EMPOWERING STUDENTS FOR FAIRNESS, NOT ADVANTAGE

1. EMPOWERING STUDENTS FOR FAIRNESS, NOT ADVANTAGE Natalie Sharpe, University of Alberta, Canada ENOHE Conference Warsaw, Poland May, 2014

2. Outline • What is empowerment? Who defines it? What is the process? • Canadian TRC example of the empowerment process • How do university students handle the power dynamics of universities? • Can the ombudsperson help to empower students? • Scenarios on empowering students in a conflict

3. Sharing the Goal of Empowerment • Is empowerment meant to “equalize” power? • Can we level the playing field in a hierarchy? • Does empowerment mean gaining advantage? • Are some of us systemically disempowered? • Are there cultural constraints to empowerment? • Is empowerment a learned process?

4. What does it mean to Empower? • Empower: “Make (students) stronger and more confident, especially in controlling their life and claiming their rights” (Oxford Dictionary) • How? Through human rights movements we have found that empowerment includes many principles: accessible; confidential; safe; transparent; accountable; comprehensive; inclusive, educational, holistic, just and fair; respectful; voluntary; flexible; forward looking

5. TRC Canada – Principles of Empowerment • Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission for former Indian Residential School students and their descendants. • Goal: “support & facilitate..the self-empowerment of former IRS students and those affected by the IRS legacy” (TRC mandate) • These principles are as follows: accessible; victim-centered; confidentiality (if required by the former student); do no harm; health and safety of participants; representative; public/transparent; accountable; open and honourable process; comprehensive; inclusive, educational, holistic, just and fair; respectful; voluntary; flexible; and forward looking…. (http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/File/pdfs/SCHEDULE_N_EN.pdf)

6. Universities - Hierarchical Settings • Students enter a hierarchical education system focused more on competitive than cooperative education, eg, competition for grades and funding. • Students often view university professoriate and administrators as having power over them. They feel disempowered, lose trust. • Students perceive excessive use or abuse of power through domination, manipulation, coercion; maintaining status quo through collusion/inertia. • Yet, university education promotes removing systemic barriers and injustices.

7. Power/Control that Students Lack • Formal Power – authoritative power – eg, power over grades • Resource power –$$$ student pays for course, but not grade • Procedural power – control over how decisions are made eg, decanal decisions, appeal procedures • Sanction power – power to harm, punish, or impede student, eg, sanction for academic discipline • Associational Power – power in associating with powerful people – professor and board perceived as “friends” who will deny your appeal • Habitual Power – power of maintaining the status quo; eg, don’t rock the boat; ie, don’t waste time appealing

8. Power/Control That Students Use • Nuisance Power – ability to cause discomfort– anger, threats, tears; refusing to leave the office; disrupting the classroom; escalating emails; Cyberbully professor; threat to go to media or sue to discredit institution; bribes to gain academic advantage; my problem is worse than others • Students are labelled difficult and may be sanctioned for inappropriate behaviour or just ignored; the problem remains unresolved

9. Power With and Within: Enhancing Learned Power of Students • Information power – gaining expertise – eg, learning how to prepare and deliver an appeal • Moral power – power tied to widely held values and the conviction that one is right, example – fairness principle; demonstration of “good faith” • Personal power – power derived from personal attributes such as self-assurance, ability to articulate one’s thoughts, self-reflection, determination, etc • All of these are forms of empowerment

10. Power is Dynamic and Relational • “Substantive interests of the parties involved are inseparable from their view of their power situation and their desire to protect or enhance it” B. Mayer • Power ‘over’ struggle is a win/lose proposition if the goal is to inflict harm/damage in one party. • Power ‘with’ is a win/win situation when “Power resides in principle, persuasiveness, relationship, creative problem solving and commitment.” B. Mayer • When power evolves as a sharing of principles , values, and goals, it is a shared empowerment.

