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Winter 2010

Journeying Toward Humility: Complexities in Journeying Toward Humility: Complexities in

Advancing Pedagogy for the Privileged Advancing Pedagogy for the Privileged

Ann Curry-Stevens Portland State University, currya@pdx.edu

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Citation Details Citation Details Curry-Stevens, A. (2010). Journeying toward humility: Complexities in advancing pedagogy for the privileged. Reflections: Narratives of Professional Helping, 16(1), 61-72.

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J O U R N E Y I N G T O W A R D H U M I L I T Y : C O M P L E X I T I E S I NA D V A N C I N G P E D A G O G Y F O R T H E P R I V I L E G E D

Ann Curry-Stevens, Ph.D., Portland State University

This narrative describes the author's journey away from a stance of innocence, toward one of humility in herengagement with pedagogy for the privileged. With deep attention to her identity, the contentious dimensions of thispedagogy have compelled her towards a much more troubled relationship with this practice. The following narrativeprofiles key contributions of pedagogy for the privileged, and articulates the contentions embedded within. It con-cludes with three essential ingredients to moderate her privilege: practicing from a stance of humility and "notknowing, " advancing research into the practice outcomes of such courses, and accountability structures wherecommunities hold power over classroom practices.

At the close of my dissertation, I wrote:"I continue to be challenged by this form oftransformative learning and committed tobuilding its viability and vitality amongeducators and various sites of educationalpractice" (Curry-Stevens, 2005, p.418).Similarly, at the close of the first article writtenabout my research, I stated: "I do anticipatethat pedagogy for the privileged will likelyremain a contested practice in the years tocome" (Curry-Stevens, 2007, p.55-56).

While this stance recognized that therewere contested dimensions of pedagogy inworking with privileged leamers, I anticipatedthat I would remain a steadfast supporter andrelatively untouched by turmoil that I expectedto surround this practice. In essence, this is astance of innocence. I perceived that thiswork was a significant addition to theeducator's toolbox, and that it expandedtraditional anti-racist and anti-oppressionpractices, particularly those informed byFreiré's (1970) pedagogy The forte of Freirianpedagogy is the liberation of the oppressed.Its impact is to leave the privileged relativelyuntouched as their complicity (both intentionaland unintentional) and working with privilegedleamers has remained outside of Freireà work,with the exception of his address of "classsuicide" whereby privileged allies can recastthemselves with the oppressed by giving upthe trappings of class elitism.'

Today, pedagogy for the privileged isemerging as an educational form thataddresses the privileged dimensions ofidentities. The seminal anti-oppression worksof Dominelli (2002), Mullaly (2002) and Bishop(2002) form its intellectual base, and have beenextended by Shera (2003) and Baines (2007).Efforts to articulate the transformationsinvolved for privileged learners has beensignificant. Models that have been developedexplain the process of building white identityand the transformation process of becomingaware ofthat privilege (Helms, 1995; Tatum,1994; Hardiman and Jackson, 1997; Curry-Stevens, 2007) and several texts on the roleof whites in the process of transformation(Bowser and Hunt, 1996; Kivel, 1996a;Rodriguez and Villaverde, 2000; Fine, Weis,Pruitt & Burns, 2004). The pedagogicaldimensions (the "how to teach it" work) isnascent. First initiated by Goodman (2001) inthe field of education, social workfe attentionto anti-oppressive practice (AOP) teachingtook a significant leap forward withVan Soest& Garcia (2003). Several social work scholarsare now stretching into direct applications ofpedagogy, privilege and social work.Contributions are really just beginning, withgrowing impetus being seen in the contributionsof authors such as Jeffrey (2005), Curry-Stevens (2005 & 2007), Walls and colleagues(2009), and Pewewardy (2007) setting thestage for serious dialogue about teaching

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privileged leamers. The first "Pedagogy ofPrivilege" conference occurred in June 2009,hosted by the Graduate School of SociaWorkat the University of Denver and is expectedto both catalyze further research andconsolidate work done to date.

