Tip: Engaging in "Challenging" Conversations
Resources to navigate talking about civic unrest, the election aftermath, feelings of trauma, and race & racism.
It’s been a whirlwind start to 2021 - a vaccine roll-out fraught with problems, new strains of COVID-19 to worry about, a mob descending on the Capitol and the potential for further violence - all as educators (and students!) prepare for another semester that most likely looks very much like the fall did. Whatever level of exhaustion we felt in August, I believe we feel even more now.
In mid-October I shared some resources to help with navigating post-election conversations and thoughts about the emotional labor of teaching; in the immediate aftermath of the protests this summer I collected a very quick initial list of resources for talking about racism. I wanted to expand on those initial pieces with more of the resources I’ve read in the months since. There’s a lot in this list, so I first wanted to highlight just two that I think are particularly good places to start.
If you read only two things…
I would start with these two resources - they are not short articles, but are each a collection of essays, activities, and recommendations for post-secondary instructors. The topics and suggestions provided are broader than just responding to current events, and these two publications ask us to reflect on what “difficult” conversations mean to us, to our students, and to our communities.
Start Talking: A Handbook for Engaging Difficult Dialogues in Higher Education (The University of Alaska Anchorage and Alaska Pacific University) is both an account of the cross-institutional process of engaging in dialogue, and a set of recommendations and activities for instructors to use in their classrooms. It’s a long resource, but incredibly thoughtful and offers both “try this” and “think deeper about this” moments.
Faculty Focus has a special report, Diversity and Inclusion in the College Classroom, that is a really nice collection of essays on a wide variety of topics related to culturally responsive teaching and creating inclusive classroom environments. Each essay is 1-2 pages and provides a short list of additional references/resources.
Talking about civic unrest in the wake of January 6th
If you read three of the resources from this list, Amanda Licastro’s “The Day After: An Activity” is my third pick. This short activity, aimed at students across disciplines and levels, asks students to do some critical reading of current events, and then debrief as a class. I really like this activity because it allows space to address a heated topic (like civic unrest) in class while providing structure and a focus on more rational - versus emotional - engagement.
To connect nicely with the above activity, here’s a curated list of articles about the insurrection gathered by Chad Raymond (Professor of Political Science and International Relations & Director of Faculty Development, Salve Regina University).
The New York Times has a list of Teaching Resources to Help Students Make Sense of the Rampage at the Capitol. While the Times’ section for educators (learning activities for students) is designed for upper-level high school audience, I find the reading level of the articles - generally written for the Times itself, not abridged versions - to be challenging enough. It’s a useful place to start if you’re looking for texts and videos with guiding questions or other activities.
The PBS News Hour shared a set of resources highlighting discussions with Dr. Yohuru Williams on using history to teach the Capitol Riots that includes several videos and guiding questions for each.
If you’re looking for a more historical perspective, Facing History has collected some resources for instructors that specifically address Responding to the Insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and the American Historical Association pulled together a Twitter thread of resources to help with “teaching today’s events.”
Talking about the election (and the aftermath)
Georgetown's Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship wrote three blog posts about teaching around the election: Flexibility, Acknowledgement, and Other Strategies, Space for Student Expression, and Facilitating a Deeper Exploration and recently added Teaching Through National Upheaval.
A collection of resources curated by the POD Network for educational developers, Resources for Supporting Our Campuses in Politically Fraught Times.
Vanderbilt University’s Difficult Dialogues page, and PDF, Teaching in Response to the Election.
Talking about trauma & supporting students
Pedagogies of Care: Open Resources for Student-Centered and Adaptive Strategies in the New Higher-Ed Landscape is an OER collection of videos, essays, and activities taken from the Teaching & Learning in Higher Education book series from West Virginia University Press.
On “Difficult’ Conversations argues that we shouldn’t be labeling “[c]onversations about race, class, sexuality and other identities” difficult because this label marginalizes the conversations.
Creating a Safe Space in Your Class During a Crisis, is a personal essay by Marina Hofman.
Talking about race & racism
Brown University’s Resources During National Unrest were collected to help instructors “expand your knowledge on anti-blackness and systemic racism, look into forms of meaningful allyship, and come to learn some of organizations that are deeply committed to this work.”
Southern Poverty Law Center’s Let’s Talk: Discussing Race, Racism, and Other Difficult Topics With Students, from their Teaching Tolerance project, is aimed at K12 educators.
Eight Actions to Reduce Racism in College Classrooms, an article from 2016 in Academe by Shaun R Harper & Charles H.F. Davis III.
Teaching Race, Racism, and Racial Justice: Pedagogical Principles and Classroom Strategies for Course Instructors, an article in the Race and Pedagogy Journal by M. Brielle Harbin, Amie Thurber, & Joe Bandy - they also have a guide hosted by Vanderbilt’s Center on Teaching.
Univ. Of Denver’s Office of Teaching & Learning: Pedagogical Strategies to Acknowledge and Discuss Institutional Legacies of Racism, Valentina Iturbe-LaGrave, & Kate Crowe.
EdWeek’s collection of blog posts, Q&A Collections: Race & Racism in Schools, was also written with a K12 audience in mind.
National Museum of African American History & Culture has a website, Talking About Race, with resources for educators, parents, and students.
Dr. Tasha Souza, Associate Director for Inclusive Excellence for the Center for Teaching and Learning, Professor of Communication, Boise State University, has a blog post about responding to Microaggressions in Online Learning Environments During a Pandemic, and a Faculty Focus post about microaggressions in the classroom.
