Journal of Academic Development and Education JADE Issue 10 | Page 100

ARTICLE #7 | 101
100 | JADE
MARIA FLOOD THE CHALLENGES OF A DIVERSE CURRICULUM: A CASE STUDY FROM THE HUMANITIES
culture for a white audience, leading to the kinds of confusion and
lack of context for jokes and references discussed above. In class,
the students noted that they were not accustomed to watching
an obviously popular show on Netflix where so many of the jokes
passed them by. We discussed the fact that many cultural products,
even those made by non-white artists, are modified to make their
language and imagery legible to white audiences. is defined as ‘the becoming or making oneself one with another in
feeling, interest or action’ (OED 2003: 89). By aligning their feelings
and experience with those of the characters on screen, the lecturer
invites all students to encounter the topic on an emotional common
ground.
While the social context of Boyz N the Hood was largely familiar,
middle and upper class African Americans are much less visible in
the kind of popular culture products available to British students.
There is also the possibility that ‘unconscious bias’ or latent prejudice
played a role. Considering racism in relation to wealthy and socially
privileged African Americans poses greater emotional challenges
than the condemnation of the self-evidently morally unambiguous
discrimination that is depicted in Boyz N the Hood (a film which
appealed to audiences across racial and liberal/conservative
boundaries). Many students unconsciously assume that racism
particularly affects lower class African Americans, and these
assumptions are disturbed when they confront the idea that racism
(while experienced and expressed in different ways by different
social groups) exists separately from class. Kumashiro notes, many
students think that ‘society is meritocratic but learn that it is racist’
and this uncoupling of race and class can be ‘emotionally upsetting’
(Kumashiro, 2002, p. 72).
Suggested Approaches
I would like to offer two distinct but interconnecting approaches to
creating diverse curricula in the Humanities. In the opening sessions
of a course that adopts a diverse curriculum, I suggest that teachers
adopt a ‘make it relatable’ model. Students often cite the factor
of ‘relatability’ in class and in evaluations when encountering new
objects of study. Texts like Boyz N the Hood offer some level of
familiarity, in terms of the age and life stage of the characters, and the
cultural and historical context (African American popular culture).
With sufficient preparation, including hand-outs, lectures, readings,
and internet resources (such as YouTube videos or blogs), students
can draw and expand on previously held knowledge. The lecturer
can also invite the students to encounter the texts on an emotional
level, asking ‘how might this character feel?’, rather than ‘what do
you think of the film?’. By engaging feeling, the element of ‘right
or wrong’ is removed from student response. Some films will lend
themselves more easily or obviously to a feeling-centred approach
than others; Boyz N the Hood, for example, has an extremely emotive
ending. This feeling-centred approach serves to invite student
identification with the characters on screen, where identification
The second model of teaching a diverse curriculum is ultimately
more ethically engaged and productive of societal change in the
long-term. This approach asks student to disrupt the desire for
relatability, and invites them to explore what it feels like to not fully
understand a cultural context. I would argue that this approach is
best adopted after the students have encountered some more
familiar, relatable texts. The teacher has therefore laid the emotional
groundwork for a pedagogical encounter that is not based on
identification, but rather on a potentially radical non-identification:
what does it mean, particularly for a white/non-diverse student, to
not see themselves reflected in a text, and to not understand the
cultural contexts portrayed? As Kumashiro notes, ‘students need
to disrupt their desire to see their identifications, perspectives, and
values repeated’ (Kumashiro, 2002: 70). If we only show students
lives, experiences, and cultural and social contexts that are familiar to
them, they are deprived of learning opportunities provided by having
to question and challenge their own previously held assumptions.
Blackburn and Buckley argue that this process is nothing less than
the origin of wisdom: ‘wisdom, after all, is the accumulation and
application of knowledge(s) or differing cultural “truths;” that is, the
ability to learn and grow’ (2005: 204). Texts like Dear White People
can generate fear, discomfort, and even anger. Yet these ‘unpleasant’
reactions and emotions can lead to conversations that work against
the reiteration of damaging stereotypes, if we consider ‘oppression
in society as being characterized by harmful repetitions of certain
privileged knowledge and practices’ (Kumashiro 2002: 67).
Thus, we can read the desire for relatability and identification, and
the disruption of relatability, as part of a spectrum. When teaching
diverse curricula, it is useful to ground the ideas presented in the
opening sections of the course in emotionally accessible texts. The
students can then be lead to encounter more challenging works that
disrupt deeply held assumptions, and may also invite re-readings
of earlier texts. For example, in ‘Race and Sexuality on Screen’, we
return to Boyz N the Hood at the end of the course to think about the
potentially problematic ways that the film isolates its characters in
the ghetto, and that suggests that the only way to reform the ghetto
is to escape it; no internal change is possible. Indeed, considering
relatability/identification and disruption/non-identification as part
of a spectrum is a fundamental principle of practice in interpreting
cultural texts in the Humanities. As Nicholas Harrison points out, ‘the
pleasure we gain from reading, even where it may appear to hinge on