As someone who helped develop this fieldthrough dissertation research, I am aware ofboth the contentions embedded in it as well asits contributions. How I navigate these tensionshas changed greatly since 2005 when Icompleted my Ph.D. This narrative will tracethe path I have taken on this joumey out of astance of innocence and towards one ofhumility. In the phase of innocence, I willhighlight how I emphasized the contributionsof pedagogy for the privileged. As illustratedabove, I anticipated remaining an untroubledsupporter of this pedagogy . As I movetowards humility, I will illustrate how renewedfocus on its contentions, and my own sociallocation, has caused me to reconsider andreappraise its contributions.As I conclude thepaper, I will highlight how I now understandthe importance of taking a "not knowing"stance about the value of pedagogy for theprivileged, and what this requires of me as aneducator.

The core contribution of pedagogy for theprivileged is being able to create a classroomenvironment that more effectively assistsprivileged learners to undergo neededtransformations to unlearn privilege anddominance, and work effectively as allies inanti-oppression stmggles (which might includesimply getting out of the way). It is anexpansion of traditional anti-oppressioneducation that has drawn from Freireà populareducation and seeks to increase the skills ofeducators in working on issues of privilege inthe AOP classroom.

The contributions I highlight are twofold:first is the political importance of catalyzingthe transformation of people with privilege intobecoming allies on stmggles for social justiceon the features of identity where they holdprivilege. The second feature is the centeringof these needs in the classroom and thepotential outcomes of addressing such needs.

The contentions that arise within pedagogyfor the privileged when incorporated into the

AOP classroom are numerous, beginning withthe question of whether or not thetransformation of privileged learners is alegitimate focus within theAOP classroom andsubsequent classroom practices which, attimes, can eclipse the focus on oppression. Thesecond fiows from the first: how can educatorsensure that centering the needs of privilegedlearners is not an act of complicity withprotecting privileged leamers? Extending this,how can the relatively privileged facultymembers who are building this field be certainthe very field itself is not an overly patientindulgence of the defenses of privilegedleamers? This new field of practice withinAOP risks being deeply disrespectful to theexisting field, and potentially becomes abourgeois joumey that belies the fact that thereare immediate and urgent needs to beaddressed while privilege leamers take toomuch time to potentially come to a place wherethey are ready to become allies. Relying ontheir voluntary change is precarious, withoutsimultaneously building the profession to bemore activist-oriented. At a personal level, Ihave rejected an untroubled relationship withpedagogy for the privileged, and am no longersuggesting that this is an innocent addition tothe educator's toolbox, and notice that I cannotbe entrusted with assessing whether suchpractice is politically savvy or complicity indomination. I have come to understand thatthe AOP classroom and its instmctors mustbe accountable to those who depend on itssuccess - the communities and its memberswho rely on the service of our graduates.Concurrently with building externalaccountability stmctures must be expandedresearch into the outcomes of the AOPclassroom and a correlated set of concretepractice objectives which are believednecessary to ensure this innovation is not anexpanded dalliance in reflexivity but a real forcefor change. Each of these contributions andcontentions will be profiled in tum.

The Political Imperative for Pedagogyfor the Privileged

I join with an array of educators andscholars asserting political urgency in pedagogyfor the privileged. As agents of oppression

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(intentional or by default), privileged peopleI continue to advance dominance, racism, and

other forms of oppression. Required is anunlearning of dominance; a process that isvolatile and difficult, especially in contrast with

' becoming aware of oppression because it, "literally excavates the ground that [learners]

stand on" (Bell and Griffin, 1997, p.5O) as they: shift from blaming the victims for their own

conditions to "naming one^ own agent groupas the source of oppression as agents"(Hardiman and Jackson, 1997, p.26). This cantrigger a wide array of defenses and

I resistance. In order to engage the privilegedin anti-oppression efforts, we need to help themunlearn superiority, redefine themselves in

i more complex and troubled ways, and become, allies in undoing racism, white privilege and

other systems of domination.Such practices have been affirmed by

, numerous leaders in the field, such as bell hookswho advocates for the importance of educating

I whites to become anti-racist allies:

"White supremacy will not endI until racist white people change.

