Introduction: Power and Identity

The purpose of this page is to introduce and deliberately/carefully elaborate on distinct principles, terminologies, and practices relevant for understanding complex, consequential relationships between identity and power within carceral spaces.

Power is, in a strong sense, the invisible member of every relationship. Whether it is a relationship between people, objects, systems, or our environment, power's presence is never questioned and rarely discussed (Daniels). In this module, we examine the impact of power and identity within the prison education environment and how these dynamics affect teaching and learning. Specifically, we will focus on students’ and educators’ intersecting identities, including gender, race, and ability, to discuss how these identities relate to power within a carceral space.

This module is not a complete discussion of the many identities and power structures that exist within carceral spaces. Rather, it is intended to be used as a tool for critical reflection. For further information on these topics please review the Reflections and Resources page of this module.

Key Terms for Understanding Power and Identity

Ableism: Ableism is a “system that places value on people’s bodies and minds based on societally constructed ideas of normalcy, intelligence, excellence and productivity These constructed ideas are deeply rooted in anti-Blackness, eugenics, colonialism, and capitalism. This form of systemic oppression leads to people and society determining who is valuable and worthy based on a person’s appearance and/or their ability to satisfactorily [re]produce, excel and ‘behave.’ You do not have to be disabled to experience ableism” (TL Lewis Links to an external site.).
- Expanding on Lewis' last cited line: To whatever extent you are not personally adversely impacted by ableist structures/actions, you in turn, nonetheless, participate in ableist structures. You therefore correspondingly benefit from the privileged actions and positions of those most directly responsible for reproducing ableist structures and their unequal outcomes; that is, perpetuating often irreparable excesses in bodily and mental strain for the physically and cognitively disabled and impaired; likely, this occurs with a degree of disawareness not afforded to those most directly affected.
- Understanding ableism requires recognizing the severe differences between "accommodation" and "incorporation," that is, accounting for the fact that society's physical and institutional structures were designed primarily for those perceived as able-bodied (continually and flexibly capable of physical labor with unencumbered mobility), and for those treated as "typical" cognitive learners.
- Note that mistreatments and misunderstandings of learning disabilities and other socially consequential cognitive differences are vast, and complicated by the difficulty many people have recognizing disabilities and differences that may not be outwardly obvious. For example, many people with distinct developmental disorders do not attribute any such "disorder" to themselves, but instead recognize (and experience) disorder as the failure of social institutions to order/organize their structures inclusively; the failure of social institutions to incorporate the invaluable voices and experiences of the disabled, and the physically and cognitively atypical.
Ageism: Ageism refers to discrimination or stereotyping against either individual people, or groups of people, based on their age or perceived attributes of age.
Carceral Spaces: Carceral spaces are strictly controlled or immobilized spaces and environments. (Silverman)
Disability: Disability refers to an experience of both body and mind, wherein body and/or mind may operate with discernible limitations to movement, sensation, and process, or may face limitations within social structures restricting disabled peoples and communities from equitably participating in and contributing to the direction and progression of society.
(Dis)ability: Disability represents the “overarching social systems of body and mental norms that includes ability and disability” (Sami Schalk Links to an external site.).
- Note: This is different from the, “See my ability, not my disability” message/narrative, which erases disability. (Dis)ability, rather, notes that how we make sense of disability requires we also think about the norms and subsequent expectations related to ability.
Gender: Gender refers to the constructed meanings society has created, assigned, and codified into our institutions based on a perceived range of characteristics attributed to femininity and/or masculinity. Gender is the way one views themself, and how they choose to subscribe or not subscribe, along the spectrum of femininity and masculinity. While contemporary Western and other cultures may often reduce gender to a reproductive sexual binary, a diverse and immeasurable range of gendered expressions and interpretations have existed across virtually every human society, to include (to name a few) Women, Men, Non-binary people, Transgender people, Third Gender people, Agender people, and those who live or identify beyond readily available or universally identifiable understandings of gender and diversity.
Identity: Identity is how we view ourselves, but it can also include how other people perceive us or take us to be (even if incorrect). Identity is complex because everyone has multiple identities, or layers of identity. In other words, identity is both avowed and ascribed. And which identity is taken up depends on the context that we are in. If someone is Latinx and Homosexual, for instance, depending on where and in what context they are, different identities or variations on identity are taken up. For example, if someone is situated in Florida where a recent “Don’t Say Gay” law has been applied to at least K-12 education, being homosexual might impact your daily life the most within the context of living/attending school in Florida, but it might further be challenged as a Latinx person whenever one's cultural values also conflict with dominant narratives.
