid means of knowledge production.

In an educational setting, narrative learning techniques such as journaling, roleplay, and self-reflective analysis can bring learners’ emotions to prominence in an education space and can demonstrate the potential to gain and share new knowledge through these practices.

Acknowledging Intersectionality

Feminist pedagogy highlights women’s experiences but does not seek to generalize about what it means to live or learn as a woman. Instead, feminist pedagogy acknowledges that many factors such as race, class, gender, and other social factors shape human identity, rejecting the notion of one unified female experience and acknowledges that a diverse population faces unique and distinct forms of oppression. As Weiler (1991) writes, “in settings in which students come from differing positions of privilege or oppression, the sharing of experience raises conflicts rather than building solidarity. In these circumstances, the collective exploration of experience leads not to a common knowledge and solidarity based on sameness, but to the tensions of an articulation of difference” (469).

In addition to highlighting the ways intersectionality shapes identity, feminist perspectives also acknowledge that identity is fluid and one person might hold multiple identities. For example, some people “have family identities, social identities, Chicano-women identities, and working-class identities all at the same time” (Flannery & Hayes, 2001, p. 33). Feminist perspectives can deepen our understanding of adult learners and help instructors develop practices that better address or at least acknowledge that identity is more complex than generalizations about gender make it seem.

In an education setting, this pillar of feminist pedagogy can be achieved through the development of activities that bring to light many diverse personal narratives. The development of panel discussions and sessions designed to highlight diversity in this way can be a highly effective method.

Engaged Pedagogy

Engaged learning, as bell hooks describes it, involves creating spaces for the sharing of knowledge, linking awareness with practice, helping students in a process of self-actualization, incorporating many moments of action and reflection, and to “share in the intellectual and spiritual growth of our students” (1994, p. 13). As Carolyn Shrewsbury (1997) writes “feminist pedagogy is engaged teaching/learning—engaged with self in a continuing reflective process; engaged actively with the material being studied; engaged with others in a struggle to get beyond our sexism and racism and classism and homophobia and other destructive hatreds and to work together to enhance our knowledge; engaged with the community, with traditional organizations, and with movements for social change.” (p. 166)

In feminist pedagogical theory, the idea educational space for the facilitating of engaged pedagogy is a classroom in which the instructor retains and demonstrates authority and grants this authority unto the participants as well to take ownership over the educational experience.  Webb (2002) summarizes the implications of such classroom constructs, writing that “feminist pedagogy offers both the professor and student new relational roles. Power becomes shared as students assume more responsibility for teaching and teachers for learning” (68).

As Taber and Woloshyn (2011) explain, girls in elementary education settings are frequently taught behaviors and values the support and encourage female passiveness and discourage expression of authoritative traits. The development of democratic educational spaces that employ engaged pedagogy can help combat and disrupt the encouragement of female passiveness learned in other educational settings.

In an educational setting, engaged pedagogy can be achieved through the incorporation of activities that empower students to share personal experience and develop unique and individualized ways of knowing.  The instructor should also develop a democratic classroom space using teaching techniques and structure that reject an authoritarian-style classroom.

Practical Examples

A practical program example utilizing feminist pedagogy is that of Women Who Code (WWCode). This global non-for-profit organization is dedicated to inspiring women to excel in technology careers.  WWCode aims to foster a broad community impact.  When women make more, they reinvest 90% of their income back into their families and communities, thus creating a virtuous cycle or multiplier effect for supporting women to earn more overall.  The organization is a global one featured in over 60 cities with over 50,000 members. There are support networks all over the world; networks that promote equality for women by teaching them, supporting them, and praising them.  Collectively, their networks run 1500+ free and low cost technical events every year. Members are able to communicate globally as well and learn from one another.  Women Who Code helps engineers level up. Their motto says that they are successful when members love their careers and stay in tech. Currently, mid-career women are leaving tech at 56%, a rate higher than men. One reason is that women have a much lower chance of being promoted. As a result, WWCode focus on changing the perception of the industry by highlighting the achievements and success of the diverse array of engineers that work in these professions. (https://www.womenwhocode.com/events)