Anyone who denies that thischange can happen, that one canmove from being racist to beingactively anti-racist, is acting incollusion with the existing forcesof racial domination. " (hooks,2003, p.57)

In Canada, George Sefa Dei (2007) states:

" / think the question ofwhether whites should talk aboutracism is a 'no-brainer'... racismcan best be addressed wheneveryone addresses their role in

. maintaining the status quo... thereis aplace at the anti-racism table

, for white scholars. For theI dominant, the entry point is the

investigation of whiteness andwhite identity. " (p.viii)

Morrow and Torres (2002) profiled theneed for a pedagogy of the privileged andsuggested that it "remains to be invented"(p. 144). Numerous participants in mydissertation research emphasized theimperative to build an effective pedagogy thatstretches beyond Freiré' s contributions andcatalyzes privileged learners to adopt allypractices.

Pedagogy for the privileged begins toarticulate pedagogical approaches to assist inthese transformations. In the context of socialwork education, we expand beyond traditionalarenas of AOP education of axes of oppressioncovering gender, race, class, sexual orientation,disability, religion, and age, and stretch toinclude the positional privilege of being a socialworker over the lives of clients andcommunities that one serves. My classroomefforts include a focus on how social workersare embodied with the status of "socialworker" holding power over the lives of theirclients and communities. While individual socialworkers include such power, our social workprofession frequently enacts social control andlegitimates dominant discourses (deMontigny1995; Breheny &. Stephens, 2007; Lessa,2006).

If social work educators aim to focus onthe multiple sites of oppression and privilege,they become bound to also center thepositional privilege of the social workprofession. For far too long, social work hasconfigured itself as a site of innocence(Rossiter, 2001). This innocence shows up inmany ways: from the early days rooted in anuntroubled notion of charity (Baines, 2007), totoday's preoccupation with interventions thatdo not center the social construction of distress(Abramovitz, 1998). Simultaneously, ourprofession and wider dominant discourseportrays an untroubled notion of social workersas "helpers" which in turn seduces those whoenter the profession to adhere to the idea thatthey are outside of relations of dominance.Illustrating this positioning is the NASW tagline that reads: "Help starts here."

Within schools of social work, there isuneven attention given to the ways powerinfuses all areas of practice, and so too ofteaching. Within most US schools of social

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work, AOP advocates are at the mar gins oftheir schools, for the dominant "therapeutic"approach rarely centers privilege andoppression as essential to both understandingdistress and pathways to alleviate it.

This sense of marginalify is rendered morecomplex because the work "hits home" inways that are deeply uncomfortable becausewe implicate our own social work students andourselves in these relationships of dominanceand oppression. While this is a defensiblestance, it is an uncomfortable one, as we shinean interrogatory light onto ourselves and ourstudents, and this often stretches into the hallsof our institution. Those who thought we couldintroduce such content and then expectstudents to only implement this analysis in theirextemal practices have been surprised at theintemal consequences. Understanding howrelations of dominance are at worksimultaneously extends to the social workinstitutions and the profession itself. Theconsequence is to troublé the very innocenceof the profession, and the scores of "helpers"and "helping organizations" that are nowimplicated.

Centering the Needs of PrivilegedLearners in the Classroom

The second contribution is that pedagogyfor the privileged has developed key insightsinto how, specifically, the transformation ofprivileged leamers can be successful. Mydissertation research highlighted the needs ofprivileged leamers in the classroom. Theseneeds are understood to include:

§ To be taught about oppression,privilege and a critical analysis of power

§ To be treated as worthy of love andsupport

§ To be seen as in pain and suf fering,despite having privilege and power

§ To have one' s suffering recognizedand affirmed by both educators and fellowleamers

§ To be allowed to have ambivalenceabout the process

§ To be treated with compassion andsensitivify

§ To be allowed to get this wrong

§ To be gently challenged when actingimperilled or defensive

§ To not make assumptions that theiridentify is primarily privileged

To accept this list requires that we firstaccept that these needs are legitimate, andappropriately centered within the classroom.To do so requires that educators believe in thetransformative potential of their practice withprivileged leamers: that not only can they leamabout privilege, but that this is a worthwhileanti-oppressive practice. To do so means, forme, that privileged leamers are capable ofbecoming effective allies and that they have alegitimate role in undoing injustice. Despite thefact that they will continue to be implicated indomination (for students cannot change theiridentities towards being more marginalized,such as non-white or disabled), they are ableto make conscious choices about working forchange:

