Ice Breaker: Envisioning Liberation for All Ages

Name of the Activity: Ice Breaker for the Ending Youth & Elder Oppression Chapter: Envisioning Liberation for All Ages

Instructional Purpose Category: Icebreakers; Tone setting / developing group guidelines

Instructional Purpose of the Activity: In this activity, participants will connect and envision a society characterized by liberation and the elimination of youth & elder oppression.

Learning Outcomes: Participants will be able to:

1. Describe a world that cares deeply about young people and elders and supports them fully.

Time Needed: 10 minutes

Materials Needed: Chart paper or slides with questions for the activity; participants should have a notebook and writing implement.

Degree of Risk: Low to medium

Procedure:

1. We present this activity as the very first activity of the class or workshop. Our goal is to have participants start their learning experience about youth oppression and elder oppression by thinking about the goal of liberation and the possibilities outside the contemporary arrangements of society.

1. Form 2 concentric circles: Ask participants to count off by sun and then moon. Ask the moons to form a circle inside the circle of suns. Have the inside circle face someone in the outside circle (in chairs or standing). If the number of participants is uneven, have a facilitator join the circle so that everyone has a partner. (This activity can also be done in triads, sitting or standing.)

1. Describe this exercise as a “speak and listen.”
1. Explain that speakers share and listeners provide a supportive space for that speaker to think out loud, uninterrupted. Stress the importance of attentive, non-judgmental listening. Explain that the participants should speak of their ideas only and not respond to what their partner said or what they learned from their partner.
2. Explain that you will keep track of time and let the participants know when to switch roles from speaker to listener.
3. Ask the participants to exchange names and greetings.
4. Begin by asking the participants in the outer circle to respond to the first item.
5. After two minutes, switch and ask the participants in the inner circle to respond to discussion item 1 (see below).
6. Then ask the participants in the inner circle to move two people to the left and repeat this process with item 2.
7. Continue alternating who is the first speaker between the inner circle and the outer circle, rotating so that people have new partners for each new item until all items are addressed.

Questions for each round:

1. Name/Pronoun and What brought you to this workshop today?
2. Name/Pronoun and What are you hoping to take away from this experience?
3. Name/Pronoun and Describe a world that cares deeply about young people and elders and supports them fully.

At the end of the activity, thank the participants for their participation. Let them know that we will revisit their answers to these questions at other points during the day.

Key points to emphasize in closing this activity:

1. We begin with a focus on liberation, putting our attention in the direction toward which we want to move society.
2. We study oppression so that we can learn how to eliminate it and create liberatory societies, spaces, processes, relationships, etc.
3. It is often difficult to imagine what we have not experienced, and none of us have experienced societies free of oppression.
4. Imagining liberatory societies helps us to describe the characteristics with which to replace oppressive systems, institutions, laws, policies, behaviors, and relationships.
5. It is not enough to know that we want to dismantle oppression. It is important to begin to know what we want in its place.
6. Because we have limited models of liberatory societies, organizations, and relationships, we have to create these from our own imagination. Thus, we start with this visioning process.

Facilitation Notes and Considerations: This activity frames your course/workshop. It is important to note that we examine oppression in order to see what it can tell us about transformation and liberation. Developing a clear view of liberation is important work for individuals and groups learning about these topics. Keep referring back to this exercise throughout the workshop/ course in order to help participants reflect on their changing visions.

Recommended Readings/Materials for Students: None

Recommended Supplementary Materials/Readings for the Facilitator: The Constructivist Listening Dyad

Names of Those to Credit for this Activity: Barbara J. Love & Valerie Jiggetts

Internalized Youth and Elder Oppression Triads

Name of the Activity: Exploring Internalized Youth & Elder Oppression Triads for the Ending youth & Elder Oppression Chapter

Instructional Purpose Category: Exploring internalized oppression, internalized messages, or implicit bias

Instructional Purpose of the Activity:

1. Identify and examine the messages they received about themselves in relation to their age, from people that were close to them and from the culture and institutions in which they participate. 
2. Examine the impacts of those messages on how they think about themselves in relation to their age.

Learning Outcomes: Participants will be able to:

1. Reflect on one’s own socialization about young people and elders.
2. Identify ways that participants may have internalized specific instances of youth and elder oppression.

