How do we carry through an analysis of oppression and resistance into our community development work? There is an always growing body of theory (anti-racist, anti-colonial, feminist, critical disability studies, etc.) and resources that can inform our work and from which we can draw and adapt numerous activities, lesson plans, conference designs and more. In coming together to establish TCDI, we all agree that our collaborative and democratic ideals and practice must simultaneously be inclusive and anti-oppressive. Of course, there are many ways to enact this. And learning from each other, challenging each other and supporting each other in realizing our ideals and improving our practice is part of why we come together. The following points about anti-oppression and inclusion work was developed by the 2008 Spring Institute Organizing Group. Feel free to add your thoughts and resources using the comments feature.

Oppression manifests itself in different shapes in our daily lives, at home, work, streets, meetings, subway, etc. We need to deal with oppress0ion1 in the context of our daily lives and not as a separate subject of its own. When we develop and deliver workshops we need to integrate an anti-oppression framework in all its aspects: in the content, methods of delivery and presentation. Applying an anti-oppression framework in the context of the workshop allows us to identify the ways in which oppression may manifest itself in the context of that particular topic for which we need to develop strategies with which to resist oppression. For example, if we are developing a workshop on the topic of “education” then we need to identify the manner in which oppression may manifest itself in education and address it as part of that topic. Anti-oppression is not a topic separate from the topics we present, as it is not a separate chapter of our daily lives.

Development of workshops for a diverse group of participants: many factors impact the way we experience life. Our experiences influence the way we seek knowledge and how readily we learn a topic. A whole range of studies supports Paulo Freire’s assertion (in Pedagogy of the Oppressed) that people most readily learn ideas, facts and perspectives that help them describe and negotiate their world. When developing a workshop we need to be mindful of these findings and develop our workshop for the real world, which is diverse. i.e. if we are talking about leadership development we need to remember that factors such as race, gender, sexuality, age, etc. may play a big role in the level at which the society accepts an individual in a leadership role and therefore these factors present challenges for different people. We need to identify these challenges and discuss them in our workshop.

Level of participation by attendees: during the presentation of a workshop we need to pay close attention to the level of participation by the attendees and how power and privilege may impact the quantity of their contribution. Usually balancing power in a meeting and/or workshop would require active work by the facilitators and participants. Some measures that we can consider during our session are to ensure that:

• we resist the way that our society limits or denies power and privilege according to categories such as gender, race, class, ability, sexuality, age, etc.;
• we don’t define through limitation;
• we see the person before a disability (e.g. do not refer to people as their disability such as “the blind” or “the disabled”);
• we recognize that treating people equally, isn’t necessarily treating them the same;
• we recognize that power and oppression can exist across diversity and that it needs to be named (we recognize that diversity is what is normal);
• we resist the way our biases and/or preconceived ideas of something prevent us from seeing the uniqueness of a situation (we actually do believe that people are equal);
• we recognize that the issue of disability affects understanding and communication and is extremely broad in one’s life.

(from the Catalyst Centre)

Diversity of learning methods: another factor to pay attention to is diversity of learning methods. Everyone learns differently and has different strengths. While some are very strong verbal communicators, others are strong visual learners while still others are strong physical/embodied learners. Our communication and learning methods need to respect this diversity if we are to create an environment that provides ample opportunity for people to participate fully.

Language proficiency: in a diverse environment a diversity of languages may exist. Some people have learned English as their first language and some as their other language (sometimes a third, fourth or fifth language). This may impact the speed at which they speak English, the dominant language used in workshops in this Institute. Additionally, we also need to consider different accents and their impact on participation. Various studies have shown that certain accents and voices are considered as the voices of authority while others are seen as less intelligent and are frequently dismissed. We need to be mindful of this at all times and actively balance the situation.

Targets of certain kind of oppression taking part in a presentation: if targets of a certain form of oppression are taking part in a presentation we need to make sure that they are empowered and are an integrated part of the group and not a “show and tell” tool for the presenters.

Some sites to visit for resources include:

• Racial Equity Tools
• Project South: Institute for the Elimination of Poverty and Genocide
• Seeds for Change