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Educator abuse- "a new sense of self"

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Meh:
This will be brief. (Never mind it's not brief...)

I've got an instructor who is using the term "projection" to describe what he anticipates some students will do in his class.

This is an "English" class.

The class appears to be using a form of racial profiling which is a Civil Rights violation. I'm not a lawyer but the structure of this class already appears to be highly problematic. The instructor has also made the class highly personalized, highly racialized and he has made a point of "outing" people based on their race.

So I am not trying to make a political statement here although this ends up falling within the realm of politics.

I have many concerns already.

One of my concerns though is an instructor who is using what sounds like psychobabble to describe the "consciousness" of his students.

It's only the first week of class. The only interaction I have had with him so far is that I asked him if he can point me in the direction of any grading rubrics and he has none AND he provided me with quite a snarky answer.

I'm not sure what my point with this post is going to be. I think it's just a question of opinion about how to politely stand up against an authority figure who is using psychobabble.

I find it distressing that the course should not be a group therapy class and it's not a psychology class and he is using terms that sound like pseudo-psychology. Terms being used by someone in a Federally funded academic setting, someone who isn't qualified to do an unsolicited psychological assessment of students.

Often I just need to write things out for my own clarity and that is what I have done above.

I have already reported to the compliance and civil rights office at my institution that I have some concerns about how the class is structured.

It very much seems to me that he is performing some kind of conversion political activism in this class. We shall see how it turns out. In the mean time I'm trying to keep my sanity and dignity. In this class it looks to me like the instructor is grading students based on their psychological disposition according to their race. I find that the structure of the class is heavy handed and domineering.

I'm trying to set aside my opinion about politics etc. and break down the verbiage he is using and the structure/power dynamics.

Any thoughts on authority figures using psychobabble to justify their actions... I would appreciate it.

There is also the concept of free speech which the instructor has versus an instructor abusing their authority...

In the end I may base all of my work in the class on MLK research, the class doesn't even reference MLK at all, so I may rely on the civil rights movement background to generate my content for this class and then I will just see how he grades the civil rights based content....which will be quite odd since he is already violating students rights I think he will have an issue with with MLK ultimately. Sigh the crapola of it all. I have a clear goal and that is for me to graduate and to do it with some kind of dignity and sanity intact. I also do not want to feel voiceless or like this instructor is grading my race or my psychology.

I don't think it's an instructors role to attack a student's identity or sense of self. He doesn't need to do this to teach people concepts or skills.

I may come back to this post to yammer on about this. You may have noticed I have a way of self-talking/writing through issues here. Sometimes when I feel anxious or upset or overwhelmed I do have a difficult time finding the right words and articulating EVERYTHING that is in my thoughts, so I guess to a certain degree I see this as a safe place to try and sort out my own sense of voicelessness. I don't feel voiceless necessarily in this class yet but I do feel inclined to question and even confront his authority and that I am sure he may deem as "inappropriate."

A compulsion wells up in me to upset the power dynamic and point out inside the classroom discussion that an instructor/student setting presents a type of power dynamic that is not a balanced context to start with. I also want to publicly post in the class that if anybody feels they are being racially profiled or coerced into making personal statements or judged in ways they are not comfortable with they should report it to the civil rights office and also the head of the department. Somehow this action seems confrontational. Then again there is nothing written in stone that I must be powerless or voiceless and I am not violating anybody's rights by promoting the use of the campus civil rights office. 

Any thoughts are welcome if you are so inclined to share.

Meh:
Apparently the instructor is probably drawing from one or more of these theorists (names mined courtesy of wikipedia):

Paulo Freire, Henry Giroux, Peter McLarenbell hooks, Antonia Darder, Joe Kincheloe, Shirley Steinberg, Paul Willis, Ira Shor

The instructor hasn't explained his curriculum as a theoretical stance though and I think whatever he is doing it is going too far.

Hopalong:
Dunno that this will help, Posh, but it clarifies maybe.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/projection

That's the psychological term you referenced.

Hope it gets easier for you,
Hops

Twoapenny:
That does sound difficult to manage, Posh.  I struggled with some teaching methods when I was at Uni.  A couple of times I had tutors who appeared to be doing something a bit dodgy, but it turned out to be a sort of 'active' teaching thing, to make us think about things in a certain way (would take forever to explain but it made sense in the end and was a way of teaching, rather than a personal thing).  Another couple were very anti women, with one going so far as to air brush work by women out of his teachings and just refused to acknowledge what had been published.

I don't know if it would help in your situation but when I have to deal with public sector staff and I suspect (or know) they're telling me things that aren't factually accurate or appropriate to the situation, I ask them (politely) if they have any other information about that that I can have a look at.  So for example, when he talks about 'consciousness', to ask him if he has any reading recommendations for you about that.  Given that he's already refused to provide information about grading (which seems very weird; we all used to be given a clear grade scheme at the outset so everyone knew what they were up to).  I've just found with people that, if they are saying something that's well researched and well evidenced they can just say, sure, here's a list to start you off.  And if it's nonsense they don't tend to be able to produce much.

It does seem to be a 'thing' now; there's a huge amount going on over here at the moment about Universities having agendas and only allowing debate if the outcome is guaranteed and things like that.  It used to be about teaching fact, wherever possible, critical theory in other situations and debating skills.

Were the civil rights office much help when you approached them?  I wondered if there's any other kind of student body you could contact, even it just meant being able to knock ideas around a bit? xx

Meh:
I'm pretty darn concerned, it feels creepy.

There is too much talk about feelings when I frankly don't want to, coercive feeling talk feels abusive to me- but it's built into the assignments. Now I am second guessing what I divulged on the assignment. Maybe I should just start lying throughout the whole thing, and treat it as a social experiment. I guess I learned my lesson the time for me to start lying was before I submitted the assignment. This class is 100% not necessary but it's in the curriculum as a requirement, and if they don't kick me out I will probably end up attempting to write a "serious" article about it after the fact. I feel pretty violated to the point that I am now "resisting" by saying obnoxious things in the class discussion about mind control process. I DONT TRUST what they are doing. This is unlike any of the other classes I've had so far.

I know I often sound paranoid but this really does feel like political colonization via psychology. I mean this stuff does happen within universities it's not unheard of. Sigh at least my other three classes are normal.

What is really sick is how since I am a female I can say it feels abusive but if I was a male student I probably wouldn't be allowed to have that kind of thought or feeling about it.

Okay it's a social experiment and if I see everybody else in the class get converted, well whatever maybe that is on them. I won't succumb that that social peer pressure conversion tactics. (I hope)

I'm really starting to sound crazy.

 

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