Another example of an organization that employs feminist pedagogy is that of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.  Through their diversity training, the VA is able to provide a clear understanding of what diversity is and what it isn't; to raise a greater awareness and sensitivity to Diversity issues that go well beyond the assumed categories; and, to recommend behavioral tools for fostering a more cohesive workplace.  The benefits of providing such training to the workforce are as follows:

• Higher performance
• More effective group processes
• More creative flow
• New product development
• Consumer confidence
• Increased service marketability
• Significant revenue growth

Finally, VA diversity training program emphasizes the “vegetable soup” analogy instead of the formerly used “melting pot” analogy.  In vegetable soup, each ingredient is stands out with its unique flavor, but all flavors blend well together.  So it is with diversity.  Diverse qualities are represented and culturally respected contextually within an organization. (www.diversity.va.gov/training/files/diversity-inclusion-in-va.ppt)

These examples were both influential as they both employ the use of engaged pedagogy to model empowerment and empowerment behaviors.  Both programs demonstrate the importance of articulating the benefits both personally and institutionally to empowering frequently-marginalized voices. Both programs foster participation in activities that model liberated workplaces influenced by the aims of feminist pedagogy, providing needed and valuable cognitive and emotional exposure to reinforce empowerment-oriented behaviors. The VA program also especially influenced the development of our program through its rejecting the “melting pot” metaphor for diversity and its embracing a model of intersectionality that seeks to comprehend many diverse identities, experiences, and struggles.

Program

Our program, “Combating Oppression and Championing Empowerment in Higher Education Workplaces”, is an 8-week course to be implemented and lead through Ball State University Human Resource Development.  The course is required for new faculty and staff employees of the University and is offered at the beginning of each fall semester.  The class meets once weekly for 90-minutes; ideal class sizes would range from 20-25 learners, and multiple sections would be offered to accommodate scheduling.

The themes taught in this class are of great significance and value for employees of Ball State University.  For the University to fully embrace being an open, accepting, and diverse campus, employees must be aware of opportunities to empower colleagues and students from often-underprivileged population groups.  Doing so would enable these persons a greater opportunity to succeed and thrive at the institution.  Empowered students are more likely to perform well in the classroom, thrive in an educational environment, and contribute to the campus community.  Empowered employees are more likely to thrive in their careers, contribute to the success of the institutions, and commit to a career at Ball State.  

The facilitator of the programs will strive to establish a democratic-style educational space in which participants are take ownership over class discussion. Participants and the facilitator should be seated in a circle or a U-shape in which all participants are given equal prominence. The facilitator will establish the classroom as a contested space rather than a safe space.  Participants will be encouraged to challenge the status quo and privileged forms of knowledge through arguments supported by evidence including emotion and personal experience. The facilitator should help guide conversation and introduce topics as needed but should transfer much ownership over the direction of discussion to the participants.

The course will provide participants with strategies for identifying oppression in the workplace (the office, the classroom, and other spaces), for standing up for those being oppressed, and for identifying and avoiding oppressive behaviors and practices.  The course will emphasize texts that are written for popular audiences that privilege diverse and often underprivileged perspectives.

Session #1

Activity Title: Introduction

Activity Description:

The instructor briefly introduces the purposes of the course and the goals of the course as outlined above.  The instructor emphasizes the value of a democratic classroom and encourages all participants to speak up, contest ideas, and take ownership over the educational space.

For an introduction, each participant is asked to introduce themselves, discuss their role/job at the university, and describe one or two opportunities that they have in their job to interact with others (students, colleagues, community members). By articulating and understanding these connections, the participants will be encouraged to think of these connections as opportunities to share empowerment.

Activity Title: Challenging Assumed Ideas in the Workplace Activity

Activity Description:

Participants are asked to think back to a previous job (or class, or organization they were involved in, etc.) and identify a piece of knowledge that they thought was unjust, unfair, or ineffective. This piece of knowledge could be a policy or rule, a shared assumption, a decision, etc.  The participants, on worksheets, will describe

• The piece of knowledge (policy/rule/assumption/decision)
• Their thoughts why the knowledge was unjust or unfair
• Why they felt the knowledge was prevalent in the particular organization
• What group of people in the organization helped propel and sustain this knowledge

In small groups, the participants will discuss with one another what they wrote down.  As a group, they will make a list of 3 or 4 prominent ways in which organizations tend to sustain unjust knowledge and discuss these findings with the entire class.

