For my teaching project I wrote an article to be published in the student led newspaper, the Redlands Bulldog. Entitled “We Should All Be Paying Attention to the Homeless in L.A.” The purpose of my project had several facets. I first, wanted to teach people about the ways in which language frames social issues. Language is an integral way in which our society constructs social issues, and, more importantly, language limits and defines the parameters of what solutions are permitted for those social issues. Dehumanizing language is responsible for the leaf blower approach we see so commonly undertaken by municipal and county governments. To underline this point I included a report on the displacement of 700 homeless individuals from Orange County. Therefore, my analysis of language also included a critique of policy response.
Second, I wanted to show others that homelessness is not a consequence of individual failure. The construction of American Society, predicated on neoliberal ideology has created the condition of homelessness. I included a report linking rising rents to the number of people living on the street. Further, it was important to me to link identity, as well as class, to the reality faced by those living on the street. There are racial elements as well as elements that disproportionately affect members of the LGBTQ+ community.
I chose to public in the Bulldog for a few reasons. Most important is that we are at an “elite” institution. College students and faculty are no doubt part of the socioeconomic elite in this nations and often times institutions such as this university can cause people to lose touch with the real lives of many Americans. I included statistics, data, and structural analysis because I thought that to be the sort of content that may influence the minds of the intellectually elite.
Publishing my teaching project was limiting in that I received nominal face-to-face response to my piece. Upon posting about my article on my Facebook I accumulated 18 responses, which was nice to know that so many people had indeed read my writing. In person I had a few conversations about it, and I received a few first bumps in passing.
My article did succeed in stimulating conversation among a few students on campus. I had one particular interaction with a Redlands junior who had just been having a similar conversation about language as framing social issues and policy responses with a visiting professor. However, to the extent of my knowledge, my article failed to change any opinions. I presume as much because I received no push back or negative response concerning what I had written.
Therefore, if I were to do this project again I would definitely seek dissention. I know several conservatives on campus who would have disagreed with my opinions very much. Actively seeking a response from an organization such as the Young Republicans club could have gone a long way to help me understand how my project fits into the larger discussions on inequality poverty and neoliberal governance happening on this campus and throughout the United States. Additionally, I wish I could have recruited several faculty members to poll their students on my work. The piece was short for a reason.