Candace Skibba | Carnegie Mellon University (original) (raw)
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Wordgathering, 2019
http://wordgathering.com/issue49/whitman.html
Books by Candace Skibba
Critical Pedagogies for Modern Languages Education, 2023
The teaching of modern languages is not neutral. Language itself is not neutral. Culture is not n... more The teaching of modern languages is not neutral. Language itself is not neutral. Culture is not neutral. And yet, there is a sense that if one teaches modern languages, by proxy, one is engaging in ways of teaching that are inherently culturally-informed and therefore anti-racist, inclusive, and radical. Being versed in the cultural and linguistic heritage of a certain part of the world, while interesting and valuable, does not automatically prompt cultural humility. Rather, it is through a radical pedagogy that goes beyond the content matter and is situated in the ways in which we, as instructors, structure the hierarchy and authority of our classrooms that works to negate neutrality.
In this chapter I aim to separate out the content from the pedagogy. To demonstrate pedagogy from a non-neutral standpoint, this chapter will begin with an overview of pedagogical theory that informs my methods. I will then describe those methods by relying on examples from two courses that I have taught most frequently the past three years (Intermediate Spanish and Spain: Language and Culture). Within the methods, it will be necessary to demonstrate student work that was created through assignments that prompted students to think critically, thereby encouraging a discourse based upon the nuances of cultural analysis – and not simply the sombreros and toreros.
Anecdote from a student –
“My teacher never allowed me to look further into my Philippine heritage in my Spanish class as it wasn’t related enough”.
The second part of the chapter will zoom out to focus on modern language educators. Part of the radical nature of pedagogy is that the instructor understands the limitations of their own knowledge and power and sits with that uncomfortability. Though many of us see the need for radical, anti-racist, trauma-informed pedagogy, most of us have not been trained in these areas nor do we find ourselves in institutions in which this type of teaching is prioritized. In fact, there are colleagues who have shared their fears regarding straying from the comfort of teaching that they have known. Those fears include the following:
- “If we teach students about the negative aspects of x culture, they won’t want to study abroad or continue the language study.”
- “X culture (the culture that I teach) isn’t racist.”
- “If my students don’t acknowledge my authority, will they still turn in assignments and come to class?”
The Department of Modern Languages at my institution is working quite hard to create spaces and dialogues in which these fears are discussed. We have created programming that highlights Black Intellectuals/Artists from around the world. Another avenue of discourse has been inviting speakers who analyze how racist behavior manifests in the target culture – be it Spain, China, or Egypt. And yet, we have so much to learn from one another and from our students.
We need this type of language learning more than ever. If we are to contribute to the momentum established by the social movements of the day (Black Lives Matter, #MeToo, etc.), we must stray from the neutral understanding of language learning and prompt our students to truly evaluate language in the world as a component of the structures that have lifted up some while consistently knocking down others.
The How Well? Anthology, 2021
![Research paper thumbnail of Trauma-Informed Pedagogy: Addressing Gender-Based Violence in the Classroom (Emerald Publishing, 2022) [Edited Collection]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/92658783/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Gender-based violence is an issue often met with silence, unempathetic discourse, and troublesome... more Gender-based violence is an issue often met with silence, unempathetic discourse, and troublesome visual representation. As educators, mentors, and public facilitators, how can we address this subject in our teaching spaces, curricula, texts, and conversations with greater care and understanding? And, what do we need as resources to cultivate these deeper insights and new roads to increased awareness and dynamic healing?
Building decentered and empowering spaces is vital to addressing gender-based violence. In an educational setting, this must take into consideration instructors’, students’, and other professionals’ own histories of and relationships to traumatic experience. The authors provide a cross-disciplinary dialogue involving spaces ranging from first-year writing programs to international classrooms to public art installation. What holds the conversation together is a collective emphasis on transnational feminist pedagogy and pedagogy of the oppressed while also prioritizing affective discourse. This combination of approaches is used to not only open the conversation itself, but to also pointedly deconstruct standard patriarchal practices found in academia and other institutional settings.
With contributions from scholars and practitioners from a variety of disciplines, cultures and educational backgrounds, Trauma-Informed Pedagogy brings visibility to perpetuated violence and silence through a range of genres, including poetry, syllabi, and critical reflections, offering an invaluable resource for instructors and workshop facilitators interested in approaches that decentralize learning spaces and empowers all participants.
