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Module 1 Understanding Oppression

SSW 208 The Political Process

Overview:

Purpose:

To apply the experience and learning from the readings and discussions to practical situations related to oppression, privilege and anti-oppression

Learning Outcomes:

 

The main course outcomes covered by this assignment are:

1) Demonstrate collaborative and effective management of relationships in accordance with the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers., Through cooperative and respectful group work as well as working on oppression for anti-oppression.,

3) Develop a familiarity of historical and topical needs and experiences of clients., By identifying groups that have been oppressed, how they have been oppressed and the cycle of oppression to make effective anti-oppressive change.,

5) Demonstrate the ability to address clients with dignity by promoting self-worth and in a non- judgmental manner.,

8) Identify and implement models for effective advocacy., Discern what the injustices are and develop partnerships by identifying the various systemic power structures.,

To Submit in Your Report:

Part A – Your Experience of Being Oppressed

Reflect on a specific situation/incident when someone was disempowering and/or oppressing YOU

(e.g., made you feel less valued, exerted power over you – either intentionally or unintentionally). This can even just be a time you were treated differently or people reacted differently because of a particular aspect of who you are (e.g., age, gender, sexual identity, race, culture, disability, etc….). Please avoid names and/or use fake names to protect people’s privacy.

Answer the following questions (for each question: minimum of 40 words (approx. 20 seconds for audio/video); no references are required):

Briefly, what was the situation (e.g., who was involved, what happened, in what way were you being disempowered and/or oppressed)?

Do you think the individual(s) oppressing you were intending to do so? If yes, what do you think influenced them to act that way? If no, what do you think their intention was?

How did this experience make you feel and/or what impact did it have on you?

Now that you have reflected on this experience, what are your main take-aways or lessons learned in terms of oppression and/or privilege?

What are some actions you could take to address your oppression and/or what would you do differently if confronted with a similar situation in the future?

Part B – Your Experience of Oppressing Others

 

Reflect on a specific situation/incident when YOU disempowered and/or oppressed someone else (e.g., made them feel less valued, exerted power over them – either intentionally or unintentionally). This can even just be a time you treated someone differently or reacted differently because of a particular aspect of who they are (e.g., age, gender, sexual identity, race, culture, disability, etc….).

Please avoid names and/or use fake names to protect people’s privacy.

Answer the following questions (for each question: minimum of 40 words (approx. 20 seconds for audio/video); no references are required):

Briefly, what was the situation (e.g., who was involved, what happened, in what way were you disempowering and/or oppressing someone)?

Was your intention to oppress the individual(s)? If yes what influenced you to act that way? If no, what was your intention?

How do you think the individual(s) you were oppressing felt and/or what impact do you think it had on them?

Now that you have reflected on this experience, what are your main take-aways or lessons learned in terms of oppression and/or privilege

What are some actions you could take to better understand your role of power and/or what would you do differently if confronted with a similar situation in the future?

Part C – Lessons Learned from Bishop

Reflect on the reading and my summary notes from the Bishop textbook “Becoming an Ally”. Note: when providing content from the textbook below, no formal reference is required (as I’ll know/assume it’s Bishop), but please put the page number and edition number in brackets after the content (see sample below for an example of this) so I know where in textbook the information came from.

Answer the following questions (for each question: minimum of 40 words (approx. 20 seconds for audio/video); page references from the Bishop text are required for all):

Use evidence from Bishop’s text to explain how you would describe “oppression”.

Use evidence from Bishop’s text to explain how you would describe what an “oppressor” is.

Share a specific quote from the textbook that affected how you think, your world view and/or how you feel about yourself – explain how it has impacted you (note: the quote doesn’t count toward word count)

Pick one a specific real-life story/situation Bishop shares about in the textbook – this can be something from within one of the chapters or you can use either: “A Story: Racism and Sexism” (p60-61, 3^rd ed) or “Journal Entry: How Not to Be an Ally” (p106-107, 3^rd ed) – you don’t have to

type out the full story, but please provide a title (or brief sentence of what it’s about) and the page

number(s) it is on so I can easily go find it (note: this info doesn’t count toward word count). Answer the questions: What examples of oppression, privilege and/or power-over are happening? What could some of the parties involved have done differently to take more of an anti-oppression approach?

Part D – Self Reflection

Reflect on your experience of completing this assignment.

Answer the following questions (for each question: minimum of 40 words (approx. 20 seconds for audio/video); no references are required):

What were some challenges you had in completing this assignment and what could you do differently when working on the next assignment to address this?

What were some interesting or surprising things you experienced or learned while completing

this assignment (e.g., could be about your own self, an insight you gained, etc…