Teaching at the Intersections: Liberatory and Anti-Oppressive Pedagogical Praxis in the Multicultural Counseling Classroom as a Queer Puerto Rican Educator

Multiple challenges exist when embracing a feminist, anti-oppressive, and liberatory approach to pedagogy. For those of us living and teaching at the intersections of multiple oppressions, there are multiple costs and rewards when we engage in this work, and they span various dimensions of our lives. The professional and the personal are often intertwined, particularly as we navigate bringing ourselves and our intersectionality into the classroom, as we seek to illustrate content, model process, and/or foster connection and empathy among our students toward themselves and marginalized communities.

At the core of my work in the classroom and beyond is the dismantling of oppressive systems in order to work toward equity and social justice. Thus, I teach about privilege and oppression and engage students in recognizing the many ways in which we live in a racist, sexist, heterosexist, ableist, classist, ethno-centrist, white supremacist, imperialist, homophobic, transphobic, neocolonialist, and xenophobic (among other things) society. I engage students in identifying how our institutions, particularly within the educational system, perpetuate these systems of oppression.

Facilitating difficult conversations about oppression can have an emotional impact on the educator that is often underestimated, particularly when it touches some of our own areas of marginalization. Potential professional costs (e.g., poor evaluations, strained relationships with supervisors/administrators who may not understand or support anti-oppressive education) can impact our job security, as they may sway tenure and/or promotion decisions (Helms et al.; Nair; Yoon et al., "Critical Issues"; Jones and Calafell). This in itself can seriously impact one's well-being and put us at an increased risk of burning out.

I have often struggled to find a sense of belonging in many spaces, academia included. I identify as a queer, gender-queer, multiracial, Puerto Rican—born and raised in the island but living in New York City for around fifteen years. I currently do not live with a dis/ability. I am multiracial, but my light skin color affords me privilege every day, both in Puerto Rico and New York City. Although my family of origin's income and socioeconomic status mostly fluctuated between poverty and working class, my current position as a tenured counselor educator grants me class privilege. I am out as queer in my workplace, in the classroom, and in my personal life, and my gender presentation, while masculine of center, is still perceived as female by most. The intersectionality of my many identities—privileged and oppressed—makes being in the midst of intense public exclusionary debates, such as the ones recently playing out in U.S., Puerto Rican, and world politics, feel particularly constricting and alienating inside and outside the classroom. The urgency of this type of work in educational settings makes it even more pressing to reflect on my liberatory praxis as self-care and reflect on some of the common pedagogical issues that arise when teaching as an educator who lives at the intersection of multiple oppressions.

This article addresses some of the common issues that arise when we strive to develop multicultural competencies in the classroom using an experiential, intersectional, feminist, and anti-oppressive approach, in the hope of providing support to others doing similar work and contributing to the conversation around the personal impact of liberation pedagogies on educators at the intersection of multiple oppressions. Drawing from feminist, anti-oppressive, and queer education literature and from my experience as a counselor educator, I share my current approach to navigating the dynamics of teaching multicultural competencies in the classroom. Special emphasis has been placed on issues related to content and process, in addition to reflecting on the personal impact of this approach on the educator. Finally, self-care considerations are addressed.

Common Issues when Teaching Multicultural Competencies Using an Anti-Oppressive and Intersectional Approach

Many issues arise when teaching multi-cultural and diversity content, and various authors have produced scholarship on the issue (Garner; Morgan Consoli and Marin; Helms et al.; Fouad and Carter; Rothschild; Reynolds; Nair; Yoon et al., "Critical...