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TEACHING NOTE CAN YOU CALL IT RACISM? AN EDUCATIONAL CASE STUDY AND ROLE-PLAY APPROACH

Eun-Kyoung Othelia Lee Boston College

Betty BIythe Boston College

Kassie Goforth Latino Health Institute

Social work education bas long struggled to acknowledge cultural diversity and identify teaching methods to prepare students to work effectively with diverse populations. Tbis article describes an educational technique designed to teacb students how to recognize racism and social injustice—in tbis instance, by examining an educational case study located in a multicultural buman serv- ices agency in Chiapas, Mexico. One session of a multicultural social work course was devoted to a role-play based on a real incident tbat bad occurred in tbis agency. Student feedback and tbe autbors' observations address tbe useful- ness of tbis educational intervention.

SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION bas long Struggled to

acknowledge cultural diversity and identify teacbing metbods to prepare students to work effectively witb diverse populations (Council on Social Work Education, 2001). Garcia and Van Soest (2006) provide a conceptual frame- work that unites cultural competency and social justice in social work education. Ac- cording to tbeir model, tbe first steps are rec- ognizing tbe centrality of tbe social construc- tion of race and tbe practice of racism at per- sonal, institutional, and cultural levels. Tbis leads, in turn, to acknowledging racism as a

mode of everyday buman interaction, involv- ing domination and exploitation, which rein- forces an unequal socioeconomic system. During tbis process social workers must be willing to confront and work tbrougb unre- solved conflicts in relation to tbeir own role, status, and participation in an oppressive sys- tem (Van Soest & Garcia, 2003).

In tbis Teacbing Note, we present an inno- vative case study and role-play approach to promoting student learning on diversity is- sues; to teaching diversity content; and to facil- itating intelligent dialogue on sucb sensitive

Joumal of Social Work Education, Vol. 45, No. 1 (Winter 2009). Copyright © 2009, Council on Sociai Worit Education, inc. Aii rigiits reservod. 123

124 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION

issues as race, ethnicity, and gender. One class

session of a multicultural social work course

was devoted to a case study and role-play

based on a real incident that took place in a

nongovernmental organization (NGO) in the

state of Chiapas, Mexico. One of the authors

lived in Chiapas and was affiliated with the

NGO. The report of the case study and role-

play are based on direct observation and

participation.

Here, we report on the ways in which

MSW students experienced the educational

case study and role-play approach and how

they assessed the value of the intervention for

understanding diversity and social justice.

Student feedback and our observations ad-

dress the merit of this multicultural educa-

tional intervention.

An Educational Case Study

The case study was set in Chiapas, the south- ernmost state in Mexico, home to many indigenous Mayan peoples. More than 90% of the population in the highlands of Chiapas is Mayan, and most inhabitants maintain their traditional language, clothing, and customs. Despite a wealth of natural resources, the Mayan population barely ekes out a living (Weiler, 2000). Typically, they are subsistence farmers, but they must compete for land with highland cattle ranchers and often must grow their crops on steep terrain and in poor soil. Since the early 16th century, the Mayan people of Chiapas have experienced oppression because of their race and ethnicity (Stephen, 2003).

The setting for this case study is the Human Rights Center (HRC), which is located in a small town in Chiapas and is run by

Jesuit priests. The HRC serves more than 200,000 people in the 500 Mayan communities within the Jesuit parish. The HRC has 25 full- time employees, and many more people from other community groups work closely with the HRC. These faith-based groups include Jesuit priests and deacons and a community of Catholic nuns, many of whom are indige- nous. When the deacons, tribal judges, and health and human rights promoters who work in the different communities that the center serves are included, hundreds of peo- ple collaborate with the HRC. Mayan reli- gious life is inseparable from public and polit- ical life, so the HRC uses existing church structures to carry out its work, and staff members collaborate closely with the deacons and health and human right promoters to reach the communities.

The central issue in the role play is a wage dispute, first acknowledged by the Mayan members of the HRC. The paid workers at the HRC are about one-fourth indigenous and three-fourths Mestizo. Most of the Mestizo workers come from other states in Mexico and are professionally trained; they come to the HRC because they are committed to working for justice for the indigenous people of Chiapas. The other Mestizo workers tend to be technical staff or secretaries. With a few exceptions, these staff members are less moti- vated by the ideal of working for justice than by having full-time, paid employment, which is rare in the small towns of Chiapas. Because of the HRC's youth and rapid growth, formal personnel policies and a salary structure have not been established. Each employee was hired by the HRC director. Father Juan, and negotiated his or her salary with him.

