Reflection: Intercultural Border Crossing, Power, and Privilege

Numerous resources exist to stimulate targeted, reflective thinking on intercultural communication, competency, self-understanding, and comprehension of positionality in respect to power and privilege. It’s ideal to consider these activities in light of the overarching course planning and reflection process.

1. The Comfort Zone exercise moves students to engage in intercultural border crossing (and reflect upon that experience) before even leaving their home communities.
2. The stereotype list activity demonstrates how early exercises may include local community members, encourage reflective activity throughout a program, and be leveraged to support effective communication during re-connection with home communities.
3. Unpack your cultural baggage encourages participants to better understand their worldviews and may also be visited many times throughout a program experience.
4.  White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack  is now considered a ‘classic’ by anti-racist educators. It is used to stimulate discussion itself, or in conjunction with activities such as the one featured below:
5. The Privilege Walk was adapted from Peggy McIntosh’s article “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.”
6. Dr. Paul C. Gorski’s Critical Multicultural Pavilion, a voluminous site with numerous excellent educational resources, activities, and suggestions for multicultural curriculum. It’s primarily targeted at K-12 teachers, but the social justice speeches database and significant social justice quips and quotations collection will be useful for community organizers and educators working with all ages.
7. Dr. Christine Sleeter, President of the National Association for Multicultural Education, has developed methodology for completing a critical family history, a theoretically-grounded activity that helps individuals understand their and their families’ historic and current socio-political context.
8. Tim Wise, anti-racist author, essayist, educator, and professional provocateur gathers his work and considerable resources here. He’s good for provocative essays, video clips, and an essential reading list.