Related Components of Feminist Pedagogy: Reconsidering Authority, Challenging the Construction of Knowledge, Using Engaged Teaching to Transform, Human Resource Development

Session #2

Readings to Prepare for Session:

Jessica Bennett, “How Not to Be 'Manterrupted' in Meetings”, Time, January 14, 2015

http://time.com/3666135/sheryl-sandberg-talking-while-female-manterruptions/

Alicia Adamczyk, “Why Women Talk Less Than Men at Work”, Money, August 12, 2016: http://time.com/money/4450406/men-interrupt-talk-more/

Alice Robb, “Why Men are Prone to Interrupting Women”, New York Times, March 19, 2015:

http://nytlive.nytimes.com/womenintheworld/2015/03/19/google-chief-blasted-for-repeatedly-interrupting-female-government-official/

Activity Title: Empowering Group Members and Colleagues in Workplace Meeting Role Play Activity

Activity Description:

The participants will be subdivided into groups of 3 or 4.  Each group will be asked to role play a workplace meeting based on a scenario that would be common in higher education.  (Examples: a group meeting to develop a grant application, a group meeting to develop a course curriculum).  A worksheet with a few talking points for each group member will be provided.

In each group, a human resource representative/facilitator will play the role of the “suppressor”; this person will try to dominate the conversation and talk over others’ ideas. The role of the other group members is to “call out” the suppressor’’s behavior and advocate on behalf of the voices that are being silenced in the conversation.

After 3 or 4 minutes of discussion, the group members will switch roles with another person playing the suppressor.  

After the exercise, each group member will be asked to complete a brief journaling exercise describing the emotions associated with 1) having your voice suppressed in the meeting, 2) advocating on behalf of the suppressed, and 3) being the one suppressing.

Related Components of Feminist Pedagogy: Exceptionality, Gender, & Power, Challenging Hegemony, Empowerment of Women, Role of the Teacher in the Classroom, Importance of Positionality, Using Engaged Teaching to Transform

Session #3

Links and Resources for Participants in Program:

Pomerantz Career Center for Leadership and Career Advancement at the University of Iowa, Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Resources: https://careers.uiowa.edu/students/gay-lesbian-bisexual-and-transgender-resources

National Academic Advising Association (NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising), Advising LGBTQ Students: http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/Resources/Clearinghouse/View-Articles/Advising-LGBTQ-students.aspx

Human Rights Campaign, Coming Out as Transgendered in the Workplace: http://www.hrc.org/resources/coming-out-in-the-workplace-as-transgender

Richard Trotter, “Transgender Discrimination and the Law”: http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1072606.pdf

Activity Title: LGBTQ Persons in the Workplace and in Higher Education Panel

Activity Description:

The instructor will assemble a diverse panel of persons (students and professionals) from the LGBTQ community to talk with participants in the course about issues, struggles, and obstacles they have faced in the workplace and in higher education as a result of their sexuality and gender identity.  The persons on the panel will each speak for roughly 10 minutes and will then answer questions from the participants.  Issues discussed could include:

• Microaggressions that LGBTQ persons frequently face in the workplace and in higher education settings
• Steps that a workplace/higher ed institution can take to make transgendered persons feel comfortable and welcomed
• Coming out, or not coming out, to colleagues
• Incorporating discussion of sexual identity with students in the classroom
• Strategies for making LGBTQ job candidates feel comfortable and welcome

Related Components of Feminist Pedagogy: Human Resource Development, Acknowledging Intersectionality

Session #4

Readings to Prepare for Session:

Carmen Ross, “You Call It Professionalism; I Call It Oppression in a Three-Piece Suit”. http://everydayfeminism.com/2015/02/professionalism-and-oppression/

K. O. Fayokun , S. O. Adedeji , S. A. Oyebade: “Moral crisis in higher institutions and the dress code phenomenon” http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED504966.pdf  

Activity Title: Dress Code Analysis and Discussion

Activity Description:

Participants in the course will be divided into groups and will be given example of dress codes taken from the following scenarios:

• Dress codes for student employees in different office settings
• Dress codes for students participating in on-campus conferences and events
• Dress codes for students participating in Greek Life events
• Dress codes for office employees

The participants will analyze the dress codes and will complete a worksheet on which they will write down ideas and thoughts regarding the following questions:

• What social classes and cultures are privileged by the dress code?
• In what ways is the dress code different for men than women?
• What types of persons might face the most obstacles in conforming to the dress code?