"You don't need to dismantle whitesupremacy or patriarchy all by yourselfWhat's being made available to you is anopportunity to actually make a choice,moment to moment. You'll fuck up andyou 'IIforget. But it's almost like a meditativeand spiritual practice to keep saying, 'thisis important enough to me that if I'm havingthis at the cost of someone else, then I wantto make a choice here not to have it or touse. it differently. ' I think that using itdifferently would be my mantra aroundprivilege. " (Research participant as cited inCurry-Stevens, 2005, p.239)

When educators bring these concepts intothe AOP classroom, along with the politicalimperative of being invested in thetransformations of privilege students, there isa pedagogical emphasis on privilege. The taskof unleaming dominance serves to develop thecapacify of students to understand how theirembodied identities influence their capacify forpractice. Pedagogy also emphasizes how torework power relationships towards equify andequalify, and build collective power instead ofhierarchical power. Such efforts aim toprepare students to implement AOP in their

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practicum experiences and their futureemployment.

The contributions of pedagogy for theprivileged are significant. The field providesan array of fruitful approaches that mobilizemore efforts for social change. Durable andtransformative changes among students are

! the goal in classroom practices. But suchnobility of purpose and effort must now beinterrogated.

; Innocence Begins to UnravelThe contentions embedded in pedagogy

for the privileged are numerous. As I newlyexamine these contentions, with a willingnessto confront my own identity , I reach very

' different conclusions than those asserted in, the earlier part of this paper. At its core, I amI more willing to examine my arrogance and howprivilege may inñjse my understanding andactions. As the reader will see in this text, Iam journeying away from innocence and

' towards both humility and the appreciation thatI cannot continue to be entrusted with the!\̂ OPclassroom without building accountability

i structures to those who depend on the successof our graduates; a combination of professionaland grassroots community members who areinvested in the abilities BSW and MSW

\ graduates to enact their privilege differently.Pedagogy for the privileged risks

reinscribing the dominance of privileged, students. While it is obvious that the dynamics

of privilege and oppression are interdependentand co-constructed, there is a significant lettinggo of attention on the oppressed dimensions

I of one's identity, to one of interrogatingprivilege. This does not mean that accessingprivilege is done without reference tooppression. I advocate a pedagogy for the

' privileged that is entered through student, experiences of oppression (Curry-Stevens,

2005 & 2007), but that the political objectivethat I give primacy to is one of reaching social

i work students about their embodied privilege,as opposed to their embodied oppression. Iadvocate a universal construction of privilege,whereby all students are understood to embodyprivilege albeit to varying degrees, and theirembodiment of positional privilege as "socialworker." For a discussion of the rationale for

this universal construction, please see Curry-Stevens (2005 & 2007).

The works of Thompson (1999) and Mayo(2004) fiag that pedagogy for the privilegedcan lead to centering the needs of white, male,upper class students. Under these conditions,a privilege-centered pedagogy reinscribesdominance. But if privilege is universallyconstructed (and all people are understood toembody privilege), then the needs of everyoneare centered. It is students' privilegeddimensions that are given primacy in leamingabout oppression and domination. The rationalefor such focus is to jolt social workers awayfrom their stance of innocent helpers and tocatalyze both personal and political agency towork for change. As agents of privilege, andcomplicit in inscribing oppression, working withthe privileged dimensions of student identitiesis critically important to advancing socialjustice.

Implicating myself in this dialogue, I nowtum to my own embodied identity and considermy subject location, as a white, upper class,university professor and professional socialworker, who is advocating centering privilegein the AOP classroom. What does it mean tostand as a predominantly privileged person andadvance pedagogy for the privileged? Whatdoes it mean to stand as white, and advocatethat the needs of white students be held morecentral to leaming about anti-racism work?While I reach this conclusion as a result of thepolitical importance of assisting in theirtransformation, it may indeed, as Thompsonand Mayo each assert, be an act of dominance.In essence, an anti-oppression lens exposesthat I cannot be trusted to ensure that raisingthe importance of the needs to privilegedleamers in the classroom is not an act ofcomplicity. I have been reluctant to believe itis complicity, but I, as predominantly privileged,cannot be trusted to interpret this dynamic. Icannot be trusted to assess whether this is areinscription of dominance, or political savvyAnd yet, something within me guides me tocontinue to want to sustain privileged leamersin the classroom - sending them fleeingbecause their needs were not tended seems aloss and, implicitly, a move that deepensoppression because we have lost the

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opportunity of aiming for their transformationand eradicating their resistance to anti-oppression practice.