CAN YOU CALL IT RACISM? 125

In the Mayan tradition, leaders who serve

the community are chosen by consensus and

work for free. Indigenous people who work

for the HRC want to help their communities;

they are also essential to the organization for

their knowledge of the communities as well as

their ability to speak the local dialect, Tseltal.

The Role Play

Students were provided with educational case

study materials that included background in-

formation on Chiapas, the HRC, and the per-

sonnel issue a week before the in-class role play

(set up as a staff meeting) took place. The per-

sonnel issue, based on a real incident, was the

fact that the Mayan employees learned that

they were paid at a rate that was about one-half

the rate of the Mestizo employees. Each student

was assigned a role along with a detailed

description of his or her character; they were

not given such infonnation about other charac-

ters. There were 23 to 26 characters in the role

play, including both Mestizo and Mayan roles.

Examples of Character Descriptions

A full list of characters is available from the first

author, along with notes on information each

character should not share, on each character's

goal in the meeting, and on points each charac-

ter should make during the meeting. Following

are some examples of the descriptions of char-

acters that were provided to students.

Father Juan: A Mestizo Character

• Your role: You have a bachelor-level uni-

versity education. Many of the workers at

the HRC are young people whom you met

in your travels around Mexico. As a priest,

you try to be a spiritual father to your

employees as well as their boss. You are

extremely overworked, persuasive, and

charismatic.

• Do not share with the group: You believe

that most of the employees are there

because you personally invited them. You

feel that lay peoples' commitment to in-

digenous people is not as valuable as that

of the priests, who gave up secular life

entirely, whereas lay people tend to stay

only for a few years. You privately feel

that you would never be able to work for

a female supervisor. People tend to follow

your advice and you believe that you

know what is best for others.

• Your goals in this meeting: To retain con-

trol of the decision-making process and

the salaries of HRC employees; to defuse

the argument without making more work

for yourself; and to make sure that the

issue of racism is not raised or ascribed to

your leadership or to the HRC.

• Points you must make in the meeting:

• The staff can make recommendations

to the coordinating council, but they

cannot vote on decisions as a staff. You

do not explicitly state this last point.

• There are no funds to increase sal-

aries. People with higher salaries are

free to donate a portion of their

salaries to people with lower salaries.

• The salary policy is not racist. People

must be very careful to avoid decid-

ing that a situation that appears to be

defined by race is, in fact, racist.

• It is necessary to offer professional

staff (such as lawyers) a salary that

competes with the salary they might

receive in the city.

126 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION

Miguel: A Mayan Character

• Your role: You have been working for the HRC for 8 years as a community organiz- er. You know the Mayan communities intimately, and are well-known and trust- ed by the people. You also are a practi- tioner of traditional herbal medicine, which you learned from a "wise man" in your village. You play the guitar and write your own songs. At community events, you are sought after to sing, be- cause there are not many popular songs available in Mayan languages.

• Your oldest son, Gerónimo, is extremely ill with leukemia, and you and your wife frequently have to take him to the capital of Chiapas, 5 hours away, for treatment at a public hospital. Father Juan has been very supportive of you in this, giving you as much time off as you need, and some- times lending you a car or visiting your son himself.

• Do not share with others in the group: You secretly dislike another HRC employer, Es- equiel, who is fiom your village, whom you suspect of flirting with your wife when you are not around. However, in this group you and Esequiel are united as Mayan peo- ple in a Mestizo organization, and you would never openly disagree with his points or discredit him, because the stakes for the community are too high.

• Your goal in this meeting: To achieve a fair standard of payment that reduces the difference between the amounts that Mayans and Mestizos are paid, and to do it in a way that promotes a deeper under- standing of indigenous culture.

• Points you must make in the meeting:

• At the beginning of the meeting, you

mention that you'd like to discuss the

issue of salaries, because it seems to

you that the Mayan employees are

making less than the Mestizos. You

also indicate that you would Hke to

open up a discussion about the values

suggested by the salary differential.

• Because the Mayan employees of

HRC work full time and do not have

time to farm their land, they need the

salary to feed their families.

• You want to continue to respect the

Mayan tradition in which people

serve the communities without being

compensated, but you also need to

provide for your family.

Josue : A Mestizo Character

• Your role: You have a PhD in biology. The current leader of the Agriculture Depart- ment wants to hand over the leadership to you, but you have only worked at the HRC for a year. You are beginning to learn the Tseltal language. You hope to devote the rest of your working life to this organization. You believe strongly in con- sensus decision-making and in building community among coworkers.