Time Needed: 15 minutes

Materials Needed:

1. Handout containing the Cycle of Socialization from Chapter 4: Getting Started: Core Concepts for Social Justice Education           

Degree of Risk: Medium to High

Procedure:

1. Distribute the handout or project a slide with the cycle of socialization
2. Share a few examples of ways we have been socialized to accept youth and elder oppression
1. Example #1: When we are little, adults touch us and people feel comfortable/confident looking at or touching young people without their permission.  Young people are told to “give this person a hug.” Though this seems minor and insignificant, it can and often does become internalized for individuals as lacking a feeling of autonomy with / in our bodies.  This could result in difficulty saying no in intimate physical situations, or feeling as though we must please other people to be ok ourselves.

1. Example #2:  Ask a participant to give their own example of internalized youth oppression.

1. Example #3: Young people are socialized to desire becoming a middle-age adult but to assume that ageing into elderhood is something that they should be afraid of or shouldn’t look forward to.

1. Example # 4:  A major focus on anti-ageing and staying young shows up in many cultures. This is reflected in anti-ageing beauty products, anti-gray shampoos, greeting cards, etc. Many elders actively pursue a culture of youth adulation using anti-ageing products, hair dyes, discuss ‘senior moments’ when they make a mistake, or describe themselves as ‘over the hill’.

1. Example # 5:   Ask a participant to give their own example of internalized elder oppression

1. Describe this exercise as a “speak and listen” session.
1. Remind participants that speakers share and listeners provide a supportive space for that speaker to think out loud, uninterrupted. Stress the importance of attentive, non-judgmental listening.

Facilitation Notes: You can remind participants that exploring youth and elder oppression often brings up feelings and emotions. Refer back to your agreement around the culture of care and assure participants that there is nothing wrong with them if they happen to be feeling a lot or if they feel nothing at all. The goal of these reflections is to support connected and supportive reflection for learning and transformation.

Recommended Readings/Materials for Students:

1. INFORMATION ON INTERNALIZED YOUTH OPPRESSION Handout
2. INFORMATION ON INTERNALIZED ELDER OPPRESSION Handout

Recommended Supplementary Materials/Readings for the Instructor or Facilitator:

1. Getting Started: Core Concepts for Social Justice Education, Chapter 4 of this edition of Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice
2. DeJong, K. & Love, B. (2018). Youth Oppression and Elder Oppression. In M. Adams, W. Blumenfeld, D. Catalano, K. S. DeJong, H. Hackman, L. Hopkins, B. Love, M. Peters, D. Shlasko, and X. Zúñiga (Eds.) Readings for diversity and social justice: Fourth Edition. New York: Routledge.

Names of Those to Credit for this Activity: Barbara J. Love, Safire DeJong, Romeo Romero Sigle

Attitudes and Beliefs about Young People and Elders

Name of the Activity: Attitudes, Assumptions, and Beliefs about Young People and Elders for the Ending Youth & Elder Oppression Chapter

Instructional Purpose Category: Exploring cultural- or societal-level oppression

Instructional Purpose:

1. Identify the attitudes, assumptions, and beliefs about young people and elders that participants regularly encounter
2. Explore attitudes, assumptions, and beliefs about young people and elders that participants might unconsciously hold

Learning Outcome: Understand the pervasiveness of messages present in the culture and in society that support youth oppression and elder oppression.

Time Needed: 30 minutes

Materials Needed:

1. Chart Paper (in-person) or Google Slidedeck (remote)
2. Markers
3. Tape
4. Images at the links below
5. Slide with reflection questions

Degree of Risk (low, medium, high): Medium

Procedure:

1. Activity Starter: (2 min)
1. Show Image -1 Young People 
1. Text on the image says: “Honey, when you grow up I want you to be assertive, independent and strong-willed. But while you’re a kid, I want you to be passive, pliable, and obedient.”
2. Show Image-2 Elder
1. Text on the image says: “Don’t you know how old you are?” [to a leaping older person, who replies] “Oh dear, have I forgotten again?”
2. Individual reflection:  Ask participants to:
1. Reflect on Image1 and notice any attitudes, beliefs and assumptions about young people that come to mind when viewing this image. 
2. Make a list of the attitudes, belief and assumptions about young people that you can think of that exist in society (about 2 min)
3. Reflect on Image 2 and notice any attitudes, beliefs and assumptions about elders that come to mind when viewing this image. 
4. Make a list of the attitudes, beliefs and assumptions about elders that come to mind when viewing this image. (about 2 min).

