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USING THIS GUIDE
When
we first started working on Writing for Change, we decided
our first priority was to make this a flexible resource. We wanted
you as a user to be able to find materials relevant to the many
issues of difference, power, and discrimination you address in the
classes you teach, groups you lead, or community forums you host.
The material in this
manual is not intended solely for use by people who “teach
diversity.” We hope it will reach people in a broad range of
ages, classes, sexual orientations, ethnicities, religions, genders,
and levels of education.
We had two reasons
for structuring Writing for Change with its strong focus
on language and writing: First, writing is a familiar learning procedure
to most teachers and students, with its emphasis on process as well
as product, and we wanted users to be able to integrate the exercises
into their teaching environments as effortlessly as possible.
Second, and perhaps
more importantly, we recognize the unique and paradoxical role of
language in our lives. We use this powerful tool to shape our thoughts
and experiences, yet patterns and structures in the language itself
can shape us in return. In the words of one activist, "Our
words create our world."
If language creates
reality, we decided our best hope of shaping the reality we would
like to see is to examine the negative and harmful underpinnings
of this powerful but often invisible tool, and refocus them to begin
creating a language of equality and inclusion.
Many of the exercises
in the manual cover more than one “-ism”; most of those
that address a specific social justice topic have a variation that
suggests how to adapt it to one or more other topics.
To give you some choice
we tried to include exercises in various formats that you can adapt
depending on what field you teach in, how large your groups are,
where the exercises will be completed, and how reluctant or enthusiastic
your students are about the issue on which you are raising awareness.
A few of the exercises
have special requirements, such as copies of a particular article
or access to the Internet; but to keep things simple we designed
most of them to be done with only pen and paper or copies of the
relevant page, your guidance, and your students’ ingenuity.
We hope you will find
this manual a useful tool in your ongoing efforts to raise awareness
of difference, power, and discrimination.
Janet Lockhart,
M.A.I.S.
Susan M. Shaw, Ph. D.
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