Pop Up Claims - Developing Ideas Worth Writing About

This post features Bayan's experiment with an activity cribbed from Dave Stuart, Jr.’s Let’s Make Teaching Better called “pop up debates”. Stuart’s process calls for single arguable point, but we focused instead on coming up with claims and verbally reporting those opinions with the rest of the class. We wanted to build confidence to come up with and publicly share opinions worth knowing.

This semester, we are studying Kevin Nadal’s book Filipino American Psychology. Together, we read the first two chapters. Chapter One provides a super brief sketch of Filipinas and Filipinos in the United States, demographics, how we got to the US, and the psychological impact of our history and place in US society. The second chapter focuses on Filipino values. As very few Bayan students had any formal coursework on Filipina/o American issues, we needed shared pool of knowledge these chapters offered.

After working through those chapters, we briefly examined the themes of the other chapters. Topics ranged from Racial and Ethnic Identity Development to Gender/Sexuality/Sexual Orientation, from the Model Minority Myth to Colonial Mentality. Subsequently everyone selected two to read beyond the ones we had studied together. We read these new chapters with the aim of teaching what we discovered with each other.

Agbayani Village + CSU Bakersfield Trip

December 7th and 8th, Bayan Scholars Learning Community took a Cultural Immersion and Transfer University Exposure tour. The trip provided cultural insight and increased awareness and transfer possibilities outside of our local universities.

Improving Class Discussions/Cultivating our Bayan

Early November, we attempted our second Socratic Seminar in our English class. One goal was to increase our capacity to effectively use Socratic Seminars; we are experimenting and learning as we go. After the seminar, we used Flipgrid to collect our feedback about how to improve class discussions in general and how to make or Socratic Seminars more powerful. Listen to our feedback below.

The specific aim of this Socratic Seminar was to discuss how to improve the Bayan Learning Community. As a jumping off point, we used our experiences this semester, the documentary Precious Knowledge (see the post "Exploring Precious Knowledge"). We also used selected passages from the journal article "Dangerous Minds in Tucson" by Professor Curtis Acosta, one of the teachers featured in Precious Knowledge.

We had a long and often heated discussion about how to  improve Bayan,  and we came up with several tentative ideas. For instance, there’s talk about adding a third course to the cohort (currently, scholars take a Personal Development and English class), including more history topics, and having more opportunities for meaningful socializing.

Click on the images of Bayan Scholars hear their suggestions about improving discussions and building our program. If you have any ideas about Socratic Seminars or ideas about improving Bayan, we’d love to hear from you; comment below!

- Salamat to Jonny H. for his able assistance authoring this blog.

Identity & History: Reflecting on Fil Am History Month

October is Filipinx American HIstory month. Bayan Scholars investigated various historical topics, themes they had rarely explored, if at all,  prior to joining the Bayan Learning Community. 

This blog entry is the second installment of student responses to Pilipinx American History Month activities at Southwestern college as well as coursework in our Bayan classes. These responses tended to be more about internal, psychological issues as opposed to the more historically inflected responses from the first installment, Reclaiming History. 

These particular responses demonstrate the complicated relationship between history and psychology. They begin to uncover the nuanced and often hidden ways material history can condition one's sense of self. While Bayan scholars (students and faculty alike!) recognize that identity is not reducible to history and material conditions, we are beginning to appreciate the complex connection between the past and personality.

Moreover, you can see from several posts that these scholars are making connections between their personal lives and the curriculum. They use their academic identity to explore their personal identity, which is in line with the project of humanizing their education (see see entries "Summer Retreat Part I, Part II and Part III for background on how "rehumanizing our education" fits into Bayan's project). 

To collect student reflections, we used the online bulletin board application Padlet. To magnify an entry, float your cursor over the upper right-hand corner of a particular post and click on "expand post".  We welcome your comments! 

Bayan Version of "When Did You Realize Your Race?"