11. Ombuds Role in Power Dynamics • “When appropriate the ombudsman educates, persuades, and influences ...to take…remedial action.” Macfarlane 497 • ““(The) ombudsman can take on both a remedial and preventive function”….. “identifying and preventing recurring unfairness” (Stephen Owen in Macfarlane 1991, 497, 505, from U of Toronto Law Journal: 1990, 675-677) • “The internal ombudsman (common in universities) is by itself a “mini-system” and often the point of entry; sometimes the ombuds takes on a mediator role using interest-based negotiation skills” (Mary Rowe in Macfarlane, 505-506, from 7 Negotiation Journal, 1991, 353)

12. Does the Ombuds Empower Students? • Ombuds: Provides the necessary tools (self-determination, reflection, appreciative inquiry, respectful dialogue) to students so they will gain confidence and effectively exercise their rights, while acknowledging their accountability in maintaining the integrity of their academic institution. • Helps students to articulate their situation in a positive pro-active manner • Helps students to understand policies and work to change those that are systemically unfair

13. How does the Ombuds Empower? • Models collegial dialogue and respect for the other party; discourages negative labels and probes to understand actions/behaviours • Holistically examines situation, finding values and interests behind positions; reframes mutual interests • Provides information to understand policy, procedures and student accountability • Recommends change with policy gaps & inequities • Does not fix problems; provides students the tools to expand options and problem solve

14. Case Scenarios • Help us to reflect on our practices by examining hypothetical constructs of real-life conflicts • Move from a vacuum definition of power to living dynamics of power and interpersonal relationships • Examine mitigating factors and their impact • Examine areas of impasse/positions • Focus on prioritizing issues, finding mutual interests, restoring trust/relationship • Expand options to formulate positive resolutions • Keep flexible, malleable; remove systemic barriers

15. Alienation of Affection: Supervisor Conflict • Supervisor has supervised for 4 years and is not tenured • Student received major scholarly awards and good grades; personal problems led to a medical leave and student moved closer to family for support while finishing thesis • Thesis draft drew criticism from supervisor • Student labels supervisor as distant, critical, unsupportive • Student does not trust Graduate Coordinator or Chair • Student sees no option but to quit near end of program

16. Probing for more details • Examine background – student demonstrated competence in past and won major awards • Examine research – empowerment tools for women • Examine working relationship with supervisor –few face-to-face meetings, mostly email; no committee • Examine department support- Graduate coordinator not approached for intervention and do not trust department Chair • Examine Personal and Thesis Support on Campus–not aware of on-campus resources

17. Process of Empowering Student • Use a holistic perspective to examine power dynamics • Reaffirm value of the research and scholastics/rewards • Acknowledge the challenge of scholarly work and learning through constructive, scholarly criticism • Examine the mutual interest of the student’s progress and the supervisor’s mentor skills. Explain the role of the GC and FGSR to mitigate damages and restore working relationship (empowerment for both parties) • Refer student to support services to build confidence

18. Process of Empowerment • Student writes a chronological summary of the progress in her work, including positive interactions with supervisor in the past • Student notes stages of concern and contributing factors for both parties that led to difficulties • Student expands options: creating value or “expanding the pie” for ways to finish the degree, eg, new action plan agreed by student and supervisor through a GC mediation; co-supervision, new supervisor

19. Reframing through Empowerment • Feeling she has more options, student decides to respond to thesis criticisms, and seeks help to reframe issues; she moves from defensiveness to proaction. • Actions include: seeking Graduate writing assistance through a legitimate University service; seeking help through the Graduate Coordinator and Associate Dean of FGSR • Student provides supervisor with a timeline to complete research • GC and AD meet separately with supervisor to move committee forward so student can complete defense

20. The Mandatory List of Changes • You receive a call from an international student association, threatening to contact the home country because of a mandatory behaviour list presented to a group of their students midway through term. The list is labeled as racist and threatening. One rule includes activities outside the classroom, and some rules are confusing or unclear. At the end, the note states that if these rules are not followed immediately, there will be “serious consequences”, but these are not defined.The students do not want to return to class. The Director tells you many students were in risk of failing and that instructors had no alternative. What do you do?

21. Sources • Oxford Dictionary (online) • http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/File/pdfs/SCHEDULE_N_EN.pdf • B. Mayer, “The Dynamics of Power in Mediation and Negotiation” (1987 16 Mediation Quarterly 75, 77-79),in J. Macfarlane, Dispute Resolution: Readings and Case Studies 2011 (3rd ed)Emond Montgomery Pub.,Toronto, Canada, p. 372 • Contact: natalie.sharpe@ualberta.ca