Return-Path: <nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id j9QKL5G26460; Wed, 26 Oct 2005 16:21:05 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2005 16:21:05 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <002a01c5da6a$76925fe0$1101a8c0@FLC10> Errors-To: listowner@nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: "Gretchen Sullivan" <gsullivan@atcaa.org> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-WOMENLIT:3355] Re: diversity X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1437 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; Daphne, Thank you, I really appreciate your comments. I work in an area that has a large population of Native Americans and very few other minorities. Our demographics are changing and the Mi-Wuks have a new casino so there is tremendous change going on. It is unsettling to the community and much of our time during community meetings and during our adult literacy classes is spent talking about how to talk respectfully to each other. I'm afraid that it will be a very long converstaion as people learn to treat each other as people first rather than members of groups. Gretchen Sullivan Adult Education Coordinator ATCAA Family Learning Center Tuolumne, CA ----- Original Message ----- From: "Daphne Greenberg" <ALCDGG@langate.gsu.edu> To: "Multiple recipients of list" <nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov> Sent: Wednesday, October 26, 2005 5:52 AM Subject: [NIFL-WOMENLIT:3354] diversity > I had an interesting experience the other day that I would like to share. I was part of a focus group discussion trying to brainstorm what can be done about smoking behaviors and individuals who have low incomes/low literacy/low access to resources, etc. What I would like to share is the diversity issues that came up during this discussion. > 1. Native American culture: > a. Individuals from the Native American community shared their offense at earlier panelists who cited educational attainment figures about various minority groups and claimed that similar statistics were not available for the Native American group. The individuals from the Native American community stated that this was ridiculous, that these statistics are readily available on the Internet, and that once again the needs of the Native Americans in our society are overlooked. The look of pain on their faces was apparent for all to see... > b. During a discussion about how moving from rural communities to city communities increases the family/neighborhood support that low income individuals can experience, the Native American individuals reminded us how for their community the opposite occurred. They had much more support on the reservation, and lost family/neighborhood support when they were moved out of the reservation and forced to live in cities. > 2. NonChristian culture: > When talking about institutions that can help support an anti smoking campaign with individuals who have low literacy, many in the group talked about churches. When someone in the group raised the suggestion that instead of the word churches, the phrase "faith-based" organizations may be more inclusive, others in the group didn't understand what was wrong with the word "church." She explained that Jews, Moslems, and other religions do not call their houses of worship church and do not relate to that word. It was clear that many in the group were confused by this statement. > 3. Representation: > When a minority member is the only one in the room who belongs to a particular culture, we often make the mistake of assuming that whatever that person says is representative of that culture, as if that culture is made up of homogeneous people. This was clear when during a discussion of which groups may need special attention, a man said "we, the glbt community" need attention. A woman objected stating that what does smoking have to do with who we go to bed with. Another woman responded by stating that the connection is that we have been told by the panelists that the lgbt community is one of the most recent targets of the tobacco industry, so we need to pay attention to our community. The other woman continued to object stating that she did not think we should be including sexuality in this conversation. The facilitator responded by stating that the purpose of this conversation is not to infuse our personal beliefs about sexuality and how we feel about homosexuality, it is ! > to talk about helping individuals of different communities. At this point the woman responded by saying, you don't understand. I am a part of the lgbt community, it is just that I don't think that we should be addressing sexuality at this point. It was interesting to me, how there were 3 outspoken members of the lgbt community in that group, and 2/3 perceived things one way, and the third perceived them another way. It helped remind us that just because we all represented different communities and voiced our opinions, it did not necessarily mean that we represented what everyone in that culture believed. > The above focus group experience reminded of the complexities of diversity and how learning to interact with each other is a lifelong process. These types of experiences are helpful to think about when we interact with adult learners who may be similar and different from each other in numerous ways. Although, most of the time adult literacy teachers do not have the time to talk about these types of issues with learners, the way we look, what we say, and our body language impact the learning process in ways that we sometimes can see, and in ways that are often not seen. > Any thoughts? > Daphne > > > Daphne Greenberg > Assistant Professor > Educational Psych. & Special Ed. > Georgia State University > P.O. Box 3979 > Atlanta, Georgia 30302-3979 > phone: 404-651-0127 > fax:404-651-4901 > dgreenberg@gsu.edu > > Daphne Greenberg > Associate Director > Center for the Study of Adult Literacy > Georgia State University > P.O. Box 3977 > Atlanta, Georgia 30302-3977 > phone: 404-651-0127 > fax:404-651-4901 > dgreenberg@gsu.edu >
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