Each group will present their ideas and thoughts to the larger group.

Related Components of Feminist Pedagogy: Reconsidering Authority, Challenging the Construction of Knowledge

Session #5

Activity Title: Hiring Minority Employees and Recruiting Minority Students

Activity Description:

This activity will demonstrate the value of community-building and community networks to overcome oppression and alienation.

The class will divide into groups of 4 or so participants.  The group will brainstorm and develop a list of obstacles that racial, ethnic, or religious minorities (or other minorities) may face when trying to make a home and develop a sense of community in Muncie as either students or professionals.

The group will then work collaboratively to develop a brief resource guide for prospective Ball State University students and employees that describes community organizations and resources to support cultural diversity locally.  The participants should divide their work strategically to cover different topics.  The participants should use the time in the classroom in research and list organizations of relevance.  Such organizations may include:

• Ball State University multicultural organizations
• Local religious organizations
• Political advocacy organizations
• Muncie social organizations
• African-American Greek Life organizations
• Other advocacy and support group organizations
• Minority-owned businesses

Related Components of Feminist Pedagogy: Human Resource Development, Acknowledging Intersectionality

Session #6

Links and Resources for Participants in the Program:

Ball State University Office of Disability Services, Faculty Resources: http://cms.bsu.edu/about/administrativeoffices/disability-services/facultyresources

Activity Title: Ableism in the Workplace and in Higher Education Panel
Activity Description:
The instructor will assemble a diverse panel of persons (students and professionals) with disabilities as well as persons working in the Ball State University Disability Services office to talk with participants in the course about issues, struggles, and obstacles they have faced in the workplace and in higher education as a result of their being disabled.  The persons on the panel will each speak for roughly 10 minutes and will then answer questions from the participants.  Issues discussed could include:

• Identifying, understanding, and categorizing different types of disabilities
• Laws and regulations designed to help and empower disabled students and employees
• Social issues that disabled students face in higher education
• Discrimination faced by disabled persons in higher education workplaces
• Interpersonal strategies for welcoming and accommodating disabled persons in the classroom and workplace

Related Components of Feminist Pedagogy: Human Resource Development, Acknowledging Intersectionality

Session #7

Activity Title: Emotional Learning Journal Activity

Activity Description:

Over the course of a two-week period (from Session #5 to Session #7), participants in the class will have been asked to create a workplace journal in which they observe their emotions throughout the workday.  Participants should consider on-the-job situations including interaction with students and interaction with colleagues.  (Participants can extend the scope to cover their personal life as well if they would choose).  In writing the journal, they will be asked to keep the following in mind:

• What emotions did you feel throughout the course of the day?  Think of one or two examples each day?
• How did these emotions manifest themselves?
• What circumstances do you think contributed to the particular emotion?
• Reflecting back on this emotional response, what knowledge can I gain from the situation through analyzing my emotions?

During this class session, participants will gather in groups of 5 or 6 and discuss and share a few journal entries.  Participants may also create visual representations of emotions expressed in the journals and are encouraged to explore other methods for creatively expressing these emotions.  Participants are encouraged to discuss specific challenges they faced in journaling as well as the benefits they perceived from this activity.

Related Components of Feminist Pedagogy: Role of Emotion in Knowledge

Other Related Theories of Learning: Embodied Learning

Sessions #8

Activity Title: Course Conclusion and Wrap-Up

Activity Description:

Participants in the course will be asked to come to this session with a 1-page list/summary of strategies they can individual use in their work to help empower students, colleagues, and community members with whom they interact.  Each participant will summarize their list and share with the group a few of the strategies they wrote down.  Each participant will also be asked to write down 2 or 3 strategies suggested by classmates that would be applicable for their own work at Ball State.