- Core Identities: A core identity represents strong, selective sets of personal values and beliefs, and modes of operation and behavior; a core identity deeply informs our worldview as much as the ways we view ourselves. Core identities, to name a few, may comprise experiences related to race, class, gender, sexuality, ability, culture, and religious and other ideologies; we might feel an impact on our own lives, or strong dissonance, if we perceive or feel there is a disruption to any of our core beliefs about these core identities.
- Peripheral Identities: We have peripheral identities, identities that matter but might not impact our lived experiences as much as core identities. For example, if one is facing a challenge to the belief that increasing taxes will lead to government handouts; this might be something they feel passionately about, and so the challenge may be felt as a disruption, but will not cause as much disruption to their life as would a challenge to a core belief, regarding a core identity.
- Visible/Ascribed Identity: Visible/Ascribed identity denotes how one is perceived by other people. Others' perceptions and interpretations can, of course, range from accurate to inaccurate depending on the perceiver/audience.
- Invisible/Avowed Identity: Invisible/Avowed identity denotes how one personally identifies and views themself, but does not necessarily intentionally communicate or display outward to others.
Intersectionality: Intersectionality is a key term coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw explaining how identities can intersect and have overlapping oppressions and informed experiences. For example, if a person is African American and female and works at a place where they have hired African American men and white females, but have never hired an African American female, the company might say both: We hire African American’s and females even if they have never hired an African American female (note that this is an abstracted representation of very real, well documented experiences that served as the original catalyst for critically exploring the concept/reality of impactfully intersecting aspects of identity). Crenshaw noticed the gap in the law/legal system wherein the law did not account for intersecting identities, or for the experiences held by people who held multiple disadvantaged identities.
Power: Power refers to hierarchies within a group, organization, or institution. Systemic/Institutional Power — the beliefs, practices, and sociocultural norms by which individual lives and institutions are built. Such beliefs, practices, and cultural norms are rooted in social constructions of race and gender, and embedded in history (colonization, slavery, migration, immigration, genocide, etc) as well as present-day policies and practice. These systems of power reinforce white supremacy, patriarchy, and heteronormativity as defining power structures in the United States. Systems of power are oppressive and define relationships between marginalized communities and the dominant culture; they also shape social norms and experiences within marginalized communities. (CLASP)
Race: Within social institutions and cultural traditions throughout Western European and U.S. American history, race has been reductively reinforced through a lens of:
- Thin constructivism, which depicts race as a grouping of humans according to ancestry and genetically insignificant “superficial properties that are prototypically linked with race,” such as skin tone, hair color, and hair texture (Mallon 2006, 534). In this way, thin constructivists such as Robert Gooding-Williams (1998), Lucius Outlaw (1990, 1996) and Charles Mills (1998) rely on/perpetuate the widespread folk theory of race, while rejecting its “scientific foundation” (falsely named) of racial “naturalism.” The thin constructivist view essentially erases or overlooks the the history of race as a (forcibly) fabricated colonial construct that, though centuries old, comparably informs/influences power structures, class divisions, and racial dynamics of today.
- Interactive constructivism argues that being ascribed to a certain racial category causes — at a societal scale — individuals so labeled to have certain common experiences (Mallon 2006, 535; Piper 1992). For instance, if society ascribes someone as Black, they may be statistically more likely to experience racism in the form of difficulty hailing cabs in some cities and communities, or by being more likely to be apprehended without cause by the police (James 2004, 17).
- Institutional constructivism, finally, emphasizes race as a social institution, the character of which is specific to the society in which it is embedded and thus cannot be applied across cultures or historical epochs (Mallon 2006, 536). Michael Root (2000, 632) notes, for instance, that a person ascribed as Black in the United States would likely not be considered Black in Brazil, since each country has very different social institutional histories regarding or contributing to the fabricated division of humanity into distinct races. Similarly, Paul Taylor (2000) responds to Appiah’s racial skepticism by holding that races, even if biologically unreal, remain real (materially experienced) socially (Mallon 2006, 536–537). Indeed, in a later work Taylor (2004) argues that the term “race” has a perfectly clear referent, being those individuals socially ascribed to certain racial categories within the United States, regardless of the widespread social rejection of biological racial naturalism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).
Sex: Sex refers to a biological distinction and distribution of secondary sex characteristics and chromosomes. For example: Male, Female, and Intersex. While often discussed for the functional purposes of teaching about sexual reproduction and the reproductive process, countless contemporary and historical observations of human biological sex — as an endless diversity of behaviors and shared phenomena/trends — teach us about much more than sexual reproduction. Broadly put, that is, sex is neither a fixed binary, nor are the outcomes of one's sex determined in any way by one's participation or lack thereof in the reproductive process.
Sexuality: Sexuality refers to one’s attraction or desire for others, frequently but not exclusively informed and physiologically aroused by perceived attributes of gender and sex. Sexuality is also a way people may express themselves in relation to others. Human sexual attraction and expression range within and beyond those who identify as heterosexual, homosexual, pansexual, demisexual, and asexual, to name a few.

