UNIT 6. RACE AND ETHNICITY (parts 1 and 2) “Race” is a dominant variable in our understanding of diversity. Often conversations about “diversity” are really conversations about race. Sometimes people use the term ethnicity when they mean race. What is race, and how is it different from ethnicity? How do people develop a sense of race related to difference? We will use your papers in response to Prompt 2 (“Describe an experience during which you became conscious of an awareness of race—that you were of one race and others were of different races. How might you understand that experience based EDL EDUC 523 19 on the readings about identity, race and ethnicity, and power?”) and the readings below to jump- start our discussion about race, ethnicity, educational institutions, and learning outcomes. Learning Goals: 1. Articulate the difference in what “race” and “ethnicity” refer to. 2. Be able to use racial identity development theory as one lens for interpreting interactions between groups of different races. In-Class Reflective Discussion: An important quote from the noted African American historian John Henrik Clarke is “History is a clock that people use to tell their political and cultural time of day. It is also a compass that people use to find themselves on the map of human geography.” Much of our nation’s history reflects the struggle between those exerting their power to decide others’ places on the map of human geography and those who resist their assigned places on the map of human geography to determine their places for themselves. We have come to understand that identity is constructed in the day-to-day activities of life that take place in the ecosystems (home, community, church, mosque, temple, and school) surrounding a student. Therefore, considering the literature we have read up to this point about the historical, sociopolitical, and cultural contexts in which identity is formed discuss the prompt and the following bullets: • State the role you believe public education in America has played or needs to play in helping students form identities that enable them to determine for themselves their places on the map of human geography. • Describe an experience during which you became conscious of an awareness of diversity—that you were of one race, religion, gender, etc., and others were of different races, religions, gender, etc.? How might you understand that experience based on the readings about identity and power? Key Questions: 1. To what extent are our reactions to situations with others of different races the result of learning vs. biology (being human)? 2. How universal across groups is the developmental progression that creates a sense of racial identity? 3. What is hegemony, and how does it relate to the course so far?