Related Components of Feminist Pedagogy: Using Engaged Teaching to Transform

Reflection

Our program highlights the importance of identifying, naming, and calling out institutions of oppression, especially in the academy. This assignment demonstrates the ways a feminist pedagogy could help address some of the issues we have identified above. We approached the task of identifying oppressions within the institution by brainstorming problems of power, sexism, ableism, racism, etc. that we have either experienced, witnessed, or know are important issues for many students and employees at Ball State. We would like to demonstrate the ways feminist pedagogy makes space for diverse voices to collaboratively construct knowledge and share experience. Our workshop-styled program intends to help new Ball State University faculty and staff understand their role in eradicating oppressive ideologies and behaviors within the academy.

We completed this project by comparing our literature reviews to identify common themes and then thinking of ways to incorporate the feminist practices in our weekly program activity. Luckily, our group leader quickly suggested program ideas and once we had agreed upon one, he began brainstorming activity ideas, which we all offered feedback on. One tip we would like to offer is to find a program idea that fits in a setting at least one person has knowledge on. For example, we chose Ball State as the setting for our program because we can all offer insight on this institution. We also discussed a human resources perspective because at least one of our group members was interested in this field and could offer some expertise or experience on this perspective. It is easier for group members to contribute ideas for activities and lessons if they have some familiarity with the setting or type of program you are working with. Additionally, Google Docs and many emails were key to remaining on the same page about the program design. Thus, another tip for future students would be to find a communication method that works best for your group and be up front about your response habits. Being diligent about replying promptly while also taking the appropriate amount of time to fully address a group members email and contribute new information.

This assignment has reminded us that collaborative projects are most likely to be done well and on time if group members agree to a project timeline. Making clear our timeline and roles for the project before we began was incredibly beneficial because it ensured that group members understood what their responsibilities were. Despite best intentions, group projects often face the challenge of time management when all group members have different work schedules. It can be difficult to gauge whether someone is making progress on their end when they post their work later in the week or when someone “incubates” before responding. For example, some people get their thoughts out early and then revise while others think for awhile and then post their ideas at a later stage. Responding to emails to let group members know you are paying attention and just thinking through ideas is reassuring for all participants.

Literature Review Table

General Idea	Application
Alyssa McGrath
Challenging Hegemony	-Deconstruct social/power systems in class -Expose students to texts that challenge mainstream ideologies and notions of identity
Reconsidering Authority	-Acknowledge your own positionality as the instructor -Share authority and knowledge construction with students -Allow for student voices through critical course discussions where all perspectives are valued
Acknowledging Intersectionality	-Acknowledge diversity rather than ignoring it -Incorporate activities that ask for narratives -Avoid binaries and acknowledge that identity is fluid
Using Engaged Teaching to Transform	-Incorporate activities that value students’ experiences and ways of knowing -Reflecting as instructor is critical -Reconsider the role that emotions play in your teaching and student learning
Lisa Melby
Human Resource Development and Feminism	The importance of broadening research in the field of HRD is of the utmost importance.  Not only is it important to expand research, it is important to include the voice of feminism within this research.  “Human resource practices sometimes function to perpetuate patriarchal systems of power”.  By approaching this relatively new field of study with a less sexist agenda, HRD can only thrive.
Feminist Pedagogy and Universal Design in a Deaf and Hearing World	Universal Design (UD) in a mixed classroom of deaf and hearing students is a concept that bridges the communication gap.  “Universal Design is a foundational theory upon which much of disability studies rests; it examines the physical structure of a classroom and believes in intellectual heterogeneity”.  UD and feminine pedagogy both support “educating at the margins”.
Antifeminism/Masculinism	The concept of masculinism is detrimental to students.  Its hegemonic approach and attribution to the “scapegoat theory” places women at the margins of society.  By studying this hegemonic concept, “students will develop the means to respond to such marginalization when they encounter it”.
Oppression, exceptionality, gender, and power in Canadian children’s literature	Critical discussions are crucial to how exceptionality, gender, and power are portrayed within children’s literature.  From a young age, children are subjected to hegemonic ideals.  Feminist thought strives to bring to light the pervasive concepts of dis/ability and gender within this genre.
Patriarchy	The author of this paper wrote exclusively about a female political philosopher that championed feminist methods of inquiry. He believed that this feminist had her own agenda of “humanist justice – devoid of any patriarchal bias”.  The feminist, in his opinion, did a poor job of teaching college students her philosophies due to her lack of factual knowledge and championing her own feminist agenda.  The article is proof of patriarchy at its finest.
Michael Szajewski
Emotional and experience are both valuable sources of knowledge and should be acknowledged, valued, and given privilege as such.	Narrative learning and other experiential activities allow learners to gain knowledge from emotion and experience.
Challenging the construction of knowledge brings to light the effect of power on assumed knowledge and examines biases in knowledge.	Critical text selection can present ideas to learners that challenge traditionally-privileged knowledge and knowledge creation.
A democratic educational space in which the instructor maintains authority and grants shares that authority with students in the classroom to challenge traditional forms of knowledge facilitates feminist learning space.	Activities to empower students to seek authority in the classroom can facilitate such a democratic space.
Students from traditionally privileged groups often struggle to accept, or even openly reject, the authority of an instructor from a background that has been traditionally oppressed or disenfranchised. The feminist educator seeks to develop strategies and best practices such that all voices in the classroom (those of the educator and those of the students) are empowered and emboldened.	Strategies to deflect criticism of teacher authority can help instructors and educators overcome challenges rooted in rejections of authority of this nature.

