A DJS Journey

Students enter our universities with various characteristics.   Some have had pre-college experiences such as taking Advance Placement high school classes.   Some are first generation students of color.   Others are returning students who commute and also have various family obligations. No matter what students bring with them when they come to school, I believe an environment should be in place that is affirming, not just welcoming.   Welcoming, to me, still means that I am a visitor, that I really don’t belong to the community, but people are going to go out of their way to make me feel comfortable.   Welcoming does not feel permanent to me, but temporary, like when I leave, the people and the place will return to what it was before I came.     Fit, or the environment in which students enter into, must be flexible and equitable.   Students should be able to enter most universities with a strong sense that the universi...

Community guidelines, agreements, or tenants are used far and wide in social justice education settings.   Creating, stating, and agreeing upon community guidelines is typically at the top of the agendas of workshops, institutes, and new community meetings.   Lately I have noticed myself being disingenuous about the idea of establishing community standards over and over again.   What’s the point of spending time creating a list of agreements - ways in which we would like to hold each other accountable as a community, ways to create a community of learners and leaders, and ways to create a brave space that acknowledges conflict and difference exists and welcomes diverse perspectives and a range of learners – if too often we do not hold each other accountable for upholding them?   What I have notice is when time goes on, and communities have long since upheld and or revisited their commitments and guidelines, people begin side stepping around each other and issues, bl...