Complicating the issue of my identity ismy positional privilege and the dynamic thatcontinues to besiege whites as anti-racismallies. With my newly minted PhD (in 2005),and a dissertation that focused on pedagogyfor the privileged, I slipped into a stance ofarrogance as an untroubled ally who assertedthat pedagogy for the privileged was apolitically savvy extensión ofAOP. My workon pedagogy for the privileged risks beingdeeply disrespectful of earlier contributors, andimplicitly an act of reinscribing dominance. Thisis doubly troubling when we notice that theseelder bodies are more likely to be people ofcolor. The main leadership within pedagogyfor the privileged is white. What this means isthat we are repeating a dynamic of suggesting,albeit implicitly, that professionals of color needto step aside for white professionals, and thatthey are not practicing to acceptable standards,and that they need to be re-schooled by whiteeducators. I believe that we need to preservespace to interrogate pedagogy within the\OPclassroom, but when this dynamic slides to oneof white educators suggesting to educators ofcolor that they need to leam from us, we haveslipped into a dynamic that reinscribesdominance. Privileged educators need tounderstand the multiplicity of ways in whichwe fail to understand oppression anddominance, and how we remain tmly investedin our dominance. Jef fery's work (2005)provides an analysis of the infiuence of identityand subjectivities in navigating the anti-racistclassroom, and provides impetus to rejectspaces of knowing on multiple social workfronts, framing this as a paradox of theprofession. While I found (and even sought)the path to being a groundbreaking scholar, Iwas seeking recognition and appreciation forbeing exemplary, and this allowed me to holdthe stance as an "exceptional" white, whodistinguished themselves from others in thefield. The fact that I found it, and reapedbenefits from the work, likely says more aboutmy privilege and my ability to exploit theknowledge of others than it does about mymerit.

Pedagogy for the privileged has the appealof a shiny new penny , promising much andgaining the spotlight within the field of anti-oppression and anti-racism practice. This shinynew penny serves to undermine thecontributions of older initiatives and sensibilitiesthat are bome of anti-oppression and anti-racism education. To amplify this dynamic, Ishare a brief story. When invited to presentmy work in an education policy panel at the2008 Canadian Race Relations Foundation'sconference, I proudly sat at the table ofpresenters, and was honored to be introducedby Zanana Akande, Canada's first blackfemale cabinet minister in Ontario At the closeof this session, she shared her thoughts withme about my work. She said, "But our childrenare waiting;" and did this research not suggestthat existing anti-racism educators needed tobe re-schooled in a new paradigm andapproach? At the time, I remained invested inmy stature as one who was sharing theleadership in advancing a new approach thatwould be more successful and did notcontemplate this more. Now, however, I seethat this work is implicitly disrespectful,especially as it does suggest that cadres ofeducators need to be newly educated inpedagogy for the privileged.

Our children are indeed waiting; deeplyinvested in a society that will rid them of racismand other forms of oppression. Notice,however, that not all children are waitingequally as some lives are violated at their coreby these dynamics while others pass and areeven given "passports" (Mclntosh, 1988) toaid their joumey. Many are waiting for an endto damaging disproportionality in manysystems, and waiting for an end to dominantdiscourses that render them with less accessto resources and lowered expectations forachievement, and significant marginalizing oftheir claims to society^ resources. The waitinggame has gone on too long - and pedagogyfor the privileged risks adding another inningin this game.

As I try to reconcile these positionalities,I now embrace the possibility that I amenacting dominance. My personal goal is toremain in the lively space that considers boththat pedagogy for the privileged is politically

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savvy and that it is a mechanism for me todistinguish myself as an "exceptional" ally whoobscures the dangers of her praxis. Both ofthese interpretations are possible.

And yet, this does not seem to go farenough.