• Your goal in this meeting: To support the Mayans' request for more equitable salaries, and to call on the agency to be fair and transparent in its dealings.

• Point you must make during the meeting: At an appropriate point, suggest that everyone reveal their salaries, as an exer- cise in "transparency."

CAN YOU CALL IT RACISM? 127

Prior to the role play, the instructor

explained the source of conflict. During a staff

meeting, a Mayan employee, Miguel, had raised

the issue of the salary ineqtiity. Father Juan's

main reaction was to clarify that everyone in the

organization had had a chance to negotiate his or

her salary, and had chosen to take the offered

salary rather than reject the job. Father Juan had

stressed that although the discrepancy appeared

to be divided along radal lines, this did not mean

that the situation was radst, because that would

imply intention to discriminate against a certain

group based on race. Given that Father Juan was

solely responsible for the salary scale in the

agency, it is no wonder that he wanted to squelch

any discussion of radsm.

In Mayan culture, it is difficult to challenge

the authority of a member of the dominant

Mestizo culture, and a priest, aggressively.

Outside their community, Mayans often are

punished for speaking their minds. On the

other hand. Mestizo staff are secretly ashamed

of how they treat their Mayan coworkers, per-

haps because they themselves feel out of touch

with their own indigenous heritage. Father

Juan had clarified that members of one ethnici-

ty being routinely paid less than members of

the other was not radsm. So the question

remained: What was the problem, and how

could it be solved?

The entire class was engaged in the role

play, an exercise that lasted about 45 minutes.

Afterward, the following questions were dis-

cussed in class.

1. What was your experience of the meeting?

2. What was most helpful about partidpadng

in

— - ^— — J- - ^

tbe role play? Wbat was least helpful?

3. Do you think this is a racist situation?

Why or why not? If you think it is, what

is tbe source of the racism? How could tbe

racism be changed?

4. Do you find it easy or difficult to talk

about a race issue that occurred in a for-

eign country?

5. Wbat other factors besides race and cul-

ture are at play here, and how do they

affect the overall picture?

6. What should tbe Center do to solve its prob-

lem? Would you like to propose a solution?

Discussion

Student feedback was collected through in-dass

responses to discussion questions and volun-

tarily written postings on the Blackboard course

management system. Overall, students' percep-

tions of tbe role-play exerdse were favorable.

They described it as "a fun, interacfive activity"

and "a great teacbing asset." They found it help-

ful to review background information on the

region and tbe organization before class, as this

allowed tbem to represent their characters in a

more realisfic manner. Students appeared to

benefit from the experienfial component of the

leaming process, as indicated in the following

comment: "I leam better through hands-on

acfivifies such as this and it was nice to see

everyone in the class take a role and then later

leam why they acted tbe way that tbey did."

Students expressed discomfort about "not

knowing enough about tbe cultural and political

context" in a relatively remote region such as

Chiapas. One student commented, "It was bard

for me to grasp tbe reality of the situation but

even if it was hypothetical I stiU think the activ-

ity was successful in educating tbe class about a

128 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION

topic I know I was previously unaware of." Some students reported their difficulties in relat- ing to incidents in a foreign country and in react- ing without knowing the specific cultural con- texts. In spite of students' concems about their lack of knowledge of the indigenous culture of Mexico, students took the risk of thinking out loud and putting themselves in the shoes of dominant or oppressed groups.

We observed that MSW students in cours- es on racism often struggle with emotional baggage regarding historical events in the Uni- ted States, such as racial segregation and slav- ery, for which they are not personally respon- sible. Hence, in multicultural education, it is critical to help students to move beyond their guilt and self-censorship; this can be done by reducing the cognitive and emotional barriers students perceive when confronted with the oppression embodied in the dominant culture and their privileged social status in it (Abrams & Gibson, 2007; Mildred & Zúñiga, 2004). Consequently, students especially appreciated the fact that the role play was based on a real and contemporary situation. A student com- mented "[instructors'] insight into the situa- tion, because [author] was there, made it more powerful than just an exercise that was in a book for diversity classes."

Apparentiy, the role-play approach helped students extend empathy not only to the char- acters they played but also to the group dynamics and the power structure of the HRC. Characters in the dominant group were sanctioned to speak their unconscious, preju- diced remarks, which students would be extremely hesitant to do in a class setting. For those who played members of the oppressed group, it was a valuable experience to extend

their empathy and try to understand the

struggle of a vulnerable population. Hence,

this teaching method has parallel emphases

on the history and effect of oppression and the

strengths and joys of diversity (Van Soest &

Garcia, 2003).

