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Dominant Narratives, Counter-Narratives & Resistance Narratives

Civic Character & Critical Consciousness in Advisory

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Agenda

  • Greeting
  • Reading
  • Initiative
  • Debrief

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Agenda

  • Greeting
  • Reading
  • Initiative
  • Debrief

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Greeting

If you could get rid of one food forever, what would it be and why?

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Agenda

  • Greeting
  • Reading
  • Initiative
  • Debrief

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Reading

“Who controls the past controls the future, and who controls the present controls the past.”

–George Orwell, 1984

What does this quotation get you thinking about?

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Agenda

  • Greeting
  • Reading
  • Initiative
  • Debrief

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Stories about Justice & Injustice

Dominant Narratives

Counter-Narratives

Resistance Narratives

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Stories about Justice & Injustice

Dominant Narratives

Counter-Narratives

Resistance Narratives

Well-known, taken-for-granted stories from the perspective of a dominant group that seeks to justify the status quo and that group’s dominance

--Dr. Lee Anne Bell

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Stories about Justice & Injustice

Dominant Narratives

Counter-Narratives

Resistance Narratives

Stories hidden beneath the dominant narratives that offer important truths about issues of justice and injustice, and how they have shaped our lives and society

--Dr. Theresa Perry

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Stories about Justice & Injustice

Dominant Narratives

Counter-Narratives

Resistance Narratives

What counter-narratives become when they inspire, motivate, and inform the efforts of present and future generations of citizens and activists to challenge injustice

--Dr. Lee Anne Bell

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Counter-Narratives matter when…

  • The dominant narrative is concealing something true and important

  • A group is going unrepresented or under-represented

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Dominant Narrative of Thanksgiving

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Counter-Narrative of Thanksgiving

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Resistance Narrative of Thanksgiving

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Question for Discussion

Can you think of other dominant narratives you’ve learned that have counter-narratives hidden underneath them?

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Civil Rights Movement: Dominant Narrative

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Civil Rights Movement: Counter-Narrative

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Civil Rights Movement: Counter-Narrative

City Wide Committee for Integrated Schools, “School Boycott! Flier,” Queens College Civil Rights Archives, accessed January 17, 2020, 

https://archives.qc.cuny.edu/civilrights/items/show/130.

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Resistance Narrative of the Civil Rights Movement

  • Why do you think the history of the Civil Rights Movement is so often focused on just two individuals?

  • Who benefits from this dominant narrative? What is the impact of the counter-narrative not being known?

  • What do you think we should we do with what we know? Who is one person that might not know yet that we could share it with?

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Agenda

  • Greeting
  • Reading
  • Initiative
  • Debrief

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Debrief

  • What did you like about today’s lesson?
  • Did you learn anything new about yourself or anyone else?
  • What could make it better?