Suggested Reading: (pg75-80), 17 (pg81-84), 18 (pg85-88), 19 (pg89-92), 20 (pg93-98), and 23 (pg109-114)
Start: Welcome participants back to this space
Re-Introductions: Go around the room, beginning with moderator: name, pronouns (if they’re comfortable), role on campus
Ground Rules for Discussion: Review out loud the bolded portions of the OEI-provided Ground Rules and, if applicable, the additional rules your group agreed upon in the introductory session (and since).
- Speak Your Truth: Share from your own experiences
- Seek to Understand: Actively listen, before responding
- Respect Others’ Experience: We may have different OR similar stories to share, and contexts to draw from. All are legitimate.
- Disagree Without Discord: Disagreement is expected. HOWEVER,
- Approach unexpected ideas with curiosity, not argument.
- If you disagree, debate and challenge ideas. Don’t attack the speaker.
- Share the Air: Make room for all voices to be heard, and don’t dominate the conversation.
- Confidentiality:
- Share stories and experiences, but don’t identify individual people or provide details that would allow someone in your story to be identified.
- Do not share the experiences you hear in this space outside this space.
Conflict Management: Review the conflict management procedures your group created together in your introductory session.
Questions (about anything?)
Group Discussion: Paraphrase the italicized portion as desired.
Culturally effective, inclusive and respectful engagement is an ongoing process, not a project with a clearly-defined ‘finish line.’ No one can honestly claim to be 100% perfect in their engagements with others: even those who are committed to equity and inclusion will have moments where their well-intentioned efforts aren’t delivered as gracefully as necessary. This will be just as true for you and I, as it already has for Vernā Myers herself.
In this session, reflect on what you’ve learned in this Learning community, on the process of equity and inclusion, and on the need to use missteps as an opportunity for growth. Mistakes are not
moments of failure or points of no return: we can affirm our commitment to the work of inclusion even amid bumps in the road.
Question:
How have your understandings of implicit bias, inclusion, and difference, changed as you’ve engaged in these conversations? Has your comfort zone and the manner in which you’ve approached or participated in conversations outside of this group, changed at all? When the opportunity has arisen, has the quality or content of your interactions with people from the many “One Up/Down” groups changed? What are you determined to do differently?
Objective: The purpose of this discussion is to reflect upon the conversations, challenges, and tips that you’ve covered throughout this process, and think about how to apply them in your engagements in your workspace and personal relationships going forward.