Bayan is an Filipino based community where we focus on  Filipinx American experiences, even though not everybody in our program is Filipinx. Both our English and Personal Development classes help us focus on our identities. In October, we did an exercise to share milestones about our racial or cultural identities. We tried to answer a range of questions about "who we are": When did we  become conscious of our racial or cultural identities? What happened? When did this occur? What did we think and feel? What lessons did we learn? 

These discussions are important because it give us each a chance to investigate our personal stories and to notice if we share common experiences,i.e., to see what makes us unique and what binds us together. Sharing also helps with a sense of belonging, perhaps reducing feelings of socially isolation. We can learn from each others’ stories, even as we begin to appreciate that no one story is representative of an entire people. 

Just as important, we wanted to work against the idea that talking about race is “taboo”. We cannot solve problems associated with racial or cultural identity unless we engage in reflection and dialogue. While we are only beginning our exploration, we'd like to share our initial steps with you. 

We used Flipgrid to record our responses.We based this project on a video featured on an episode of MTV's Decoded by Francesca Ramsey called "When Did You Realize Your Race?" To screen an individual story, click on the scholar's image below. Click on the "Decoded" image to screen  Francesca Ramsey's video. 

We welcome any feedback or comments. Perhaps you might share your story with us, too!

- Many thanks to Jessica B. for her assist with this blog post. 

Celebrating Pilipinx American History Month at Miracosta College

To celebrate Pilipinx American History Month (PAHM), Miracosta College hosted the Building PAHMilya conference. The event included speakers, workshops, and activities meant to recognize and promote Pilipinx history and culture. Conference organizers chose the word “Pilipinx” as a gender inclusive term. A team of Southwestern Bayan Scholars attended the program and had lots to say about the day’s event. This blog entry documents some of those reactions.

Riane R.’s reflection captured the experiences of attendees: “The PAHMilya conference up in Miracosta College was honestly the best thing I've been to! It taught me a whole lot on the history of being a Pilipinx American and how this month of October is dedicated to that. The people were fun to be around, the workshops were very interesting to go to, and the whole thing was just an awesome experience to witness.”

Jared C. pointed out the  importance of hearing other Pilipinx students share their experiences: “Hearing experiences of other students made me feel so much more connected on a personal level with other students that are of the same ethnicity as I am. I never knew that feeling alone racially was an important issue that needed to be talked about. I now wish to continue dialogue between students because these relatable discussions really bring us together as a people.”

One of the most significant moments in the day’s program was the keynote by Cristine

Sidela, the coordinator of Academic Successes and Equity Programs. JP A. noted the impact of Sidela’s keynote: “It was inspirational. Especially when she spoke about her experiences to get to where she is today. This hit me hard because I am walking my path to my goal. Attending the event made me see how there are other Filipinx out there that want to start a community to help Filipino Americans. This is important because of the prejudice of being Filipino even though you're American born, or those who do not feel Filipino enough have a place to be welcomed.

Reclaiming History: Filipino American History Month

October is Filipino American History Month, established in on 1987 by the Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS). To commemorate this month, Bayan Scholars attended a film screening of Marissa Aroy’s documentary Delano Manongs that features the often hidden history of FIlipino farm workers and their contribution to the Farm Workers movement. 

Local high school counselor Reynilla Calderon-Magbuhat presented her history workshop “Know History, Know Self”. Both events were co-sponsored by Southwestern College's Filipino Student Organization Pagkakaisa, Bayan Student Organization, and Southwestern College’s Office of Student Equity Programs and Services. 

We also read several chapters from Filipino American Psychology, a text book by Professor Kevin Nadal. We paid special attention to those sections pertaining to cultural values and to how history can condition identity. 

For practically every scholar in Bayan, this month was they spent so much time in an academic setting focused on Filipino experiences. Indeed, it was most Bayan Scholars’ initial exposure to Filipino American history and culture as topic worthy scholarly attention.

This blog collects a sampling of several Bayan scholars’ reflections below, their first time considering Filipino American history. These young adults are only now being introduced to the legacy and heritage of Filipinos in American. We invite you to read these entries with that in mind. And we welcome your comment below should you wish.

To enlarge individual entries, hover your cursor over the upper right hand corner of the post. Then click on “enlarge”.