Fostering Allyship in Ourselves and Our Students

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the development of allyship in higher education contexts. The findings discussed are the result of a 10-week duoethnography project conducted by one faculty member and five doctoral students who are also higher education practitioners. Group dialogue and individual memoing revealed central struggles in considering approaches to cultivating social justice allyship with undergraduate students. There is a certain tension in trying to promote allyship to privileged students as something more than individual sacrifice while also properly acknowledging and communicating the risks inherent in decentering systems, structures, and institutions that benefit from white supremacist, sexist, ableist, heteronormative hegemony. The duoethnographic data are presented to encourage readers to become active participants in making meaning of the various perspectives on allyship.

Advancing Allyship Through Anti-Oppression Workshops for Public Health Students: A Mixed Methods Pilot Evaluation

“…Anti-oppression has gained significant attention across multiple disciplines and there are several methods of educational delivery, including trainings, workshops, and courses, that aim to promote the uptake of anti-oppressive principles through critical dialogue and engaging activities. Anti-oppression workshops are one method that have assumed an increasingly important role in health promotion (HP)-a prominent and value-laden public health field embracing reflexivity and empowerment, with a large emphasis on allyship (Labonte, 1994;Nixon, 2019).Allyship has been defined in numerous ways (Vaccaro et al, 2020). Bishop (2002) defines an ally as someone who recognizes the unearned privilege they receive from society's patterns of injustice and takes responsibility for changing those patterns for the better.…”

“…Allyship has been defined in numerous ways (Vaccaro et al, 2020). Bishop (2002) defines an ally as someone who recognizes the unearned privilege they receive from society's patterns of injustice and takes responsibility for changing those patterns for the better.…”