Prof. Eugene Walls expects more than a little emotion to be expressed in an MSW class he developed. And he says that's okay.
Taught for the first time in 2007, "Disrupting Privilege Through Anti-Oppressive Practice" challenges students to confront their own privileged identities and the role that privilege plays in maintaining oppression. When observations turn inward, conversations turn brutally honest. As students examine themselves and those around them, intense feelings often surface.
"Change isn't easy," Prof. Walls says, "and it doesn't come without cost, effort and sometimes pain."
Recognizing our privilege and biases
Social work education has tended to look at those who are affected by inequities of privilege, rather than focusing on members of privileged groups themselves, Walls explains. He hopes the course encourages students to accept that they all have built-in advantages, no matter how open they strive to be. To be successful in challenging social injustice, he says, a social worker cannot ignore his or her own biases, nor the role his or her privileged identities play.
"In my everyday life, I need to ask, 'How does my maleness give me privilege that
women don't have? How does my Christianity give me privilege? And how do those privileges
contribute to the oppression of others?'"
Multiple funders
Walls says the course pushes students to explore and disrupt patterns of privilege and power that some people have, including privilege based on whiteness, Christianity, upper/middle class status, maleness, heterosexuality and other advantaged identities.
"This class isn't for the fainthearted or for those who just want to stick one toe in the water," commented one MSW student after completing the course.
Walls launched the course with a mix of grants and other support. Funding sources included the University's Center for Teaching and Learning, the Campus Climate Council, the Curriculum Diversity Small Grant fund and the Latino Center for Community Engagement and Scholarship
