About Contracting Meeting

Last week we had the first textbook topic presentation by Katherine. She talked about the contracting meetings with clients according to Block. There are generally 11 steps to follow, which sound to be rigid but quite useful and flexible in practice.

After the presentation, it is made clear that the main goal of contracting meeting is not to diagnose the problem specifically and come up with possible solutions. As Dr. Hurst put it, you have a whole program period to do that. The goal of contracting meeting is, primarily, to meet with those who are in charge and get their permission of the project and the necessary access to further information which is needed to complete the project successfully.We need to make sure all the wants and offers of the both sides are clear and accepted, and the responsibility will be 50/50. Usually the hardest part is to negotiate with clients about what they need to devote other than the consultant's paycheck. Clients may expect consultant to be  superman who saves the world with his bare hands. However, that is not how process consultation works. As consultant, we need clients' permit, support, cooperation and commitment. Clients are supposed to take no less responsibility than us. Only when this notion is accepted can the consultation be flawless and can the client get most from it.

This ideas is closely related to my experience in the English Language Resource (ELR) program at the Writing Center. As a ELR consultant, I work a lot with international students who need extra help with their English, especially written academic English . I am supposed to help them gain self-correcting skills by doing line-by-line revision. It is not enough to correct the mistakes I notice in their papers, but to show them how to recognize mistakes, how to utilize grammatical rules to correct them, and how to avoid similar mistakes in the future. This is pretty much a mini process consultation.

Normally one ELR consultation lasts for 60 mins. In the beginning, after greeting the student,  I will ask him or her what he or she wants to work on today. This is what Block mean by "communicate understanding of the problem"(Blocks, 2011). Usually the student respond like this:"Well, I am writing a paper for my XXXX class. The paper is finished. I just want you to check the grammar and make sure there is no error in my paper." By saying this, the student makes his wants very clear, which is to have me play a role of a doctor, or an editor (as it's put in the Writing Center). But this is not what I should do. It does not match with my wants and offers as an consultant. So I need to negotiate with the student and make sure he understand how things will work in the consultation.

To respond him, I would first express my understanding of his concern. I will be honest with my background as a non-native speaker and let him know that I can totally relate to his situation. Then, I will ensure him that the grammatical issues he worries will be addressed in the consultation. After that, I will go to the "consultant's wants" by saying "probably it is impossible to go through the paper with in 60 minutes. How about this? Let's take a close look at the the first half of the paper and try to make it perfect. Then you can use the skill we use during the consultation to work on the rest later. How does that sound to you". It is expected that student may feel a little disappointed, but most of them can take it well. Sometimes, especially the paper is due two hours later, the student may be impatient and urge me to check out the whole paper. If this is the case, I will try to calm them down by making it clear that I will help them as much as I can, and suggest them to come early next time for better result.

As an ELR consultation, ending the project is not my option. I have the obligation to help the clients even if they are not very cooperative. Therefore, if the student is very impatient no matter what I say, or the paper will be due in 2 hours and the grammar is the primary problem, I will do as the student wants, while making it very clear that this is not the best way to work on his or her paper, and encouraging him or her come earlier next time to allow more time for constructive work.   

Although the contracting stage is quite short in the 60 mins consultation, Block's steps and suggestions are still practical. By following the steps, I am able to analyze students' reaction and respond in a polite and efficient way.

Work cited:

Block, Peter, 2011, Flawless Consulting, A Guide To Getting Your Expertise Used (3rd ed.), San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass

About Racial Micro-aggression

Micro-aggression is understood as a kind of insult which is implied by the tone or certain words of others’ expressions. It seems to be ubiquitous in learning, working and other social environments, some times conscious, while others unintentional. In the reading material, 9 kinds of racial micro-aggression toward Asian American are identified, some of which I have experienced, while others I cannot fully agree with. In this piece of reflection, I will focus on the first type of micro-aggression mentioned in the reading material, alien in own land, and explain why I disagree with the authors.

In the beginning, I need to clarify that I am not an Asian American, but an Asian who is in America, so my experience is different from what is discussed in the paper in some aspects. What we share may be the Asian apparent and the first impression on others, but what differentiate us are the cultural backgrounds and the self-identifications. I believe this is the primary reason why I find the authors’ opinion on “alien in own land” disagreeable.

