Intersectionality is a signficant topic in feminist theory; however, it tends to be forgotten in gender discussions. Kimberlee Crenshaw's definition is used in the course (please see attachment). When teaching SOC 212 (Gender and Society), the focus is obviously on gender. However, the concept of intersectionality needs to be further included in the discussion. Students have had difficulty understanding the concept even after watching a film clip. In order to increase understanding and application of intersectionality, I created new activities along with the film: 1. jigsaw puzzle activity and 2. analyzing your own identity with regards to intersectionality and sharing with the class. These activities were completed during Week 8. Then during finals week, I assessed the students' understanding and application of intersectionality. Results showed that students were successful in understanding and applying the concept even during finals week. The hybrid students had a slightly higher success rate than the face to face students. The hybrid students watched a more detailed film in addition to the activites. Please see attachment.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| intersectionality-activities-cats.docx | 69.73 KB |
| definitionintersectionality.docx | 43.14 KB |
Comments
Two things are especially encouraging about this CATS. The first is that in both classes, your activities clearly moved students' understanding of intersectionality into long-term memory. The second is that you had higher success rates in your Hybrid classes (100%!). Well done, Olga! I am assuming from this that in the future you will repeat these efforts, and perhaps add the complete film to your F2F classes?
Thanks Pete! Yes, the next time I teach SOC 212 as a F2F, I will add the complete film.
I love that you incorporated an active learning activity in this (jigsaw), too. Your results look good, so I hope the same happens again this semester.
I think bringing identity into the understanding of intersectionality is valuable to learning and also a way to expand into the social psychological aspects in our literature to also learn about how students made their choices.