Tag: week of 7/6

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Discussion Week 7/6

1. One of the most fascinating sources I stumbled upon when researching was the article “Action need on LGBTQ Diversity” by Dexter Morse, focusing primarily on improving diversity amongst genders within the airline industry. Morse’s call to action is creating a more diverse and inclusive workplace for those who are discriminated against for their sexuality, this pertaining to many who identify as anything other than heterosexual. The article begins with showing the United States’s delay on bringing this inclusion to airlines, as other countries have implemented federal laws to protect discriminated employees. Other countries have taken immediate action to introduce laws and regulations that make it illegal to sexuality as a reason to discriminate between employees, and therefore allow all to be hired no matter what they identify with in terms of their sexuality. Morse reports from his own findings, that sadly “… more than 53% of LGBTQ workers hide their identity at the workplace”; proving that there is still plenty of action to be taken to bring this number down drastically. Although all members of the LGBTQ community are affected, those who identify as transgender face the most discrimination as “…27% of the transgender population said they were not hired, were fired or were not promoted as a result of their gender identity or expression”. Moving into tying LGBTQ inclusivity with the airline industry, Morse mentions the steps airlines such as American Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, United Airlines, and Emirates have taken to improve upon their gender diversity within the companies. In addition, Morse connects the dots together to conclude the article with ways to raise awareness for this discrimination and how companies should utilize their business ventures to improve upon this issue at hand. 
 
Overall this article is beyond beneficial, providing evidence and statistics that are easy to visualize to better understand the exclusivity in terms of gender within big time companies. Focusing on the improvements airlines have made to incorporate a more gender-diverse workforce was also interesting, as these findings were specific to Dexter Morse’s article and not found in other articles I read. I think this source is extremely beneficial in terms of providing statistics that are worthwhile, each statistical number having enough weight to hit readers and those educating themselves on the issue how drastic this needs to be changed. Morse also provided some examples of policies and laws that have been made in response to improving on gender-diversity, and also improving the benefits that those who identify with the LGBTQ community. 

 

2. One of the responses that really hit home for me was subtitled “A Lack of Privacy makes Anxiety Worse”. As someone who suffers from anxiety from time to time, I found it especially personal to read the response as it corresponded with how I would also feel if placed within an open layout office. Immediately as the start of the response, the writer opens with an illustration of what this office is like. I believe that this is crucial in understanding the rest of her response as you can visualize what working in the environment must have like. Visualizing these hiding spots the girls within the company, only of which there were three, was heartbreaking as they had to leave the office to find some sort of calm and peace. I think that from this I was able to illustrate a point I would want to make, that being the importance of mental health within the workplace and how it corresponds to the quality of the work performed. I was intrigued to find out that the writer did explain to the company through her exiting letter the toll that the office space took on her, but I was also appalled that she did not have a response or anything to say on whether or not the company improved upon this response to the environment they had created for their employees.

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Week of 7/6 Discussion Post – Dominique Van Gilst

  1. The overall message of the article, “Inclusive education: Perspectives on implementation and practice from international experts” is that every child deserves the right to a good education. This article defines inclusive education in many different ways, but one is  as “a process and practice of designing schools to support and benefit all learners” (p. 1). Inclusion means allowing each and every student to learn and grow a general education classroom. However, it also means providing support for students who need it in that classroom. Later in the article, there is a study done to find out if inclusive education is worth it. In the end, the authors, who are experts in the field of education, find that inclusivity is certainly worth studying, and in order for inclusive classrooms to be successful, we must know the barriers.

This article will be extremely helpful because it talks a lot about the ways in which inclusive education can be defined. For example, in the paragraph above, I quoted one of the definitions. However, this article uses more sources in order to have more definitions. The more the article talks about inclusion, the better the reader can understand it.  I believe that the study included in the article will be helpful too because it gives proof of inclusion working, and tells the reader what is needed to make it successful.

 

2. “I do have a rather robust response to being watched, having been one of the first girls at a boys school, and then the first female on the factory floor in three organizations. But after moving to local government, I noticed several of the points raised. However, one seems left out. A lot of the women would get in early to be able to sit by the walls, not the aisles, in an open office. This let them feel slightly less exposed in situ, but of course also put the men at the end where it was easy to ‘aisle watch’! This early start, coupled with the pressure to dress well–let’s face it, dress down Friday is for men!–made them more likely to do unpaid overtime at the end of the day. Because the men were still going, work was still being discussed.” —Kristin W. 

