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June 2009 > School News
Race Matters in Seyer-Ochi’s American Cultures Course
If there’s a “go-to” course in the Graduate School of Education that also satisfies a UC Berkeley requirement, it would probably be “Experiencing Education: Diversity and (In)Equality In and Beyond Schools” taught be Ingrid Seyer-Ochi.
Seyer-Ochi’s class is one of many that, in addition to its other virtues, satisfy the campus's American Cultures requirement, which was developed in response to late-1980s pressures to address issues of race and ethnicity at Berkeley. Courses that satisfy that requirement provide an unusual opportunity to bridge divides and examine beliefs. As stipulated by Academic Senate guidelines, they must focus on at least three of five groups — indigenous peoples of the United States, African Americans, Asian Americans, Chicano/Latino Americans, and European Americans — by employing a theoretical and analytical approach to race, culture and ethnicity while also exploring the groups' role within or in relation to the United States. A Senate subcommittee, which GSE Assistant Professor Seyer-Ochi chairs, reviews course proposals and determines whether they meet the intent of the guidelines.
Seyer-Ochi has introduced an exercise in the class she calls "difficult dialogues," in which students entertain alternative perspectives so that they might "rethink attitudes, assumptions, and political and social understandings.
"Race is very hard to talk about, and unfortunately, people rarely discuss it with others different from themselves," says Seyer-Ochi. She has made it a goal to get her students engaged in tough conversations about race, the kind that push buttons, demand openness and vulnerability, and offer new ways of seeing the world.
"We have this vision of what we think diversity on this campus should be, and it's my sense that students aren't engaging with each other across lines of race, class, and difference that often at all," says Seyer-Ochi.
Last spring, Seyer-Ochi was awarded the campus's first American Cultures Innovations in Teaching Award. She observes that students coming out of her class have a changed understanding of themselves and of race in this country.
"I never teach that we are these racial categories. They are social constructions that are very powerful that we can't completely disrupt, yet there are all sorts of opportunities for us to think and learn about how race functions and to see ways to challenge that process to make a less inequitable world."
In April, a public forum, "American Cultures: From Concept to Classroom," was held at the Free Speech Movement Café at Moffitt Library. Panelists included Seyer-Ochi, Mark Brilliant, professor of history and American studies; Waldo Martin, professor of history; and moderator Bill Simmons, the first director of the American Cultures Center. Chancellor Robert Birgeneau was one of the featured speakers, and two students from Seyer-Ochi’s class also spoke. An American Cultures exhibit that shares the name of the forum will be on view at Moffitt Library through June 30.
Most of the content and quotes in this article appeared in The Berkeleyan on April 9, American Cultures: Discussing differences, building bridges, by Wendy Edelstein. Photos by Peg Skorpinski.
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