Pedagogy for the privileged (and, indeed,most AOP education) has heavy reliance onrefiexivity for its success. Taking time and itsforgone opportunity costs (of doing somethingelse that might have more impact on thecommunity) is itself a privilege. We need tobalance urgency with introspection.And noticethat the latter precludes the former - if a cultureof introspection (especially one in the privacyof one's office or home) is advanced, then theurgency is likely to diminish.Taking the timeto do this well is one that renders it, assuggested by McWhinney, a "liberal dalliance"(personal communication, 2005). Kinchenloeand Steinberg (1998) hold a similarly diminterpretation of the prognosis of relying onthe patient transformation of the privileged tocreate change: "The need for change isimmediate and people of color do not havetime to wait for whites to take some slow ,bourgeois joumey of white discovery" (ascited in Allen, 2004, p. 133). When we considerwhose bodies are likely to hold more urgencyfor action, we must notice that more oppressedbodies will be likely to be more impatient inexpecting practice to improve. This taps intoearlier dynamics whereby privileged bodiesare not logical leaders in action and nor shouldthey be the arbiters of outcomes and classroompractices.

TheAOP classroom really serves to focusstudent efforts at the personal arena, and whileimportant, does risk leaving students there. Itis essential that AOP practice not be reducedto one of contemplating identity . Whileintrospection is important, change must beframed in two ways: the first is that awarenessmust be tied to action (for changed awarenessis not enough for change to be achieved) andthe second is that the personal arena of changemust be supplemented by leaming about andbuilding confidence about working for changein the stmctural, institutional and ideologicalarenas.

Both AOP and pedagogy for the privilegedimplicitly suggests that we can persuadeprivileged social workers to become allies andadvocates. This recmitment is voluntary; forwhile courses might be mandatory , thetransformations they might manifest arevoluntary. We then rely on the voluntary actionof the newly transformed to achieve change.Implicitly, this can suggest that the pressuretactics of social movements and theircampaigns is irrelevant. This was never theintention of pedagogy for the privileged - butit can suggest that changes can be catalyzedthrough voluntary shifts in perspective, insteadof pressure politics. We need to preclude thepossibility of this dichotomy and instead assertthat change is required at both ends. Wesimultaneously need change strategies in thestmctural (policy), institutional, ideological andbehavioral arenas, and need to ensure thatsocial action is legitimated within schools ofsocial work. Undue reliance on voluntarytransformative change is indeed "undue," andit must be balanced by building the strengthand vitality of social movements andcampaigns that use pressure politics toadvance change. Similarly, we need effectivepractitioners within organizations to changepolicies, practices and discourses. It is timefor occupational segregation to end, glassceilings to be broken, and the gatekeepers ofdominant traditions and cultures to permanentlystep aside. We must prepare social workersto be effectively engaged and invested inchange at all levels.

I am coming to appreciate my inability tohold myself accountable for practices in theAOP classroom. Relying on my voluntaryactions, even if in concert with an array ofother instmctors in the area, is not enough. Inow embrace that we need a stmctural shift,one that is akin to Law's (2000) "partnershipaccountability process" or Kivel' s (1996b)accountability practices for educators but thattakes it much further. I now recommend thatwe pilot stmctures within academic settingsthat place authority over course selection,course objectives, and even pedagogy in thehands of communities of practitioners and theirgrassroots membership who depend on ourinstitution's ability to graduate efective AOP

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practitioners. Instructors should be requiredto meet with these bodies and be accountablefor what occurs in the classroom. This bodyshould have significant authority over coursestructures, objectives and pedagogicaldimensions. Essentially, our privileged identity(institutionally, positionally, and by sociallocation) makes us structurally unsound asleaders in the field.

If I continue to hold myself accountableto my students and to the tenure & promotioncommittee, and don't extend beyond this limit,then I have not walked my role as an ally withintegrity. And that absence of integrity is onethat is borne of my privilege. If I don't havean embodied experience whereby the fibersand neurons in my body resist and scream inthe face of oppression and privilege, then Iam an unreliable ally . I have reinscribedprivilege if I let our field off the hook. I pridemyself as someone who advocates foraccountability structures throughout ourprofession - espousing that organizations beaccountable to their communities in real ways,and for communities to hold bureaucraciesaccountable when outcomes such asdisproportionality are identified. I now see howmy privilege has let me accept inadequateaccountability structures. Instead, successfulaccountability practices need to be rootedinstitutionally within bodies that have the livedexperiences of oppression and who havedurable commitments to its eradication. It iswithin those communities that the imperativefor change is urgent, for they hold theinvestments in the future of their children whoare waiting for an end to racism and otherforms of oppression. They should hold thepower to enforce change.