Small group Discussion: (20 min)  Explain that we will be splitting up into groups of 3.

1. In the small group, make two lists. One list for attitudes, beliefs and assumptions about young people.  On the second list, include  attitudes, beliefs and assumptions about elders.
2. The small group should work together to consolidate their lists on chart paper (in-person) or on their own slide on a google slidedeck (remote). (8 min)
3. Once each group has completed their list, have the groups move around the room (or scroll through the slides) to look at what each group has listed.
4. Instruct participants to put check marks next to items that you personally have believed or currently believe, and questions next to ones you have questions about (10 mins)
1. Discuss the checks and questions (10 mins)
1. Each group goes back to their own chart paper or slide and discusses the ones with the most checks/questions. (5 min). 
1. Why might a particular item have many checks?
2. Why might people have questions about items that have question marks?

1. Post these question on a slide to support participant reflection:
1. Which of these attitudes, assumptions or beliefs have you said, witnessed, experienced, believed to be true, or heard others express as true? 
2. How are these attitudes, assumptions or beliefs manifested in the social, cultural or institutional treatment of young people?
3. Which of these attitudes, assumptions and beliefs would need to change in order to eliminate the mistreatment of young people?
1. Have a few groups report out about highlights from their conversation. (5 min)

ADDITIONAL RESOURCE:

Prepare a handout to share with participants that includes the assumptions listed below.

Assumptions about the Nature of Old People and Young People:

1. We believe that old people and young people are fully human and deserve to be treated with full dignity and respect.
2. We believe that young people and old people are entitled to the same access to resources as other humans.
3. We believe that old people and young people are entitled to participate in the decisions that affect their lives.

About How We Learn to Do this Work:

1. We are each works in progress; as we learn more, we make deeper, more significant changes at individual, institutional, and societal levels.
2. This work has both cognitive and emotional components, and both components are significant to the creation of lasting change.
3. We believe that the individual experiences of each of us provide the best data sources for the change that needs to happen.
4. We believe that the most significant transformation occurs when individuals are able to move toward their “learning edges.”

About the Nature of Society:

1. We believe that elder oppression and youth oppression at the individual, institutional, and cultural levels limits the experience of all humans.
2. We believe that, if not consciously interrupted, the traditional functioning of society is designed to reproduce the marginalization and dehumanization of old people and young people.
3. Inequities in funding and other resources available to young people and elders are manifestations of systemic inequities designed to maintain and reproduce systems of inequity.

Facilitation Notes and considerations:

Discuss the role played by beliefs, attitudes, and assumptions in creating, maintaining, and perpetuating oppression against young people and elders. Include the following points in this discussion:

1. While we focus on institutional, societal, and cultural manifestations of ageism and adultism, we recognize that societal norms are enacted and enforced by individuals.

1. Change at the institutional and cultural levels will follow from increased awareness and personal responsibility at the individual level.

1. Elders and young people are marked as different because of their age.

1. Negative attitudes and stereotypes provide a basis for a negative valuation of young people and elders, and serve to rationalize, legitimize, and justify the oppression of elders and young people.

This activity can provide a space for participants to notice the thoughts, beliefs, and assumptions they hold that aren’t always in their conscious awareness. It’s possible that someone might feel particularly tender or triggered as these attitudes, beliefs and assumptions are voiced. It can be helpful to remind participants that our attitudes, beliefs, and assumptions are often in conflict with our consciously chosen values. Our approach is to notice and name all aspects of youth and elder oppression in order to support more effective transformation work. In other words, we are not simply admiring the problem, but rather raising our consciousness with an orientation towards liberation.