Summary of Program Design

Learners	New faculty and staff employees at Ball State University
Purposes	The purpose of the course is to provide new employees with awareness of the importance of creating a culture of empowerment for students and colleagues while combating oppressive forces in higher education.  Participants in the course will address these issues in both theoretical and practical ways and will finish the course with practical experience facilitating empowerment.
Objectives	By taking this class, participants will learn, through practice and direct experience: Strategies for identify oppression and empowering oppressed voices in the higher education workplace and classroom The value of challenging traditional forms of knowledge and traditionally accepted ideas To embrace intersectionality while understanding various obstacles facing a diverse population of students and employees The value of emotional and experiential learning and reflection and how this gained understanding can promote understanding and empowerment. These activities will encourage participants to gain experience and perspective to support the empowerment of colleagues and students and the combating of oppression in the higher education workplace.
Rationales - Ideas from Literature	Principles of feminist pedagogy serve as the main influence for the design and development of this training program.  Specifically, the following ideas contributed by scholarly publication and theory served to influence this program: The significance of Human Resource Development as a field to contribute to the aims of feminist pedagogy, specifically the empowerment of traditionally-oppressed voices, and the observed prevalence of male-centric voices in Human Resource Development Leadership. The value of contesting and questioning knowledge and the understanding that knowledge produced by a particular culture reflects, and can be biased by, power relationships that exist in that culture. The value of emotion and experience as valid sources of knowledge in the workplace and the classroom. This notion challenges more traditional orientation that privileged knowledge rooted solely in rationality. The value of engaged learning--creating spaces for the sharing of knowledge, linking awareness with practice, helping learners in a process of self-actualization, incorporating many moments of action and reflection.
Rationales - Ideas from Practical Programs	Program 1: Women Who Code Program 2: Engaged pedagogy can allow participants to cognitively and emotionally experience empowerment-oriented behaviors in a workplace setting. Rejecting the “melting pot” metaphor can provide a better and more honest framework for teaching and presenting intersectionality. There is value in understanding and articulating the personal and institutional benefits to HRD programs related to diversity and empowerment.
Highlights and the major components of the program you designed	Highlights and major components of the program include: Panels providing participants in the program to engage in a dialogue with a diverse cross-section of the community, providing opportunities to understand ways to empower traditionally-underprivileged persons. Activities designed help understanding of value of contesting and questioning traditional forms of knowledge in the workplace and educational spaces in higher education environments. Activities designed to teach strategies for empowering traditionally-underprivileged persons in the workplace and the classroom. Activities designed to demonstrate the power of community-building and coalition-building in providing support for empowerment. Emotional learning activities that provide an opportunity for journaling and self-reflection.

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