Identity Politics: the impasse, the debate, the thread.

[Idris2002]

Wasn't she specific about people of colour? That could include people with diverse class backgrounds in itself but exclude others who might not have the same colour skin. Has progressive stacking come from a place of class analysis? I have only seen it when discussed here before, and examples of how it played out looked to be another way in which the deliberate exclusion or redefinition of class as a mere facet of a person's essentialised identity (which in itself is disturbing) helps to reinforce the dominance of the already privileged, including people of colour.

However flawed her politics may be - and I never said they weren't - the fact remains she is one of at least two US scholars who have been targetted by the far-right, and who have been left in the lurch by their institutions. I don't think this is a coincidence, and I also think it's fucking moronic to think that the flaws in her politics are the key issue here when what's at stake is the ability of FUCKING NAZIS to affect the hiring and personnel policies of institutions.

 

[bemused]

How do you know that the set of students prioritized by her stacking system didn't include poorer students?

How did she stack them? Was their a questionnaire her students had to fill out?

I'm not sure how they teach in the US, don't have have a relationship with their students that allows them to determine in the class if individuals need more space to express themselves?

 

[AllEternalsHeck]

A good teacher would notice if a student doesn't seem confident chipping in and draw them into the discussion surely. Prioritising the input of certain students based on race is naive at best.

I do support her right not to be targeted by nazi scum. I don't support her actual views and practices.

I recall a sociology professor making a joke about wanting a white genocide a while back. Was targeted by the right in a similar fashion. At the time I defended him because obviously he's not being serious, he's satirising Nazi rhetoric. He was white himself. But it's still a stupid fucking joke for a professor to make publicly on twitter. Divisive and likely to turn at least some working class people off sociology. You can't expect everyone to be in on your knowing ironic middle class twitter banter.

 

[chilango]

I wonder how a teacher using progressive stacking in a school class would go down with an Ofsted inspector?

 

[redsquirrel]

Yes, I don't think I'm as hostile to some on progressive stacking but I think there's a big difference between employing it in a voluntary (political) meeting and using it in a classroom.

I mean one of the major problems I (and I know I'm not alone in this) is getting any students to speak up during lectures.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

I wonder how a teacher using progressive stacking in a school class would go down with an Ofsted inspector?

Dunno, but encouraging teachers to check themselves and the ways they interact with kids is valuable. Don't know how often it happens, but this is one of the reasons posited for why black boys specifically start to fail at school from age 7 onwards - the lack of attention from teachers, including the lack of being told off.

If these kinds of unconscious biases are there, they can only be solved by consciously trying to solve them.

This stuff very easily becomes polarised. Progressive stacking is criticised and 'you should be colour-blind' is substituted. But it is very easy to think you're colour-blind when you're actually not.

 

[AllEternalsHeck]

It's an ivy league uni they're not being left behind.

 

[chilango]

Dunno, but encouraging teachers to check themselves and the ways they interact with kids is valuable. Don't know how often it happens, but this is one of the reasons posited for why black boys specifically start to fail at school from age 7 onwards - the lack of attention from teachers, including the lack of being told off.

If these kinds of unconscious biases are there, they can only be solved by consciously trying to solve them.

This stuff very easily becomes polarised. Progressive stacking is criticised and 'you should be colour-blind' is substituted. But it is very easy to think you're colour-blind when you're actually not.

Funnily enough I went to a class about teachers’ unconscious biases just the other day....

 

[chilango]

Funnily enough I went to a class about teachers’ unconscious biases just the other day....

...and in a couple of moments I’m off to one about class being a major factor in educational attainment!

 

[Magnus McGinty]

I would have thought that the far right would rub their hands in glee at idpol being used in teaching tbh.

 

[Idris2002]

I would have thought that the far right would rub their hands in glee at idpol being used in teaching tbh.

Well, it appears that even an intergalactic megabrain such as yourself can be wrong.

 

[Magnus McGinty]

Well, it appears that even an intergalactic megabrain such as yourself can be wrong.

Is there any need to be rude? In other news recently:

https://www.rawstory.com/2017/10/wh...lam-leader-louis-farrakhans-black-separatism/

 

[Idris2002]

Is there any need to be rude? In other news recently:

https://www.rawstory.com/2017/10/wh...lam-leader-louis-farrakhans-black-separatism/

Yes, there is.