Tokenistic accountability must be avoided(Arnstein, 1969). When marginalizedpopulations are consulted and placated (byprotestations that those in power are "doingthe right thing"), we are asked to notice thatthose in power continue to hold the right todecide where and how such input is gathered.Those invited to the table can be uninvited - acondition that renders their voice and infiuenceimplicitly contingent on not "rocking the boat."Instead, real power among the marginalizedcan only occur when they have control and

authority. Such is the challenge of the AOPclassroom. While AOP seeks to rectify unjustpower relations, the AOP classroom and itsinstitutional dimensions (as located in a highereducation classroom) effectively ignores themost marginalized, resulting in tokenisticdeference to the needs of those with littlepower. I have come to understand that theseaccountability practices are where the "rubberhits the road" and offer those who holdsignificant power and authority choices thatillustrate our commitments to trulytransformative practices. We are challengedto go beyond paying lip service to real change,and tokenistic involvement that leaves us withthe power to decide who is at the table. Whatare methods that truly provide marginalizedgroups power and infiuence to demand socialchange?

Concurrent with excitement about suchaccountability is fear What would it really looklike to be accountable to an external body forwhat happens in my classrooms? Institutionallythis is the role for curriculum committees andtenure and promotion committees. Notice,however, that the power here remains withsimilarly privileged bodies, particularly eldersamong us who have been schooled prior tothe advent of anti-oppression courses andtheories. I perceive that these existinginstitutional bodies will become an intermediatestep with expanded infiuence over pedagogicalpractices. Our core task is, however , to findstructures through which real power is placedin the hands of those who depend on ourgraduates for the services they will deliver

At the same time, faculty need tounderstand the transformations that occur inthe classroom, and to begin to articulate theways in which practice skills are expected tobe infiuenced by AOP. The researchers amongus need to figure out how to track the impactof these transformations and other impacts ofthe AOP classroom. Does it lead to thedevelopment of an altered body ofpractitioners, who are able to spot and reformorganizational practices that are racist andotherwise oppressive? Does it lead to thedevelopment of better partnership practicesamong communities of color? With thehomeless? Does it lead to advocacy activities

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in the policy arena? Within political arenaswhere decision makers allocate resources anddecide how to advance the inclusion ofmarginalized communities in urban areas?Anddoes it lead our profession to hold itselfaccountable as a social movement in anti-oppression stmggles? I announce an intentionto embark on this journey and to buildcommunify accountabilify practices in my ownclassrooms over the next few years. Noticeagain, however, that until the profession hasconfigured itself to be accountable tocommunities where we practice that suchefforts are voluntary and thus precarious, evendangerous, commitments.

Without such accountability, the AOPclassroom risks becoming the dalliance thatMcWhinney foreshadowed. Continuing to holdour privileged bodies as the arbiters of concreteoutcomes risks letting AOP feel better aboutourselves, as we proclaim ourselves allies. TheAOP classroom is poised to become an act ofdominance that allows privileged educators tostrengthen our resumes (both ours and ourstudent graduates) as "anti-oppressive" andwe become likely to slide into complacency.We all know of the possibilities that we canhave better analysis but not doing anythingdifferently. We are reminded by Lopes andThomas (2006) that "good white resumes don'ttrickle down."

The stance I held of an untroubledadvocate of pedagogy for the privileged wasa dangerous one. Complacency complicify andthe reproduction of dominance are its likelyconsequences. While I still hold that there is apolitical imperative in reaching privilegedleamers, I now embrace a "not knowing"stance that such practice may create anoppressive experience for those with moremarginalized identities. I certainly embrace thatI cannot be trusted to enact durable andconsistent classroom practices that address allforms of dominance due to my privilegedidentify.

