Intercultural Credibility at The Seattle School

Culture & Identity Conversations

In December 2023, the Intercultural Credibility Committee (ICC) launched monthly Culture & Identity Conversations (CIC) aligned with the committee’s purpose of resourcing and equipping employees to cultivate safety, inclusion, representation, and advocacy to enable all members of The Seattle School community to thrive across all cultures and identities.

At each month’s All Employee meeting, a new CIC topic is introduced followed by an invitation to engage in further discussion the following week. We believe deeply that transformation happens as we spend time together in dialogue and discourse. This new CIC format provides an employee-only space to engage culture and identity topics to open us up to new possibilities, invite us to new practices, and bring meaningful change to our work as we seek to grow in intercultural credibility.

We share these resources as an invitation to all community members to join in this work of cultivating safety, inclusion, representation, and advocacy.

April 2024

Doug Shirley headshotDr. Paul Hoard joined Dr. Doug Shirley in a continuation of March’s conversation with a focus on how we communicate. To begin, participants were invited to reflect on the following question: “If you were able to attend March’s CIC conversation, where during the course of that meeting did you find yourself caught in the tension between desire and failure?”

Resources for this conversation include:

  • The introductory video from Dr. Hoard and Dr. Jermaine Ma‘s conversation at Seattle School Connect 2023, understanding communication and discourse from a Lacanian perspective.
  • See resources from March 2024 below.

March 2024

Doug Shirley headshotDr. Doug Shirley engaged us in exploring how we listen.

Resources for this conversation include:

 

February 2024

Dr. Monique Gadson led us as we examined the cost of collaborating across cultures.

Resources for this conversation include:

Quotes Shared in the Conversation:

  • “Overcoming the personal shame of an implicit racial bias becomes paramount in the larger acceptance of societal racial biases. Once a critical mass of individuals are more accepting of their shame, the ways that implicit bias lead to preferential treatment of different races can be openly examined on a societal level. Furthermore, the acknowledgement of our common unintentional implicit racial bias may help to normalize and alleviate shame.”  Stevens, F. L. & Abernethy, A. D. (2018). Neuroscience and racism: The power of groups for overcoming implicit bias. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 68(4), 561-584. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207284.2017.1315583
  • “I’m not interested in talking about America’s history because I want to punish America,” Mr. Stevenson continued. “I want to liberate America. And I think it’s important for us to do this as an organization that has created an identity that is as disassociated from punishment as possible.” (from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/25/us/lynching-memorial-alabama.html)

January 2024

Rev. Dr. J. P. Kang guided a discussion on the Stanley Grenz Lecture given by Rev. Dr. Angela Parker on January 12, 2024. In her talk titled “America’s Failing Empire: A Womanist New Testament Response to Rising White Christian Nationalism,” Dr. Parker argued that America’s failing empire clings to the deep narrative/story of White Christian Nationalism while ignoring the ways that the imago dei of God can be found in passages outside of traditional readings of scripture.

Resources for this conversation included:

December 2023

Dr. Rose Madrid Swetman led us in discourse on What will we do differently based on how the image of Jesus has formed us? During this time together, we reflected on our own formation and story of the image of Jesus, as well as the loss of the true fullness of who God is by narrowing our image of Christ.

Resources for this conversation included: