Kimberle Crenshaw (2016) has an interesting activity that I'd like you to think about. Are you familiar with these names? Eric Garner. Mike Brown. Tamir Rice. Freddie Gray. I was. They have been all over the news the past few years as society grapples with the consequences of police brutality and racism in America.
How about these names? Michelle Cusseaux. Tanisha Anderson. Aura Rosser. Meagan Hockaday. Do they sound familiar? When I did this activity they were not familiar to me. Still more black victims of police brutality. Then Crenshaw drops the hammer. The difference. The first four are black males and the second four black females. Why is it that male victims dominate media while female victims go unnoticed?
Maybe there is a reason. Think about the female victims. They are black and female. Victims of both racisms and sexism. Social justice is struggling to recognize the intersectionality of these individuals. How parts of their identity combine to create different modes of discrimination or privilege (Crenshaw, 2016). They are being ignored intentionally or unintentionally simply because of the complexity of the individual, they are being discriminated against in a variety of complicated ways because of the complexity of who they are and the lack of depth of understanding.
This activity really hit home for me as an educator. How many times have I missed opportunities with my students because I was hyper focused on supporting one aspect of an individual with special needs or challenges. It's easy to say that student A with a disability was supported by intervention B and move on without considering the other aspects of them as an individual. That brought up an additional dreadful thought. There are often 30 wonderfully unique individuals in a class. How can I possibly plan for all of the complex and diverse needs of my students?
Universal Design Learning (UDL) is the solution. This is an approach to curriculum that minimizes barriers and maximizes learning for all students by increasing engagement, representation, and expression (Cast, 2022). This sounds great in theory, but what might it look like in practice?
Here is a simple phrase to help ensure UDL is incorporated in learning, choice and a voice. Giving students choice and a voice in the classroom increases learning for all students while honoring the diverse needs of the individual. (Voice and Choice, 2018). Providing choice and a voice creates opportunities for engagement, representation, and expression.
Imagine a female student from China who speaks Mandarin. A UDL activity might allow here to choose a job to research and choose how she shares out. While this opens many doors, is this example she could report on female computer programmers in China and have a video with English subtitles to share her work allowing her to share in her native language. Not only does this respect her as an individual, it has empowered her to express her learning in an authentic way giving the best opportunity to assess her understanding and plan for future learning. Really why wouldn't we utilize the principals of UDL?
References:
About universal design for learning. CAST. (2022, February 8). Retrieved July 27, 2022, from https://www.cast.org/impact/universal-design-for-learning-udl#.XFBpZi2ZOL9
TED. (2016). Kimberle Crenshaw: The urgency of intersectionality [Video]. TED Talk. https://www.ted.com/talks/kimberle_crenshaw_the_urgency_of_intersectionality?language=en
Voice and choice. Project Zero. (2018). Retrieved July 27, 2022, from http://www.pz.harvard.edu/resources/voice-and-choice
留言