The Journey to Understanding Privilege: A Meta-Narrative Approach

Abstract

Challenging incidents associated with privilege and oppression occur daily. Within the fields of adult education and higher education, researchers and practitioners have examined and critiqued the exploration and understanding of privilege (e.g., White privilege). Studies have explored how adult educators, who acknowledged their own White privilege and the norms of whiteness, are working to change systems of privilege and oppression. This work furthers the current literature. The authors employ a meta-narrative approach analyzing narratives from faculty and professionals in the helping fields. The meta-narrative designation of a ‘‘collective story,’’ utilizing professional voices is a unique contribution in addressing privilege. The narrative tradition offers participant stories to systematically explore the interaction of dominant and nondominant privilege statuses. The findings relate to transformational learning and verify the need to consistently employ self-reflection and discourse toward examining and refining one’s understanding of and interactions with privilege and oppression.

Neo-Activism: Engaging Allies in Modern Workplace Discrimination Reduction

“…The term ally comes from research on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) issues, referring to heterosexual individuals who strive to end oppression through supporting and advocating on behalf of “oppressed” nonheterosexual minorities (Washington & Evans, ). However, this term can be used in relation to any stigmatized characteristic, wherein a member of the nonstigmatized group engages in behaviors that support or advocate on behalf of a stigmatized group or group member (Gelberg & Chojnacki, ; Ji, ; Middleton, Anderson, & Banning, ). We feel that it is especially important to focus on the role of nonstigmatized allies in the workplace for several reasons.…”

Exploring the White and male culture: Investigating individual perspectives of equity and privilege in engineering education

“…Using transformative learning theory, the authors explained that some individuals experienced dramatic shifts in perspectives related to privilege, while others developed understanding more gradually. Independent of the acuteness of the shift, all participants embarked on a “path of critical reflection or introspection and self‐disclosure as the road to” understanding their privilege (Middleton et al, , p. 301). Our research is part of a larger study, published as a doctoral dissertation (Eastman, ), that included an in‐depth analysis of the experiences of four PhD candidates (two White men and two White women) related to the culture of engineering education.…”

“…The Dean's long-term goals included establishing a STEM Education Center to secure future STEM education research funding. Middleton, Anderson, and Banning (2009) used narrative analysis to demonstrate that, for those in the dominant culture, the journey to recognizing and understanding privilege is unique to each individual. Using transformative learning theory, the authors explained that some individuals experienced dramatic shifts in perspectives related to privilege, while others developed understanding more gradually.…”

Resisting Neoliberalism from within the Academy: Subversion through an Activist Pedagogy

“…Interrogating whiteness early in the course was an important portal to other discussions about dominance, power and privilege, holding myself and others accountable in examining whiteness and privilege (Danowitz & Tuitt, 2011). I interwove historical processes that privileged and continue to privilege whites with examples of such advantaged experiences in my own life (as suggested by Case, 2012;Middleton, Anderson, & Banning, 2009). Exposing the white bias of our world-order elicited a strong response from students-including significant resistance by some white students.…”

“…I discussed my own 'journeys' through ally work as a social worker and academic, mostly through practice-based stories, which I used as case studies (Middleton et al, 2009). Such stories seemed to make the content come alive for students, as they imagined themselves as an ally (Rasmussen & Mishna, 2008), thus promoting commitments to personal and social change.…”