Notes Towards Day 22 (Thurs, Nov. 17): A PROCESS!

I. We have so much to "process"!

II. Coursekeeping first
I and your writing group should have gotten, by now, your questions,
your notes, and your "impressions across" your three interviews.

We will spend last 1/2 hour of the class in writing groups, when your
task will be to help one another turn your reflections into paper #10,

which is due by 5 p.m. this Sunday -->
3 pp. in which you
1) develop a research question,
2) use the qualitative data you've gathered
(from your interviews, those of your writing partners,
the on-campus workshop and/or the Parkway visit)
to address the question, and
3) make a claim backed up by that data.
[Jody will talk @ 12:15 about what that claim might look like....]

I will not be able to confer w/ all of you about your notes-->paper;
you can select this as your revision paper for your final portfolio.

Also due on Sunday night are two posts:
1) sharing what you feel-and-think about doing
this sort of very deliberative academic writing
2) in the diablog w/ Parkway, following up on their visit here

In class next Tuesday we will move into the fourth (final!!) section of this course:
1) learning to classify 2) focusing on class matters 3) looking @ a "classy" education
Part Four: "De-classification": Pushing the Boundaries of Academic Writing
Declassify: To undo the action of classification; spec. to remove
(information, etc.) from the category of being ‘classified.’

We'll read some selections from the work of a very unusual legal scholar,
Patricia Williams's 1991 book, The Alchemy of Race and Rights,
which we've chosen as much for how she writes as for what she says,
so pay attention to that...how does she develop her argument/represent her ideas?

III. so, since we met as a class, we have hosted both
an on-campus workshop and a visit from Parkway students.

Let's talk about our "impressions across" the two events.....

Kicking this off from the course forum:

nbnguyen: Should we make the talk (about class issues) voluntary or coercive? I believe if we talk about class issues in some coercive environments such as in the classroom in which everyone is forced to participate, it may produce better results.

Rae: I invited people that I had constant disagreements/fights because of class. My original idea was for them to go to the workshop and maybe see might point of view better, yet I actually was one who learned a lot.

Serena: I would like to know why talking about class makes people feel uncomfortable.

lissiem: participating in the workshop was very challenging for me.  It was very uncomfortalbe, but that's why we've having workshops like this in the first place!  

gfeliz: In a space where we have some sort of ownership, is usually a place where we also feel the most comfortable because we feel in control. I think what would be helpful is to continue these conversations, if possible, once every two months or so.

S.Yaeger: In many ways, the absence of housekeepers and landscapers from the workshop highlighted one of the difficulties in starting a discussion of this nature on campus.  No matter how hard we work to be inclusive, there may always be a barrier between those in privileged positions, and those who are in positions of support.  I wonder how we can bridge that barrier.

thamid: After the workshop I realized that our ESem needs to be bigger. A constant theme that stood out was the idea to keep a continuing dialogue and make these issues known and take them head on.

MWV1993: The forum on Friday really brought to light for me the idea that our campus is really quite separated between faculty, staff members, and students. Of course, we do need to have our boundaries, but at what point do these boundaries become too distinct and actually inhibit us from understanding one another?

melal: On the one hand, we think that we should pay more attention to the class issues; on the other hand, we agreed that class sometimes does not matter that much, because what we want is to attain a higher level in academics. I therefore wonder that for people in Bryn Mawr, how important do they think the social class is?

chandrea: Is it the responsibility of the college to teach a kid about the people they will encounter who are from different walks of life

ssaludades: One question that came up that really resonated within me throughout the workshop was: do we need to feel ownership over something in order to find comfortability?… I realized that one could find comfort in being in a collaborative community with other people or find productivity in being guided….it made me wonder about the different comforts that each class (social economic, gender, race, ability, ethnicity, etc.) nurtures for its constituents. do some cultures and classes nurture a community based on individual autonomy or collaboration?

So: what did we learn--and how will carry this work forward?
2 possibilities:
"Out of the Shadows: Undocumented at Bryn Mawr," Thomas Great Hall, 3 p.m. today
Conscientious Community Coffee Hour with SJPP, Multicultural Center, 9:30-11 Friday morning:
a conversation about meaningful student engagement-->how we can work as an alliance to catalyze change ?

What did we teach-and-learn during our visit w/ Parkway?
And how might we carry that work forward?

IV. Go across the hall for writing group work @ 12:10/12:15
--what you need to get from this session w/ each other;
* bounce your interview data off of one another-->
have others help you see what's in your data:
what interested you/what confuses you--
you can lead w/ qustions, or just have them talk

* help each other develop a claim:
what can you say from these interviews,
that's interesting and/but doesn't go too far:
is descriptive, not absolute....