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ABSTRACT
This article describes the need for effectively addressing the experience of microaggressions in the classroom. It explores the concept of microaggressions and their impact through the perspective of professors from marginalized populations and outlines a strategy for addressing microaggressions so that the classroom can be a place that fosters education, transformation, and healing. Finally, by intentionally engaging and addressing microaggressions, the pastoral classroom explicitly reclaims the classroom as a space that resists oppression and values of the acts of confession, atonement, and redemption.
GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes on contributor
Mary Elizabeth Toler, Th.D., LMFT, is an Associate Professor of Clinical Counseling at Moravian Theological Seminary in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. As an ordained American Baptist minister, Mary Elizabeth brings diverse experience from ministry, clinic, and classroom. Her pastoral experience includes parish and campus ministry, hospital chaplaincy, and work in psychiatric facilities. Mary Elizabeth's clinical experience includes over fifteen years of private practice counseling for individuals, couples, and families. In addition to her private practice, Mary Elizabeth currently co-facilitates clergy colleague groups for the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania and serves on the Psychotherapy Commission of ACPE and is President of The Journal of Pastoral Care and Counseling. Her active writing and research focus is on the methodological and practical implications of integrating religion and spirituality into the counseling process.
Notes
1 Human Rights Campaign, “Health Disparities Among Bi-Sexual People.”
2 Pierce, “Psychiatric Problems of the Black Minority,” 512–23.
3 Pierce et al., “An Experiment in Racism,” 66.
4 Sue, Micro-aggressions in Everyday Life, 3.
5 Sue, “Racial Micro-aggressions in Everyday Life.”
6 Ibid.
7 Ibid.
8 Ibid.
9 Dovidio and Gaertner, “The Aversive Form of Racism,”61–89.
10 Sue and Sue. Counseling the Culturally Diverse.
11 Ibid., 194–5.
12 Yang, “The Malleable Yet Underlying Nature of the Yellow Peril.”
13 Nadal et al., “Sexual Orientation Microaggressions,” 234–59.
14 Nadal et al., “The Impact of Racial Microaggressions on Mental Health,” 57–66.
15 Flanders, “Bisexual Health,” 319–35.
16 Sue et al., “Racial Microaggressions and the Asian American Experience,” 72.
17 Meyer, “Prejudice, Social Stress, and Mental Health in Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Populations,” 674.
18 Williams Institute and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, “Suicide Attempts Among Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Adults.”
19 Novoa and Taylor, “Exploring African-American’ High Maternal and Infant Death Rates.”
20 Liang et al., “The Role of Coping in the Relationship between Perceived Racism and Racism-related Stress for Asian Americans,” 132.
21 Grier-Reed, “The African American Student Network,” 181–8; Seriki, Brown, and Fasching-Varner, “The Permanence of Racism in Teacher Education,” 74–102. Fasching-Varner and Mitchell, Racial Battle Fatigue in Higher Education; Nadal et al., “A Qualitative Approach to Intersectional Microaggressions,” 147–63; Sue et al., “Racial Microaggressions and Difficult Dialogues on Race in the Classroom,” 183–90; Young, Anderson, and Stewart, “Hierarchical Microaggressions in Higher Education,” 61.
22 A cursory five year review of relevant multi-discipline sources yielded no results in relation to explicitly addressing microaggressions in the classroom from the perspective of the professor who is the target of the offense.
23 Souza et al., “Transforming Conflict in the Classroom.”
24 Ibid.
25 Merkin, “Cross-cultural Communication Patterns-Korean and American Communication.”
26 Lim and Choi, “Interpersonal Relationships in Korea,” 122–36.
27 Appler and Brown, “Digging Below the Surface,” 49.
28 Ibid., 51.
29 Ibid.
30 Ibid., 59.
31 Souza et al., “Transforming Conflict in the Classroom,” 8.
32 Nadal, “A Guide to Responding to Microaggressions,” 71–6.
33 Ibid., 74.
34 Souza et al., “Transforming Conflict in the Classroom,” 8.
35 Ibid.
36 Ibid.
37 Diane Ali, “Safe Spaces and Brave Spaces: Historical Context and Recommendations for Student Affairs Professionals,” NASPA Research Policy Institute, (2), 2017.
38 Jones, “Invitation to Brave Space.”
39 Souza et al., “Transforming Conflict in the Classroom,” 8.
40 Souza, “Responding to Microaggressions in the Classroom.”
41 Chueng, Ganote, and Souza, “Microaggressions and Microresistance.”
42 Tran, “Calling IN.”
43 Souza et al., “Transforming Conflict in the Classroom,” 17.