As for Farrakahn, he heads off a mighty army of about. . . five thousand.

 

[Magnus McGinty]

Yes, there is.

As for Farrakahn, he heads off a mighty army of about. . . five thousand.

The point is they’re cut from the same cloth.

 

[seventh bullet]

However flawed her politics may be - and I never said they weren't - the fact remains she is one of at least two US scholars who have been targetted by the far-right, and who have been left in the lurch by their institutions. I don't think this is a coincidence, and I also think it's fucking moronic to think that the flaws in her politics are the key issue here when what's at stake is the ability of FUCKING NAZIS to affect the hiring and personnel policies of institutions.

I am supporting Nazis. Nope.

Stop being in a huff because I thought you were a wanker way back when and you didn't twig on.

 

[Athos]

.

 

[redsquirrel]

,..

I think that you probably didn't mean to post that on this thread Athos

 

[Magnus McGinty]

 

[Athos]

Think that you probably didn't mean to post that on this thread Athos

No, I did't. Thanks.

 

[AllEternalsHeck]

Never heard it described as pedagogical before.

Coming back to this, her followers/supporters are scrambling around trying (and failing) to find ad hoc evidence this is a legit pedagogical technique.

Not meaning to single this twitter account out specifically so I'll try to leave it alone. It's only so annoying because it's part of a wider trend of people who think and act like this to the detriment of the left in general.

 

[ManchesterBeth]

what do the tweets say? they are all images.

 

[crossthebreeze]

dialectician Its too much to type out word for word, but the tweets are by someone called Spookanie@McKellogs. Key bits are
"The University of Pennsylvania is issuing a press release condemning me and my teaching practices"
"I tweeted about evening the disparities in the classroom with a pedagogical technique called progressive stacking"
"Because this involves calling on Black students more than white men the white nationalists and Nazis were very upset"
"The engaged in doxing &I have screenshots of every stage of their mission that they tweeted publicly, to dogpile the uni saing I'm racist"
She gave Penn admin these screenshots.
"Penn thinks I'm racist and discriminatory towards my students for using a very well worn pedagogical tactic which includes calling on POC"

 

[AllEternalsHeck]

I don't get how it's doxing when she tweets under her real name (currently adjusted slightly for halloween) with her occupation and location in the bio.

Somebody else annoyed me on twitter because they teach at a further education college which is mainly attended by working class students and she was joking about how white men need to go in the bin ha ha. You just wonder if she takes this humour into the classroom or if her students see her twitter. Many of them will be young white men less privileged than herself. Somebody called her out and she blocked them then all her friends all rallied round to tell her she's in the right because it's just a joke.

Academic twitter has been a great disappointment to me, too many middle class dicks blind to their own class privilege.

 

[inva]

Academic twitter has been a great disappointment to me, too many middle class dicks blind to their own class privilege.

i'm shocked

 

[chilango]

Somebody else annoyed me on twitter because they teach at a further education college which is mainly attended by working class students and she was joking about how white men need to go in the bin ha ha. You just wonder if she takes this humour into the classroom or if her students see her twitter. Many of them will be young white men less privileged than herself. Somebody called her out and she blocked them then all her friends all rallied round to tell her she's in the right because it's just a joke.

 

[chilango]

...and if you're going to "progressive stack" to address this stat then you'd be starting with "White British Boys".

 

[Idris2002]

...and if you're going to "progressive stack" to address this stat then you'd be starting with "White British Boys".

Hmmm. Yes. A discussion of something in America should start by addressing a British-related statistic. Hmmm. Yes.

 

[mojo pixy]

People conflate US issues and UK issues all the time, especially wrt 'race'

 

[xenon]

#killallacademics

 

[chilango]

Hmmm. Yes. A discussion of something in America should start by addressing a British-related statistic. Hmmm. Yes.

I'm addressing the idea that progressive stacking is a "very well worn pedagogical tactic" and, note, in reply to AllEternalsHeck 's reference to another (UK based I think judging by the reference to FE) educator's twitter post about "white men".