Drawing from the works of Tervalon &Murray-Garcia (1998) and Dean (2001) on"cultural humilify," much harm is done byembracing the "expert" and "mastery"dimensions of the concept of "culturalcompetence" that has taken firm root in social

work over the last decade. Cultural knowledgeis ripe with stereotyping, as social workers areencouraged to "know" the other in waysoutside of their direct engagement (Rodriguez& Walls, 2000). While pedagogy for theprivileged may hold political savvy and mayeventually be upheld by communities to whichI advocate we must be accountable, my stanceas an innocent educator and researcher mustbe rejected. Any privileged body, even thosewho work in dedicated ways towards beingan ally, building expertise about the "othef isripe with arrogance and error Simultaneously,the assumption that the core relational task isknowing and understanding the "other" isprimed with potential to ignore the substantialpower differences that exist between socialworker and client/consumer/community.Tervalon & Murray-Garcia implicate bothdimensions of injustice in the notion of culturalcompetence, and instead advance humility

ConclusionWhere now do I stand? I must hold out

possibilify, indeed likelihood, that my embraceof pedagogy for the privileged is a defensemechanism to define a role for a privilegedwhite woman in anti-oppression practice. Itlikely says "make a role for me," and "see meas an ally." but I now reject the space thatpositions me as an untroubled advocate, andembrace that I am likely a "dangerous ally"(Lopes & Thomas, 2006, p.225) tomarginalized communities. I now have gainedenough humility to interrogate my own praxis,and recognize the value of being suspicious,while rejecting that space of innocence. Isimultaneously hold that I cannot be entmstedwith this reflexivify and extemal accountabilifystmctures are required for the integrify oAOPeducation, for the profession to maintainintegrity in advancing AOP, and for theadvancement of social justice.

My conclusion is that "I don't know" aboutthe vitalify and value of this practice. Holdingthis space is the best way I know to practicesocial work education, and indeed social workas a whole. I have spent the last few yearsworking with students to embrace thecontradictions and ambiguities in practice andto be willing to not know (and indeed never

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know) a space of irmocence for themselves -or a surety that they are doing good and notre-inscribing dominant power relationships.Living in the contradictions, complexities andambiguities is the ethos I commit to. I have toconsider that pedagogy for the privileged maybe an act of trespass, albeit dressed up or evencloaked as political strategy for advancing thefield. I know that social work always containselements of trespass (Rossiter, 2001). I nowcome to appreciate that there will never beclarity about pedagogy for the privileged. Itwill, and indeed must, stand in a place ofcontradictions and values dilemmas. I havestepped off my soapbox. I look forward tobeing alive in this space with students andcolleagues, and embrace practice ripe withambiguities, contradictions, and mostimportantly, humility. The best I can do now issay "I don't know" and while a part of meyearns for reconciliation and movementtowards certainty, a deeper and more wise selfknows that embracing a "not knowing" stanceis as much certainty as the field is warrantedin offering.

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Identity in Education (pp.i-xii). Rotterdam,Netherlands: Sense Publishers.

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Ann Curry-Stevens, Ph.D., has beenengaged in both theoretical and practicaldimensions of social justice over the last 20years. Her interests have been in areas of anti-oppressive pedagogy, economic inequality (thegrowing gap between rich and poor), racializedinequality, social movements, coalitionpractices, disproportionality and companionprocesses of privilege. Ann's employment hasbeen long and deep in organizations workingto advance social justice, including theYWCAof Toronto, The Jesuit Centre for Social Faith

and Justice, the Metro Network for SocialJustice, Women's Resources, and the Centrefor Social Justice. In 2004 she became afaculty member at the Schools of SocialWorkin Toronto as well as in Portland, Oregon.Comments regarding this article can be sentto: currya@pdx.edu

(Endnotes)' Please note that Freiré' s analysis

thoroughly implicates the privileged, but hispedagogical work (what has become known

S

El / \S

as "popular education") addresses only theoppressed.

^ I acknowledge the powerful way LauraNissen (personal communication, April 29,2009) has punctuated the importance of thisterm. She holds it discursively framing it as aform of resistant discourse and introducing aplayful notion of how "troubling" can appealto the rebel in each of us. This discursive useof the term supports the concrete need forsocial workers to trouble complacency andcomplicity.

^ Please note that I, like the reader , aminclined to add qualifiers to each element suchas, on the last item: "...although privilegeddimensions of one's identity are appropriatelycentered in the classroom." I maintain attentionto the subject, not its qualifiers as this will dilutemy intention.

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