Understanding Intersectionality

Further understanding intersectionality, as coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw, will help us realize authentic ways to represent social identity and the relationship between identities and social systems. “To believe that we are defined by only one aspect of ourselves is to deny our full capacity to learn, integrate, and grow” (Daniels). Understanding the context of our identities and the identities of our students can be a catalyst for equity, inclusion and change in our classrooms.

Intersectionality rainbow wheel listing range of identity categories, including Race, Ethnicity, and Gender identity.

(Access Media Description: Intersectionality Wheel)

Avoiding Singular Identity and Recognizing Intersectionality

What both Marilyn Frye and Kimberlé Crenshaw recognize is that when we isolate only one part of ourselves or one facet of our identities, we fall into error.

We are complex and nuanced beings. Even if we share an identity category with someone, we still have very different experiences. For example, the experiences of white women and Black women are vastly different in many ways. They might share similar experiences in some regard because they are women, but their experiences might differ greatly because of their race. So to assume that we understand someone based on an identity category is to make a mistake or fall into error because experiences are nuanced even with a given community. By being aware of this, we can avoid unwarranted assumptions about the people in our classrooms and lives.

Identities assumed by perception are incomplete. We all have all of these different identities, and if just one of them gets taken up for consideration while someone is perceiving/interpreting us means they don't fully view us. So in short, categories we live by are helpful for political efficacy, and to find each other in the world, but not to imagine we know somebody simply because we perceive them to be within a certain category based on their outward presentation. We might simply be wrong, or vastly underinformed, in our perception.

Understanding the Intersectionality of Our Students. “Women are forced to live in such a patriarchal society filled with double binds and Frye explains this restriction on women’s activity through the analogy of a birdcage. Marilyn Frye says that women’s oppression can be understood by looking at oppression like a birdcage within which women are trapped. If you look at just one wire of the birdcage you will fail to see all other wires that are also forming the cage and restricting movement. Further, if you go inspect every wire individually, one will still fail to see why the bird can’t escape. It is when the cage is looked at holistically will one see that it is impossible for a bird to truly escape the cage. Similarly, Frye argues that oppression, like the cage, is meant to be seen holistically with all its structures intersecting and creating the cage. A view of oppression that views its elements individually, like the birdcage, will fail to show you the elements of oppression that force you to stay in the cage.” (Roohi Narula’s summarization of Marilyn Frye’s concept)

Power Dynamics: Teachers and Students

For transformative education to occur in students’ lives, they must have the ability to question power structures that exist in society, in the institution, and in the classroom, and the ways that power structures influence epistemology or knowledge production within reason.

