Introduction to the Climate Transformation Curriculum

This series of workshops is part of a University-wide project to improve the sociopolitical climate of the UW by making explicit and changing the way unacknowledged and dominant norms of White privilege and other beliefs and behaviors inhibit efforts to be inclusive.

To do this, workshop participants will analyze the institutional context of the UW and the psychological, behavioral, and structural/historical dimensions of institutional climate from a critical perspective. During the workshops, awareness of beliefs and behaviors will be explored; they will also be analyzed in light of prevailing group norms, processes, and policies that negatively or positively impact UW recruitment, retention, scholarship, pedagogy, and personal and professional learning.

The dynamics of White privilege will be analyzed, and participants will critically reflect on Whiteness, privilege, and the role of the individual & political, social, cultural and economic institutions in racism and other injustices in the United States.

Our own socialization within U.S. history, perspectives, and behavioral norms will be related to how this socialization engenders unwitting collusion with racism.

Although the explorations are centered on racism and Whiteness, the concepts will be applied to the dynamics of other major oppressions (such as sexism, heterosexism, ableism, anti-Semitism, etc.) in the final workshops. The workshops provide participants the knowledge and skills to take an active stance against oppression in general by focusing on racism in ourselves, in wider institutions, and in U.S. society.

All participants are encouraged to attend a local two day workshop on Undoing Racism held by the People's Institute, a national organization that works to "engage all communities in creating an anti-racist society where everyone has the opportunity to reach their full potential" (People's Institute Northwest). Attendance at the People's Institute offers immersion in these concepts, better equipping participants with strategies for advancing racial and social justice. The People's Institute also enables us to move much more quickly toward creating sustainable climate change at the University of Washington.

During the workshops, participants will practice with tools to use in meetings, classrooms, etc. that foster a climate of inclusiveness, respect for diversity, and decreased competition. These tools are effective in any oppressive circumstances. By the end of the project, a cadre of faculty and staff leaders will be created who are able to recognize how a climate of unmarked Whiteness, power and privilege adversely impacts people who are different from the dominant UW norm of white, privileged, able, Christian male.

The cadre of faculty and staff will also be able function as change agents due to sustainability and innovation diffusion training. With the knowledge and skills gained in the workshops, participants will create and implement sustainable action plans aimed at promoting a climate of social justice at the University of Washington.

Workshop Objectives

By the end of the series of workshops, participants will be able to:

• Discuss a basic history and current status of racialized groups in the United States
• Discuss basic dynamics of racism and relate this dynamic to other oppressions
• Explore ways in which people, regardless of their racial or other identification, how been shaped by and collude with the forces of racism
• Develop an awareness of how White racial socialization shapes White people's personal and professional values, feelings, attitudes, and behaviors towards people of Color
• Analyze how hidden structural advantages limit opportunities for people of color and privilege opportunities for White people
• Use innovation-diffusion methods and sustainability principles to develop, implement and evaluate action plans aimed at transforming the organizational climate of the University of Washington

View the workshop schedule (archived)