Recommended Readings/Materials for Students: None
Recommended Supplementary Materials/Readings for the Instructor or Facilitator:

DeJong, K. & Love, B. (2013) Ageism & Adultism. In M. Adams, W. J. Blumenfeld, R. Castañeda, H. Hackman, M. Peters & X. Zúñiga (Eds.) Readings for Diversity and Social Justice: Third Edition. (pp. 470-474) Routledge.
Names of Those to Credit for this Activity: Barbara J. Love & Safire DeJong

Culture of Care for Ending Youth and Elder Oppression

Name of the Activity: Culture of Care for Ending Youth & Elder Oppression

   Instructional Purpose Category: Tone setting / developing groups guidelines
Instructional Purposes of the Activity:

1. Help with climate setting—welcoming participants and helping participants feel included in the learning community

Learning Outcomes:

1. Practice thoughtfully building agreements about how the participants want to engage with each other
2. To explore and dialogue about the ways facilitators and participants can support each other as we learn about youth and elder oppression together

Time Needed: 30 minutes
Materials Needed: Chart paper & markers or a slidedeck where facilitators can add notes.
Degree of Risk: Medium
Procedure:

1. Ask the group: what do you need to show up, to be fully present in the space?
1. Pair Share (2 minutes each)
2. Ask participants to share those needs with the group. Gather the themes that are shared by participants and pose them as community agreements. (20 mins)
1. Type the agreements that are generated by the group on the slide deck or add to chart paper.
2. Review the course community agreement to see if anything is missing.
3. Review the confidentiality agreement (facilitators add if participants did not).
1. Emphasize that this interpretation of confidentiality specifically prohibits reference to or repeating of personal stories of other participants, and to the attribution of comments to specific participants.
2. The participants are free to discuss their learning from the course. Personal stories or individual comments may not be repeated. Emphasize that this agreement provides a measure of safety for individual participants to share and learn from their own personal stories because they can safely assume that others will not repeat those stories. Distinguish between discussion of issues and discussion of individual personal stories. It is useful to ask the participants for a show of hands to indicate their agreement to the confidentiality agreement. Explain that complete agreement is necessary to create the safety for mem- bers to feel free to share their personal stories during the course.

Facilitation Notes and considerations: Conclude the activity by indicating that the group may choose to revisit the community agreements at any time. It can be useful to roleplay how a facilitator might intervene to support the group to uphold these agreements. For example, if the group makes an agreement to use “I statements”, a facilitator can explain what might happen if someone begins to speak on behalf of someone else and how they might support a participant to restate their contribution in alignment with the agreements. Because we are all always learning, our recommendation is to interrupt, remind the person about the agreement, and then offer them the opportunity to try again. Remind the group that everyone has a responsibility for supporting group members to adhere to our agreements.
Recommended Readings/Materials for Students: None
Recommended Supplementary Materials/Readings for the Instructor or Facilitator:
Brown, A. M. (2017). Emergent strategy: shaping change, changing worlds. Chico, CA: AK Press.
Names of Those to Credit for this Activity: Barbara J. Love, Romeo Romero Sigle, Safire DeJong

Mini-lecture on Historical Context

Name of the Activity: Mini-lecture on historical context and legacies for the Ending Youth & Elder Oppression Chapter - 2 Options

Instructional Purpose Category: Exploring history

Instructional Purposes of the Activity:

1. Acquaint participants with the idea that our contemporary conceptions of young people and elders are social constructions rooted in historical, social, and political forces rather than in biology;
2. Have participants become familiar with some of the historical, social and political forces that contributed to contemporary conceptions of young people and elders.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Increased awareness of contemporary conceptions of young people and of elders as social constructions rooted in historical, social, and political forces rather than in biology
2. To gain familiarity with some of the historical factors that contributed to contemporary con-ceptions of young people and elders

Time Needed: 35 minutes

Materials Needed: Slides presentation with key points

Degree of Risk: Low

Procedure: (Option 1)

Prepare for this mini lecture by reading the Ending Youth and Elder Oppression Chapter section on Historical Contexts and Legacies. Share a mini lecture with the participants by discussing the following issues:

Changes in how we view age:

1. Changes in the participation of elders and young people in the life of the family and community;
2. The separation of elders and youth from the family unit and the creation of nuclear families;
3. The isolation of elders and youth from the social and economic life of the community.

Historical forces contributing to current conceptions of elders and youth:

1. Modern European colonialism
2. European Industrial Revolution
3. The invention of the printing press
4. The invention of public schooling

Discussion Guide (20 min)

Debrief the lecture with the following questions:

1. What part of this information were you already familiar with and what part was new to you?
2. Did this information change your conceptions of youth and elders in any way?  If so, please describe those changes.
3. What have you noticed in your family or community about the ways that young people and elders are treated? Included or not included? Participate in decision-making or not? Central or marginalized? Viewed positively or negatively?