I chose this response because the author, Kristin W., builds on what was said in the original article, while also writing about her take on open office plans. I believe that according to Rewriting,  Kristin is extending, or putting her spin on the original article based on her own experiences. Kristin adds something that was not talked about in the original article, which is intriguing because it unfortunately makes a lot of sense. Kristin opens a new line of inquiry with her response because she says that many women would get to work early just so that they could sit closer to the wall during the day so that they would not be noticed as much. This is not surprising to me, but it should be eye opening for offices, and people working there. Women should not have to feel that they must get to work early so that they will not be “watched” by their male co-workers. I think that Kristin makes a very valid, interesting point. This response was different from a lot of the women who responded to the original article, so I thought that it would be a good response to choose.

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7/6 Discussion

  1. The article “Changing preservice Teacher’s Attitudes/Beliefs About Diversity” investigates the motives behind racial bias and what is needed to reform the bias into awareness. M. Arthur Garmon is the author and a professor of early education and human development at Western Michigan University and uses past study’s results to introduce us to the issue of preservice teachers having discriminatory biases. He created his own study of one of his students, Leslie P., who becomes a great example of the development of the racially sensitive mindset that is crucial in teaching. Garmon bases his study around the question “what are the factors that appeared to be most critical in the development of her multicultural awareness and sensitivity?” Through 10 hours of recorded interviews, Garmon analyzes the conversations he had with Leslie in her senior year of college and categorized her reflections on diversity and multiculturalism throughout her life and how she developed a healthy perspective on the topic. The article is filled with large quotes from their conversations, between them, professor Garmon adds in his inferences and analysis of Leslie and her mindset. He continually mentions Leslies mindfulness and how she is more perceptive than any of his other students. Like most of her white classmates, Leslie came from a homogenous rural town where diversity was rarely discussed. Her interest to open her mind to the topic is what stood out so much to Garmon, although she had not grown up surrounded by multiple cultures she believed it was important to be engaged in all the different walks of life that surrounded her when she arrived at college. 

 

Leslie opened up about the prejudices that had formed in her childhood and the ignorance that the biased beliefs fed off of. Although, she affirms that this openness and mindfulness to ones own prejudiced views is a necessary step to forming the multicultural awareness that all people should work towards. She places a lot of the responsibility of this mindfulness on going to college, which was the first time Leslie had really become a part of a culture that included many varying cultures. This source will be especially helpful because it tells a true story of the development of an unbiased open mind; a crucial characteristic for anyone working in the education system. The article also addresses her commitment to social justice, this is a topic I feel very strongly about because I believe it should be a characteristic that is taught and encouraged in everyone, not just teachers. In past article summaries, and in my research plan I have addressed the issue that people have become selfish with their privilege, and how not only the education system but the whole world needs to turn their attention to the number of people forced into crime and poverty, not the number in their bank accounts.

 

  1. While the article from Katherine Shwab does a great job of informing the reader about the perspective of open offices from a female it lacks in the topic of how to change it. It works as a great informative piece, and I noticed many solid and concise quotes that would make great additions to a paper or study regarding this issue, but to make this article a stronger argumentative piece I would include a possible solution. Typical cubicle office spaces seem to be uninviting; you are designated only a small square of space to do your work and you have walls surrounding you to help you not get distracted. It eliminates any feng shui that can improve an environments comfortability like the open office space is able to. Although, the open office plan clearly has problems of its own, and a large factor is how it eliminates all privacy that the cubicles offered. 

My suggested solution to these conflicting office arrangements would be to find a balance of the two. A main problem I saw repeatedly in the article was how there was no place to go in an open office to relieve stress or to make a private call. An open office that consisted of larger ‘mega-cubicles’ may be able to fix this issue, where some would be designated to teams of employees are meeting areas while others would be an open space that worked as a break room or collaborative space. This idea can also work like the casual-Fridays appeal, where the rooms are given designated days for their purpose, such as having a comfortable room with dimmed lights as a de-stress room two days a week. Not only does this address the issues women are facing, but it allows a person to choose how they want to spend each day. Forcing everyone into the same work conditions may seem like equality, but that’s not the answer to inequality; equity is.

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Overview for week of 7/6

Your research work continues this week, and will be the primary focus of your writing work. We’ll be doing that against the backdrop of a conversation about office design that intersects with our larger discussions around inclusion and organizational culture.

See, all the work we’re doing individually overlaps with these other conversations–there’s a lot of thinking and writing around these issues, and we can learn from all of the pieces that we bump into.

So, first, please take a few minutes to read through this post about the conversation analogy we’ll be using: 

Rounding out the conversation

Then, move on to this week’s work.