Learn more about the edited collection at: https://bookstore.emerald.com/trauma-informed-pedagogy.html
Conference Presentations by Candace Skibba
Blended Learning: Can technology solve the age-old question of seamlessly blending language and content, 2016
One area that has presented a challenge across languages and universities is the difficulty in th... more One area that has presented a challenge across languages and universities is the difficulty in the transition between the intermediate and advanced levels. Students cannot delve into literature without the language background. These are not separate entities. However, the ability to blend the two is extremely difficult.
In past iterations of a course that I have taught that falls into this category, Spain: Language and Culture, I have attempted various methodologies in joining content and language through an assortment of texts. The challenge has always been that there exists no text that engages all of the skills that this level course attempts to perfect. Currently, my students are working with a text that presents the major political and historical movements of Spain. The second text introduces the main literary movements and genres. The third text is a grammar review. These texts are not related and do not coordinate with one another. What is the outcome of this textual lacuna? It is a disjuncture and awkwardness that inhibit learning. Why doesn’t such a text exist? It is, quite frankly, a daunting task – that of putting together one instrument for facilitating the learning of such an abundance of information. It is daunting, but not impossible.
My current project explores technology as an avenue for solving this issue. The IBOOK textbook development is one of Apple’s technological applications for learning and one possible format for EPUB. It goes beyond the limitations of a printed text by embedding video, 3D images, and authentic up-to-date materials. This is not simply a printed text that has been translated into an online version. It is, in essence, a live text that grows and changes with the field for which it was written. This project fills a gap in the field of language studies while also moving toward the future of textbook development.
Presenting my findings and the in-the-process implementation of the pilot chapter at this year´s Collaborative Conference on Language, Literature and Linguistics will be instrumental in both soliciting feedback and sharing what I have learned.
Book Reviews by Candace Skibba
New Books Network en español, 2022
Leer Toxic Loves, Impossible Futures (Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2022) es como estar... more Leer Toxic Loves, Impossible Futures (Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2022) es como estar invitada a una cena íntima con las personas que han tenido un impacto enorme en tu forma de ver y analizar el mundo y con quienes has pasado muchísimo tiempo –en tu cerebro. Pero, además de inspirar momentos profundos de crecimiento intelectual, lo que te sorprende es el acercamiento emocional que produce Emmelhainz, productora de esta situación. En este sentido, la autora sigue lo que se espera de un discurso feminista: romper la expectativa de que un texto intelectual te ponga en la situación pasiva de sólo recibir información. El impacto de leer desde esta perspectiva analítica, emocional y empoderada, es imprescindible.
Articles & Chapters by Candace Skibba
Critical Pedagogies for Modern Languages Education, 2023
As a primer for this chapter, I propose the following question: From our own learning as professo... more As a primer for this chapter, I propose the following question: From our own learning as professors to the ways in which we facilitate learning in our students, to the ways in which we carry out our own lines of inquiry, how are we intentionally prioritizing inclusivity and anti-racism? Please take a moment to consider this question prior to reading the chapter. The intention here is to open a dialogue between and among the readers of this volume so that the shared experiences and opinions can be regenerative as well as co-created. In so doing, I acclaim the work of those with whom I am dialoguing and those with whom I have had the pleasure of sharing a teaching and learning space while I simultaneously disclaim myself as expert.
![Research paper thumbnail of “Not Letting It Go: Anger, Empathy, and Interdisciplinarity as Trauma-Informed Approach” [Book Chapter]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/92659166/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Trauma-Informed Pedagogy: Addressing Gender-Based Violence in the Classroom, 2022
Engaging with the interconnected dynamics of the classroom, this chapter draws from Audre Lorde’s... more Engaging with the interconnected dynamics of the classroom, this chapter draws from Audre Lorde’s “Uses of Anger” to consider how empathy may be cultivated as a soft skill for stronger interpersonal relationships. Jocelyn E. Marshall highlights the need for mutual vulnerability between instructor and student, where vulnerability is understood to be a mode of resistance in regards to patriarchal and hegemonic higher education institutions and learning standards. By braiding queer feminisms with interdisciplinary approaches, the trauma-informed pedagogy upholds radical empathy as the linchpin to Lorde’s advocating of articulating anger with precision, listening intensely, gaining new insight, and enacting change. In creating spaces to practice and further develop empathy, the trauma-informed pedagogical approach aims to empower students with agency and equip them with skills for self-accountability and holding others accountable.
