Friday, October 16, 2015

#RaiseYourVoice: listening, connecting

…with #adjunct/precarious labor advocates and allies, #EdBlogNet, #dlrn2015 participants and others
Today is Blog Action Day, hashtagged #BAD2015 but using the theme hashtag in the subject line even more. This year's theme, reflected in the #RaiseYourVoices hashtag, silenced voices is relevant to adjuncts and other socially and economically precarious communities. 


On October 16, we invite you to speak out with others around the world, as we support those who cannot do so safely. To showcase the power of our words, images, designs, videos and creativity by sharing our posts, and supporting partner organizations who all aim to protect and celebrate our blogging heroes and their ideas. 
You can take part by adding your blog details and joining the global conversation on your own blog this Blog Action Day, by posting your #RaiseYourVoice post on your blog on October. 
So many silenced, threatened, actively persecuted voices are at greater risk than precarious academic labor. I hesitated to blog about adjuncts—powerless, fearful, cautious, invisible but am going with those who would speak but are silenced and made invisible by no being listened to ~ even when heard

Not listening is another kind of silencing ~ non-violent, less openly retaliatory ~ but all the same still silencing. Listening and keeping the conversation going without taking it over
helps the the silenced raise their voices. Be an ally, a bridge, a connector, an amplifier in the larger information ecosystem. Above all, listen, acknowledge and respond. Use your own voice to educate and inform others.

The social justice connection  adjuncts, precarious workers, immigrants, refugees, marginalized communities  is as clear as the human rights connection, inseparable from it. Blogging and in digital media, I focus on mostly on adjuncts (insecure, casual faculty), branching out into precarious labor, neocolonialism, systematic exploitation of marginalized population  and trying to understand the systems of control. Retired, I cannot be fired or non-renewed for speaking. That lays a geas on me to speak out for those still vulnerable

This weekend I am also following and virtually participating in #drln2015 conference. How to connect them evaded me until I saw the inclusive "welcoming voices" image below that Ed Nagelhout tweeted from a presentation:

Embedded image permalink

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1 comment:

  1. I taught one year and a quarter, long ago, as an adjunct. Loved the teaching itself; it was all adult ed, so everybody in the seats was my age or older. Already then, didn't like the scramble for classes every quarter and other things. I'm sure it's gotten worse.

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