According to the paper, Asian American are often recognized as foreigners from Asia, and some of them take offence from it. They get uncomfortable when people praise their fluent oral English or ask where they come from, because they feel separated from their homeland, America. This kind of situations is identified as micro-aggression by the authors.

However, I do not recognize it as racial micro-aggression from others, but racism and over sensitivity of those who feel offended. The reason why they feel uncomfortable is not being alien from their homeland, but being alien from America, which they believe is the noblest land in the world. As a Chinese, I feel quite normal when asked where I come from, and quite pleasant when being praised for my English. When people ask me these questions, it means they assume that I can speak another language, or I know a lot about another culture, which is good and well-intended. I cherish my cultural background and feel proud of my appearance which indicates it. When occasionally mis-recognized as Japanese and Korean, I feel OK about it and understand that Asians look similar to Americans. They do not mean to discriminate my cultural background, so that it is not an insult. 

Those Asian American who feel insulted in these situations are more or less racist towards Asian cultural themselves. They unconsciously or consciously believe American culture is better than others, and American citizenship is a symbol of higher social status. Thus, when recognized as Asians,who are  from less privileged background, they feel discriminated. I think this can be explained by the concept of “expectancy” in social-cognitive orientation. Those Asian American assume that other people look down upon Asians (and usually they themselves discriminate Asians subconsciously), and may belittle them for their Asian look. So when asked about their hometown, they take it as an racial discrimination, even when others do not mean it. If Asian is highly respected by those Asian Americans, the question “are you from Asia” will be regarded as a compliment.

I am not advocating that micro-aggression does not exist, or the victims are those who are to blamed. To distinguish racial micro-aggression from over-sensitivity, the key is to identify the intention of the speaker. In many cases, when the speaker is well-intended and purely curious about other cultures, there is no reason for the listen to take offence. However, if the speaker means to imply discriminating message, it is justified to confront with him and defend one’s right. Usually, the two circumstances can be easily identified by the context, including the tone, the usage of words, the facial expression and the body language of the speaker. When people are genuinely curious about other’s cultural background, they may lean towards the listener, look at him or her with interest and ask in a cheerful tone. If this is the case, the best way to respond is to be open-minded and tell the truth. If the speaker means to be racist, being self-confident, elegant and authentic would be the most positive attitude toward it.

There is an example in China, where micro-aggression is found among different provinces and areas. Being in the most famous and developed city in China, citizens in Shanghai are well-known for their discrimination against people from other provinces, especially the poorer provinces, such as my hometown, Sichuan. They make fun of accents of other dialects, so that many immigrants in Shanghai try to speak standard Mandarin, or even Shanghai dialect to avoid being recognized as aliens. They are afraid of being revealed of their background and try to related to the native cultural in Shanghai. But I didn’t feel necessary to do that when I was there, because I am proud of my province, which is not that wealthy, but fantastic in many other ways. It is huge and highly diversified, both geographically and demographically, and nationally appreciated for the tastiest food in China, the most famous animal, panda, and the highest rate of beautiful girls. So when asked where I came from, I was glad to label myself as “from Sichuan”. The main reason for the opposite feelings I had about these questions to those who try to hide their background is that I do not discriminate the economically less developed area. It is not embarrassing for me to acknowledge the difference and my ignorance in some aspects. Once one respects himself, he will not take unintended insult and manage to deal with micro-aggressions decently.

It is very natural for humans to feel humiliated when associated with things we belittle. Therefore, one’s perspective shapes, in a large degree, how he take other’s words, especially when the speaker is unaware of it. In other words, if the listener is racist himself, he will take a simple question about his hometown offensive. So, for those who feel discriminated, it is important to examine if the sense of discrimination is rooted in their own minds, and if it is their illusion or expectancy that leads to the negative feeling. Moreover, the very first step for the victims to help remove racial micro-aggression is to feel secure and confident about themselves. Only when one respect his own background can he enjoy others appreciation and respond to negative comments gracefully.