Facilitator Guide > > Session 6: Intersectionality
Learning Outcomes:
By the end of this session participants will:
- have explored individual intersections
- have gained an understanding of intersectionality
- understand the concept of code switching
Suggested Agenda
- :00 Welcome and Collective Agreements Review
- :05 Grounding/Breathing Activity
- :07 Session Intention Statement
- :10 Discuss the following question with participants:
- Have you heard of the concept of intersectionality, if so, what does it mean to you?
- :20 Intersectionality Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6dnj2IyYjE
- :25 Video Discussion and Immediate thoughts from the video: 3-5 Participants share
- :35 2 Breakout Rooms – Topic: Intersectionality
(Base conversation on topics that come up during video discussion) - :45 Activity: Layers of Identity
Participants will need a piece of paper and writing utensil
-
- Have participants write down their top 5 identities.
- Ask them to number and rank each identity by level of personal importance with 1 being their most important identity and 5 being their least important identity.
- Tell participants to imagine that they are no longer allowed to hold onto their # 1 identity. Also state that they must hide it from the world and in doing so cross it out.
- Have participants pause and become aware of any emotions that may come up after having crossed out this layer of their identity.
- Repeat steps 3 & 4 for identities numbered 2-4.
- Ask participants to circle identity #5 and inform them that they are only allowed to hold onto this identity.
- Have participants notice any thoughts or emotions that come up from this experience.
- Debrief the activity by asking
- What thoughts came up when crossing out your #1 identity?
- What emotions?
- How about the others?
- What did it feel like to hear “You can only hold onto identity #5 and must hide the others by crossing them out?
- What other thoughts or emotions came up for you during this activity?
- :55 Discussion
- 1:05 Define the concept of Code Switching.
- Facilitator shares a lived experience related to this concept. Explain that code switching can be both a conscious and unconscious act.
- 1:10 Code Switching Video Clip
- 1:15 Breathing Activity- RECAP
- 1:16 Final Showcase Discussion
- 1:25 Integrative Closing:
- I liked
- I wish
- I wonder
Facilitator’s Section
Youth Advisory Notes
Sofia’s Field Notes
- Definition of intersectionality: the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage.
- Edit to the Layers of Identity activity because confusing in the Wiki
- Write down your top five identities, meaning the first five things you think of in terms of your identity. (It helps to put the identity wheel up to help them remember some identities). It can also be what you acknowledge the most on a day-to-day basis
- Focus on the first, then the second, then the third, etc. Think about how you feel about each one and how you would feel if you only had this one identity.
- Now, which of these five could you let go of?
- This exercise demonstrates how difficult it is to separate identities. It makes them think about how each identities shapes them.
- Definition of code switching: code switching can be both conscious and unconscious. Code switching is linguistically, alternating between two or more languages. It also means when a person changes how they speak based on who they are around. People code switch to compensate for a lack of competence in one sphere.