Consider the following:

1. How are elders and young people included in families and communities?
2. What are some of the arenas where you have observed young people exercising power?
3. What are some of the arenas where you have observed young people exercise decision-making?
4. What impact does economic dependency have on young people’s participation in families?  In society?
5. What has been your experience with elders in your family?
6. Are elders part of the family unit or removed from the family unit?
7. Are there differences in the ways that elders are treated in different groups based on race, nationality, class?  If so, can you describe some of those differences?

Facilitation Notes (Option 1): Be sure to include the voices of participants from different class and racial/ ethnic/nationality backgrounds if they are in the group. Notice whether there are participants who are immigrants or children of immigrants. Provide space for those participants to talk about their experiences.

Procedure: (Option 2)

Prepare for this mini lecture by reading the Ending Youth and Elder Oppression Chapter section on Historical Contexts and Legacies. Examine this Puck Graphic published in 1899 titled, School Begins and read the section titled “School Begins”: Unfit for Self-Rule at this link.

1. Create a slide with the image or a copy of the image for each participant to examine.
2. Invite participants to take 5 minutes to explore the image and think about what story the image is conveying. Encourage them to note their thoughts.
3. Pair Share: Ask participants to turn to a neighbor (if working remotely, create breakout rooms of 2-3 participants) to reflect on the following discussion questions.
1. Discussion Questions:
1. What do you notice about the overall image?
2. Examine the details, what do you notice about the students in and outside of the classroom? Take note of the details on the walls, in students’ hands, etc.
3. What story (or stories) is this image trying to tell?
4. How is age being used to tell this story?
5. What does this image tell you about youth oppression and elder oppression?
4. Large group debrief:
1. What came up in your groups?
2. What story/stories is this image telling?
3. What does this image tell you about youth oppression and elder oppression?

Discussion Guide (20 min)

Debrief the lecture with the following questions:

1. What part of this information were you already familiar with and what part was new to you?
2. Did this information change your conceptions of youth and elders in any way?  If so, please describe those changes.
3. What have you noticed in your family or community about the ways that young people and elders are treated? Included or not included? Participate in decision-making or not? Central or marginalized? Viewed positively or negatively?

Consider the following:

1. How are elders and young people included in families and communities?
2. What are some of the arenas where you have observed young people exercising power?
3. What are some of the arenas where you have observed young people exercise decision-making?
4. What impact does economic dependency have on young people’s participation in families?  In society?
5. What has been your experience with elders in your family?
6. Are elders part of the family unit or removed from the family unit?
7. Are there differences in the ways that elders are treated in different groups based on race, nationality, class?  If so, can you describe some of those differences?

Facilitation Notes (Option 2):

As the group is discussing the image, here are some important points to make sure are covered:

1. Colonies were called “dependencies” signifying children.
2. This discourse of *youth as dependent* is embedded in everything from international policy, “development” work, “peace” work, child development, parenting, education, sociology, psychology, anthropology, biology, etc.
3. Elders are rendered invisible, except for the single elder white man who is in charge of the classroom/everything.
4. Colonial discourse and the discourse about youth as dependent and elders as invisible (unless they are white, male, owning class, able bodied, protestant, hetero -and-in-charge) intersects with white supremacy culture.
1. Examples:
1. Indigenous Peoples and other BIPOC often seen *as* children
2. Referring to African American men as “boy”

Recommended Supplementary Readings/Materials for Students:

Chapter 10 of Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice, section on Historical Contexts and Legacies

Chapter 10 of Readings for Diversity and Social Justice

Keri DeJong & Barbara J. Love (2015) Youth Oppression as a Technology of Colonialism: Conceptual Frameworks and Possibilities for Social Justice Education Praxis, Equity & Excellence in Education, 48:3, 489-508, DOI: 10.1080/10665684.2015.1057086

Recommended Materials/Readings for the Instructor or Facilitator:
Chapter 10 of Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice, section on Historical Contexts and Legacies

Chapter 10 of Readings for Diversity and Social Justice

Keri (Safire) DeJong & Barbara J. Love (2015) Youth Oppression as a Technology of Colonialism: Conceptual Frameworks and Possibilities for Social Justice Education Praxis, Equity & Excellence in Education, 48:3, 489-508, DOI: 10.1080/10665684.2015.1057086

Name(s) of Those to Credit for this Activity: Barbara J. Love,  Safire DeJong & Romeo Romero Sigle