This role play addressed a social problem

in Mexico, but there are certainly parallels of

the case study in the U.S. context. As a young

White woman with a privileged background,

the following student was able to identify

with the character of Josue, who is an upper-

middle-class Mestizo, while still feeling empa-

thy for the indigenous characters. Her charac-

ter plays a critical role by suggesting that

everyone tell everyone else what salary they

make, as an exercise in "transparency."

I feel as if I could relate to [Josue's] per- spective. I wonder what it might have felt like for some people to play the role of a Mayan, who in their own lives, have experienced little oppres- sion and more privilege. I think it is critical to have the discussions about racism, oppression, and privilege in class, but we also need to make it more practical and think about what we will do when we are in situations outside the classroom.

The educational value of this role play is to help students strengthen their commitment to the promotion of social justice, which it may do more successfully than a more tradi- tional approach to learning about historical oppression. As Van Soest and Garcia (2003) argued, exposure to content about social injustice and inequality forces students to re-

CAN YOU CALL IT RACISM? 129

examine many of the values and beliefs they

have held about themselves and the dominant

paradigm. It also evokes deepened awareness

of social justice among students, providing a

perfect moment for teaching.

After the role play, students identified

unfair organizational structure as a root cause

that influenced the distribution of money and

power; weakened the traditional culture,

which had no decision-making power; and

perpetuated unequal gender roles. This iden-

tification of problems motivated them to come

up with suggested solutions, including decen-

tralizing the Center's leadership, establishing

clear guidelines for a salary scale, creating a

merit-based reward system, and establishing

an antidiscrimination policy at the HRC.

It is important to note that this report of

this case study and role play are based on the

authors' understanding of the situation and

do not represent the multiple realities experi-

enced by many HRC members. Yet, the value

of the educational case study and role-play

approach lies in its use as a pedagogical tech-

nique rather than in its application to the par-

ticular circumstances in Chiapas.

Developing a case study requires an educa-

tor to think through the key issues involved in

terms of conceptual frameworks, people, and

the sodal environment, and to construct proac-

tive rationales and strategies for the best resolu-

tion (Haulotte & Kretzschmar, 2001; Rivas &

Hull, 2000). Toward this end, an educator

should state the major problem, define the objec-

tive of the case study, describe key players with-

in the organization, and identify the process of

service delivery and decision-making. More cre-

ative educational interventions such as this

should be designed with a goal of strengthening

sodal workers' cultural competence and their

capadty to work across multiple paradigms,

and to find new ways to engage with clients.

References

Abrams, L. S., & Gibson, P. (2007). Reframing

multicultural education: Teaching White

privilege in social work curriculum. Jour-

nal of Social Work Education, 43,147-160.

Council on Social Work Education. (2001).

Educational policy and accreditation stan-

dards. Alexandria, VA: Author.

Garcia, B., & Van Soest, D. (2006). Social work

practice for social justice: Cultural compe-

tence in action. Alexandria, VA: Council on

Social Work Education.

Haulotte, S. M. & Kretzschmar, J. A. (2001).

Case studies for teaching and learning social

work practice. Alexandria, VA: Council on

Social Work Education.

Mildred, J., & Zúñiga, X. (2004). Working with

resistance to diversity issues in the class-

room: Lessons from teacher training and

multicultural education. Smith College

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Rivas, R. E, & Hull, G. H. (2000). Case studies

in generalist practice. Belmont, Ca: Wads-

worth/Thomson Learning.

Stephen, L. (2003). Zapata lives! History and cul-

tural politics in southern Mexico. Berkeley,

CA: University of California Press.

Van Soest, D., & Garcia, B. (2003). Diversity

education for social justice: Mastering teach-

ing skills (1st ed.). Alexandria, VA: Coun-

cil on Social Work Education.

Weiler, W. H. (2000). Conflict in Chiapas: Un-

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Manchester, IN: DeWitt Books.

130 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION

Accepted: 01/08

Eun-Kyoung Othelia Lee is assistant professor and Betty BIythe is professor at Boston College. Kassie Geforth is with the Latino Health Institute.

Address correspondence to Othelia Lee, BCGSSW, 140 Oonnmonwealth Ave., McGuinn Hall, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467; e-mail: [email protected].