Learn more about the edited collection at: https://books.emeraldinsight.com/book/detail/trauma-informed-pedagogy/?k=9781800714984
Wordgathering, 2019
http://wordgathering.com/issue49/whitman.html
Critical Pedagogies for Modern Languages Education, 2023
The teaching of modern languages is not neutral. Language itself is not neutral. Culture is not n... more The teaching of modern languages is not neutral. Language itself is not neutral. Culture is not neutral. And yet, there is a sense that if one teaches modern languages, by proxy, one is engaging in ways of teaching that are inherently culturally-informed and therefore anti-racist, inclusive, and radical. Being versed in the cultural and linguistic heritage of a certain part of the world, while interesting and valuable, does not automatically prompt cultural humility. Rather, it is through a radical pedagogy that goes beyond the content matter and is situated in the ways in which we, as instructors, structure the hierarchy and authority of our classrooms that works to negate neutrality.
In this chapter I aim to separate out the content from the pedagogy. To demonstrate pedagogy from a non-neutral standpoint, this chapter will begin with an overview of pedagogical theory that informs my methods. I will then describe those methods by relying on examples from two courses that I have taught most frequently the past three years (Intermediate Spanish and Spain: Language and Culture). Within the methods, it will be necessary to demonstrate student work that was created through assignments that prompted students to think critically, thereby encouraging a discourse based upon the nuances of cultural analysis – and not simply the sombreros and toreros.
Anecdote from a student –
“My teacher never allowed me to look further into my Philippine heritage in my Spanish class as it wasn’t related enough”.
The second part of the chapter will zoom out to focus on modern language educators. Part of the radical nature of pedagogy is that the instructor understands the limitations of their own knowledge and power and sits with that uncomfortability. Though many of us see the need for radical, anti-racist, trauma-informed pedagogy, most of us have not been trained in these areas nor do we find ourselves in institutions in which this type of teaching is prioritized. In fact, there are colleagues who have shared their fears regarding straying from the comfort of teaching that they have known. Those fears include the following:
- “If we teach students about the negative aspects of x culture, they won’t want to study abroad or continue the language study.”
- “X culture (the culture that I teach) isn’t racist.”
- “If my students don’t acknowledge my authority, will they still turn in assignments and come to class?”
The Department of Modern Languages at my institution is working quite hard to create spaces and dialogues in which these fears are discussed. We have created programming that highlights Black Intellectuals/Artists from around the world. Another avenue of discourse has been inviting speakers who analyze how racist behavior manifests in the target culture – be it Spain, China, or Egypt. And yet, we have so much to learn from one another and from our students.
We need this type of language learning more than ever. If we are to contribute to the momentum established by the social movements of the day (Black Lives Matter, #MeToo, etc.), we must stray from the neutral understanding of language learning and prompt our students to truly evaluate language in the world as a component of the structures that have lifted up some while consistently knocking down others.
The How Well? Anthology, 2021
Gender-based violence is an issue often met with silence, unempathetic discourse, and troublesome... more Gender-based violence is an issue often met with silence, unempathetic discourse, and troublesome visual representation. As educators, mentors, and public facilitators, how can we address this subject in our teaching spaces, curricula, texts, and conversations with greater care and understanding? And, what do we need as resources to cultivate these deeper insights and new roads to increased awareness and dynamic healing?
Building decentered and empowering spaces is vital to addressing gender-based violence. In an educational setting, this must take into consideration instructors’, students’, and other professionals’ own histories of and relationships to traumatic experience. The authors provide a cross-disciplinary dialogue involving spaces ranging from first-year writing programs to international classrooms to public art installation. What holds the conversation together is a collective emphasis on transnational feminist pedagogy and pedagogy of the oppressed while also prioritizing affective discourse. This combination of approaches is used to not only open the conversation itself, but to also pointedly deconstruct standard patriarchal practices found in academia and other institutional settings.
With contributions from scholars and practitioners from a variety of disciplines, cultures and educational backgrounds, Trauma-Informed Pedagogy brings visibility to perpetuated violence and silence through a range of genres, including poetry, syllabi, and critical reflections, offering an invaluable resource for instructors and workshop facilitators interested in approaches that decentralize learning spaces and empowers all participants.
