Report on the AATG Diversity Workshop April 3-5, 1992

Abstract

German began conceiving strategies for involving largest possible number of colleagues in discussions about how to stimulate increased minority participation in German. One such strategy was a national workshop, involving members of profession from all levels of instruction, from different types of institutions, and from such sister organizations as GSA, DAAD, and Goethe Institute. Thanks to a grant from StADaF, and with generous support from Michigan State University, first AATG Diversity Workshop was held at Kellogg Center in East Lansing April 3-5, 1992. Twenty-two participants from a variety of secondary and post-secondary institutions took part in this first workshop devoted to promotion of diversity in German Studies (see Appendix A for a list of participants). From backgrounds as diverse as Indian, African-American, Caribbean, Jewish, Latin-American, German, and EuropeanAmerican, participants were all very eager to share their untold stories. A gathering on first evening provided a forum for personal accounts which reflected hurdles that most 'minorities' have to overcome, including lack of support from relatives and professors for study in a field deemed unsuitable and useless to their community, quizzical looks on faces of nonminority students, and socially imposed identity crisis. Equally revealing were accounts that underline positive reinforcement on part of those special mentors and parents, as well as tales of intellectual determination to broaden and enrich field of German Studies with research topics such as the language of migrant workers in Federal Republic of Germany or the reception of Black writers in This informal get-together and narration by participants about experiences in acquiring and teaching a second language contributed to formation at outset of workshop of a closely knit group with common goals and aspirations and set stage for series of activities of following day (see Appendix B for workshop agenda). One of highlights of workshop was a series of classroom activities presented by Beverly Harris-Schenz on Saturday morning. These activities, geared to promote tolerance and acceptance, had been used in past by presenter in classrooms in Germany. The first activity required participants to recall a situation in their life in which they felt like an outsider within a group of people who were different. The differences between individual and group could be of various kinds: economic, social, racial, physical, ethnic, religious. The participants were asked to use five adjectives that would best describe their feelings and to indicate whether (and also why and why not) members of dominant group were sensitive to feelings of participants and whether they attempted to integrate participants in group. The similarities of responses regardless of background of respondent made this first activity a very effective tool for sensitizing various groups to issue of diversity and tolerance. The second activity was called and Os. In this activity Xs are people found in large numbers while Os are people who are scarce. The aim of activity is to highlight implications of being an O. An X and configuration was shown on a diagram. The participants recognized that scarcity of O made it more noticeable, brought it under tight scrutiny, made it subject of more rumors, put it in spotlight and under more pressure, gave it X-tra attention. The conclusion of this activity focused on solutions that can be provided by both Os and Xs to remedy awkward situation. The fact that game is devoid of racial, religious, and other labels and uses neutral units such as Os and Xs encourages participants to express their opinions more freely and to identify more clearly items that fall within category of intolerence.