Reading

  • “The subtle sexism of your open office plan”
  • “Readers respond: open offices are terrible for women” (both linked from Bb)
  • your own sources as you locate, take notes, and get ready to write about them

Writing

  • Complicating your Research–look through the folder of that name in Helpful Links on Blackboard, and then head to the Unit 2 dropboxes for instructions (due Wednesday)
  • Rounding out the Conversation (detailed in the Unit 2 dropbox) (due Sunday)
  • Complete this week’s discussion work on the blog (due Thursday). See this post for prompts:

    Discussion prompts for week of 7/6

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Discussion prompts for week of 7/6

We’re diving into a series of conversations this week–around the physical design of office spaces, around the issues you’re exploring in your own inquiries, and around the very work of research and pulling together a range of perspectives. Let’s continue all of that work on the blog.

For this week, everyone should respond to #1 and then choose 1 of the other 2 questions to answer. Your initial posts are due by the end of the day on Thursday, and then I’ll ask you to log back into read through your classmates’ posts and respond as you wish.

  1. With the due date approaching for your research portfolio, it’s time to start practicing writing about your sources. Please compose an annotation for 1 of your sources, following the guidance on the unit 2 assignment sheet. This annotation should be 2 paragraphs long–1 of summary, 1 of analysis/ discussion of how this source will be useful to you. The draft is good practice for you, and provides me an opportunity to give you feedback on adjustments that you might want to make as you continue to work toward the portfolio (which is due next Wednesday, 7/15)
  2. Choose one of the responses from “Readers respond: open offices are terrible for women,” and consider how the writer builds upon the ideas in the original article (“The subtle sexism of your open office plan”). Use Harris’s terms from chapter 2 of Rewriting to describe what you see this writer doing (i.e. extending, illustrating, etc.) and what intrigues you about that. How does this person open up a new line of inquiry with their response?
  3. In the reader response piece, Katharine Schwab introduces those letters with a brief overview of some of the patterns she detects in their feedback. This segment includes some jump-out links to other related articles, and then segues into a selection of letters that focus on the gendered implications of open office plans (the impacts that disproportionately affect women). Thus, Schwab facilitates a complex discussion with many participants, but it’s by no means exhaustive. What else would YOU want to inject into the discussion? What is an issue/perspective you think is not represented here? (You can draw on your own experience if you wish, or conjecture as to what others might wish to incorporate, but offer up another take on this using one of the templates from They Say/I Say, any chapter.)

Please categorize your post as “discussions/homework,” and tag it with “unit 2,” “week of 7/6” and [your name].

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Rounding out the conversation

I’m looking forward to seeing how your conversations are starting to take shape. Let’s take a few minutes to run through this conversation analogy and how this particular assignment is helping you move toward your next project.

First the analogy: we’ve touched on this metaphor a bit recently, and it’s front and center this week as we’re looking at linked sources (that are effectively ‘talking’ to each other). This conversation analogy was introduced by writing scholar Kenneth Burke in 1974. Burke argued that research writing is akin to a conversation at a party. The conversation you’re interested in is already underway when you show up at the party, and as you drift into that room where folks are talking, you take some time to listen to what other folks have to say before joining in to offer your perspective. When you speak up, it’s not really your mission to offer the definitive word on the subject, but rather to move/shape the discussion in some way. You say your piece, building upon the ideas that are already in circulation, and then you move on. That conversation continues once you’re done with it, but your contribution has changed it in some way.

Now, just like at a party, “conversations” in researched writing are more interesting –textured, nuanced, insightful–when there are a lot of perspectives represented, not just a bunch of folks sitting around and agreeing with one another. The conversation is more likely to move into new and fascinating territory when people who have valuable first-hand perspectives or data-driven insights are involved, when they’ve got good stories to share. And you’re more likely to have something valuable to contribute when you’ve spent some time taking in what others have to say.

You’re at the listening phase of that conversation now–taking in what others have to say and assessing who’s ‘present’ to make sure that you’ve got an interesting range of perspectives. That’s what you’re representing on the Rounding out the Conversation worksheet due this Sunday (7/12)–who’s in the ‘room’ and what roles they might be playing in the discussion. This will help you to identify gaps in your roster, so that you can keep looking for new and interesting people to engage in the discussion.

Your research portfolio (due next Wednesday, 7/15) will represent the conversation that you’ve orchestrated, pulling together at least 6 sources that represent different perspectives and knowledges and that chart a course for your ongoing research and writing work in our final unit. Be sure to review the unit 2 assignment sheet for specific instructions.