Whose knowledge gets produced, and who’s knowledge counts, and in what contexts? Confidence and self-actualization occur on the foundations of supportive structures like family, friends, and community. When in a carceral setting, you can recognize how power visibility is necessary in order to find oneself within the structure, and in order to build agency to critically reflect about the systems that the incarcerated persons and populations within, including and not limited to our students, are subject to.

Students can be empowered, in part, through the support of educators who are willing to be somewhat vulnerable and authentic. Trust requires reciprocity, as educators we are not merely bestowers of knowledge, but are situated as lifelong learners who also learn mutually from students. Students and teachers alike are finite beings with limited experiences, and so in a classroom everyone benefits from the vast differences of experiences and ways of knowing.

Being able to acknowledge students’ ways of knowing as knowledgeable accepts the student as they are — as creatively and intellectually talented and capable individuals. When students have support, they gain greater confidence rather than trauma in the classroom. They can recognize themselves as capable, worthy of transformation and continual growth, and they feel like they belong.

Microaggressions with Macro Effect

Microaggressions can best be explained by implicit or explicit slights against marginalized people. The term 'Micro' implies that the action is small or little — but microaggressions can have large and reverberating impacts on people having to navigate between the way they view themselves (positively) and the negative perceptions of the person who is, on a "micro scale," but nonetheless aggressively, slighting them.

The following account is provided by a faculty contributor to this work:

I will share my own experience with microaggressions as to help illuminate the concept and its affect. As an academic/professor in a field that is dominated by males, particularly white males, my colleagues are often impressed — rather shocked that I am smart. They will say things like, “I can’t believe how sharp you are,” or, “you really surprise me,” “where are you from?” This is a lot to unpack, but I will explain that they are surprised that someone like me (a perceived woman, mixed raced, queer, fat, disabled) person can do my job so well. This implies that they perhaps thought otherwise and that I really shocked them. So, you can see how I might wonder — well why would think they otherwise? Or why is it so shocking that I am capable? So, I must navigate how I see myself positively with other people’s negative perceptions of me based solely on my visible identity, not on knowing me. To go a step further, 5 years later, they are still constantly surprised. In my discipline, there are not a lot of women, and historically in my discipline women were seen as irrational, incapable of reason for the pursuit of my discipline. These attitudes still exist today, and that is an explanation of only one of the identities that I have. Sometimes they might even call me “intimidating.” Women and men with the same behavior or attitude are perceived differently. Women are expected to take up less space, be humble, quiet, thin, pretty, to be seen. Men are constructed to be heard.

Over time, these microaggressions have an impact on someone. Where people tend to see the best in themselves as charitable and with good will or faith but seem to not extend it to others. All people have biases whether they are conscious or unconscious and we should have communities of practice where we extend the same goodwill and faith we see for ourselves and the people we care about to outsiders.

Recommended and Promising Practices

We ought to listen to what people say about themselves. Give them the credibility and acknowledgment of their self-identification. As Audre Lorde says, “There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.” Even if we recognize the oppression our students have faced, we also must recognize their resistance in the struggle, and their joy. The article Intersectionality and School Psychology: Implications for Practice Links to an external site. has suggestions intended for school psychologists but relevant for all engaged in education.

Know Thyself: Before recognizing and honoring the intersectionality of students, educators must reflect on and be self-aware of their own identities, how each may privilege or oppress, and how they intersect. This self-awareness can then be leveraged to better understand how students’ identities can influence their educational and social experiences and outcomes.
Knowledge Development and Education: Learning about the diverse populations being served and how diverse students’ intersecting identities put them at greater risk for discrimination and marginalization is critical for educators. Knowledge of how intersectionality can affect social, emotional, academic, and behavioral outcomes should be learned and then shared with others.
Encourage Systems Change: Work to change systems that privilege some while oppressing others. Within the incarcerated education space, consider policies and practices that adversely impact students.
Be a Social Justice Advocate: Social justice is a process and a goal that requires action to facilitate equity and fairness. Acknowledge privilege. Act to advance equity and social justice within the carceral education environment.

Critical Reflection

Consider each these questions as you approach, adapt to, and/or continue teaching students: When was the last time you felt powerless? When was the last time you felt powerful? What o you love about having power? When was the last time you gave up your power (deliberately or otherwise)? When was the last time you usurped or undermined someone else's power? In what situations do you trust yourself with power? In what situations do you not trust yourself with too much power?