Learn more about the edited collection at: https://bookstore.emerald.com/trauma-informed-pedagogy.html
Blended Learning: Can technology solve the age-old question of seamlessly blending language and content, 2016
One area that has presented a challenge across languages and universities is the difficulty in th... more One area that has presented a challenge across languages and universities is the difficulty in the transition between the intermediate and advanced levels. Students cannot delve into literature without the language background. These are not separate entities. However, the ability to blend the two is extremely difficult.
In past iterations of a course that I have taught that falls into this category, Spain: Language and Culture, I have attempted various methodologies in joining content and language through an assortment of texts. The challenge has always been that there exists no text that engages all of the skills that this level course attempts to perfect. Currently, my students are working with a text that presents the major political and historical movements of Spain. The second text introduces the main literary movements and genres. The third text is a grammar review. These texts are not related and do not coordinate with one another. What is the outcome of this textual lacuna? It is a disjuncture and awkwardness that inhibit learning. Why doesn’t such a text exist? It is, quite frankly, a daunting task – that of putting together one instrument for facilitating the learning of such an abundance of information. It is daunting, but not impossible.
My current project explores technology as an avenue for solving this issue. The IBOOK textbook development is one of Apple’s technological applications for learning and one possible format for EPUB. It goes beyond the limitations of a printed text by embedding video, 3D images, and authentic up-to-date materials. This is not simply a printed text that has been translated into an online version. It is, in essence, a live text that grows and changes with the field for which it was written. This project fills a gap in the field of language studies while also moving toward the future of textbook development.
Presenting my findings and the in-the-process implementation of the pilot chapter at this year´s Collaborative Conference on Language, Literature and Linguistics will be instrumental in both soliciting feedback and sharing what I have learned.
New Books Network en español, 2022
Leer Toxic Loves, Impossible Futures (Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2022) es como estar... more Leer Toxic Loves, Impossible Futures (Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2022) es como estar invitada a una cena íntima con las personas que han tenido un impacto enorme en tu forma de ver y analizar el mundo y con quienes has pasado muchísimo tiempo –en tu cerebro. Pero, además de inspirar momentos profundos de crecimiento intelectual, lo que te sorprende es el acercamiento emocional que produce Emmelhainz, productora de esta situación. En este sentido, la autora sigue lo que se espera de un discurso feminista: romper la expectativa de que un texto intelectual te ponga en la situación pasiva de sólo recibir información. El impacto de leer desde esta perspectiva analítica, emocional y empoderada, es imprescindible.
Critical Pedagogies for Modern Languages Education, 2023
As a primer for this chapter, I propose the following question: From our own learning as professo... more As a primer for this chapter, I propose the following question: From our own learning as professors to the ways in which we facilitate learning in our students, to the ways in which we carry out our own lines of inquiry, how are we intentionally prioritizing inclusivity and anti-racism? Please take a moment to consider this question prior to reading the chapter. The intention here is to open a dialogue between and among the readers of this volume so that the shared experiences and opinions can be regenerative as well as co-created. In so doing, I acclaim the work of those with whom I am dialoguing and those with whom I have had the pleasure of sharing a teaching and learning space while I simultaneously disclaim myself as expert.
Trauma-Informed Pedagogy: Addressing Gender-Based Violence in the Classroom, 2022
Engaging with the interconnected dynamics of the classroom, this chapter draws from Audre Lorde’s... more Engaging with the interconnected dynamics of the classroom, this chapter draws from Audre Lorde’s “Uses of Anger” to consider how empathy may be cultivated as a soft skill for stronger interpersonal relationships. Jocelyn E. Marshall highlights the need for mutual vulnerability between instructor and student, where vulnerability is understood to be a mode of resistance in regards to patriarchal and hegemonic higher education institutions and learning standards. By braiding queer feminisms with interdisciplinary approaches, the trauma-informed pedagogy upholds radical empathy as the linchpin to Lorde’s advocating of articulating anger with precision, listening intensely, gaining new insight, and enacting change. In creating spaces to practice and further develop empathy, the trauma-informed pedagogical approach aims to empower students with agency and equip them with skills for self-accountability and holding others accountable.
Learn more about the edited collection at: https://books.emeraldinsight.com/book/detail/trauma-informed-pedagogy/?k=9781800714984