Answers will vary, and certainly there are no singularly exact responses to any of these questions that could fully capture everything that seemingly ought to be included with each answer. Nonetheless, the very exercise of reflexively interrogating our own attachments, affinities, and distrusts of power — whether power derives through social capital or institutional designation — better prepares us as agents of higher education who communicate with, and about power in virtually all that we do as educators. We can expect that how we treat, present/discuss, and recognize our own power, and the power of our students, will be well-observed and evaluated in the incarcerated classroom.

Celebrating Resistance and Joy

Joy is resistance Links to an external site.. Many people in the U.S. who occupy spaces in the margins also have survived, resisted, and persisted in and throughout time. In their communities, with their families and friends they have and experience joy and love. Many narratives about marginalized people focus solely on their oppression, sorrow, loss, pain, etc, and those narratives can become hollow and monolithic, broadly generalized and stereotypical in nature.

What is not as often talked about, especially in mainstream public and political discourse and media coverage, is the joy that people experience and find despite and/or in relation to their loss, sorrow, and pain. When students show up in your classroom with a smile, it is joy — joy for a better future, joy for hope — that they have in themselves, within their communities for change, and for organization in and towards that change. We ought to highlight all the movements that we have seen and will continue to see in which marginalized, oppressed, neglected and forgotten voices have collaborated with others, and have seen themselves as situated in communities, and communities within communities, and not solely as autonomous islands of individualism.

It takes work to collaborate, and marginalized people have organized, collaborated, and showed up to lift up and make change in society. From Martin Luther King Jr., bell hooks, Audre Lord, Malcolm X., W.E.B. Du Bois, Frantz Fanon, Dolores Huerta, Gloria Anzaldúa, Sandra Cisneros, Liu Xiaobo, Lao Tzu, Malala Yousafzai, Gandhi, the list could go on, and on — a massive book of people who saw themselves as situated in communities and accordingly as agents and collaborators for change with hope for a better future. Many of our students have this heart, this change, this hope. So we should incorporate, share, and represent those people who look and live like our students, so that they might view themselves more expansively, just as we aim to do when we enter intermittently into the carceral space with the situated privilege to exit. We can do this in part by discussing with our students, directly and recurringly, their favorite heroes (of all kinds), revered historical or public figures, and well beyond.

Intentional Insights: Balancing Imbalanced Learning Experiences

A Philosophy faculty's perspective. Power and identity play significant roles in any classroom, especially a prison classroom that is situated in between multiple systems of institutional power: power between students, students and teachers, and the institutional powers of CDCR both with students and faculty. One way that power and identity show up in the classroom is through the racial and ethnic identities of the students incarcerated. Individuals are often disproportionately represented by certain racial and ethnic groups which can impact their experiences in the classroom. Students from marginalized racial and ethnic groups face unique challenges and barriers to educational success, including systemic racism, and persistent biases within the legal system. This can impact their sense of power and agency in the classroom, as well as their engagement with the material.

Additionally, power dynamics may be impacted by the identities of teachers in the prison classroom. Teachers who come from different racial, ethnic, or socioeconomic backgrounds may be perceived differently by students, which can impact the level of trust and respect they are afforded. Teachers who are seen as part of the same racial or ethnic group as the majority of the students may be more readily accepted and trusted while teachers who are seen as coming from a different background will need to work harder to establish informed trust and inclusively build relationships with all their students. Power and identity may also show up in the curriculum and teaching materials that are used in class. Teachers who are aware of the identities and experiences of the students they serve can try to incorporate diverse perspectives and voices into their classrooms, which can help empower students and validate their experiences. However, if the curriculum is limited to a narrow range of perspectives, or is biased toward certain identities, the curriculum can reinforce power imbalances, and (further) marginalize certain groups of students. Overall, understanding the ways in which power and identity show up in the classroom becomes essential for creating a supportive, inclusive, and effective learning environment for all students. Teachers who are aware of these dynamics can work towards creating a classroom that is responsive to the unique needs and experiences of their students, and that empowers them to succeed both academically and personally.