Welcome to the Tuesday Teaching Tip, an easy-to-implement tool you can use immediately in your classroom teaching.
TUESDAY TEACHING TIP: Election Week and Difficult Conversations in the Classroom
Difficult conversations in the classroom can raise a range of emotions for our students. With the U.S. General Elections falling on Tuesday of Week 7, we can anticipate that this political event will present inevitable challenges to student learning in the classroom. As an act of cura personalis, we can best be prepared to address rather than avoid this challenge in our classrooms by 1) humanizing student experiences, 2) adjusting expectations, and 3) creating space for reflection, compassion, and care.
Here’s one way to do it
- Humanize the context: Recognize that elections will inevitably bring about transitions and outcomes that can potentially be difficult for students to encounter. Acknowledge and validate students’ emotions, whether concern, anger, anxiety, hope, fear, frustration, optimism, indifference, or ambivalence. Taking a few minutes of your class on either Monday or Tuesday of Week 7 (or even Friday of this week) to acknowledge the transition and its accompanying range of feelings can be an enormous source of support.
- Adjust expectations (Expect less): It is okay to expect less from students during the next two weeks. Acknowledge that your course may not be the highest priority in their life at the moment, and make adjustments to your syllabus for students to focus on their wellbeing. This can look like 1) extending dates for submission if students need more time to process the events of the week, 2) giving students intermediary deadlines or sending individual check-ins, or 3) providing different ways to learn beyond expectations established in Week 1.
- Create space for discussion and reflection: For those teaching on topics that directly relate or have strong links to course objectives to either the process or outcomes of the elections, giving students an opportunity to discuss and reflect on the elections in class can be a valuable and appreciated exercise for students
- Be prepared: To best prepare for difficult conversations, 1) establish or remind students of ground rules and expectations for respectful discussion 2) explicitly link the discussion exercise to your learning outcomes and course objectives; and 3) provide a short exit survey or resources after the discussion to reinforce the exercise’s value and context.
- Provide options: Knowing your students and their individual learning needs are critical to gauging options. Recognize that some students may not want or feel comfortable to talk about the election. Provide options that work for their learning needs. This can look like 1) inviting students to submit reflections via anonymous discussion or via in-class polls within your outlined expectations for respectful dialogue, 2) providing information about off or on-campus events or resources to engage and reflect on, or 3) inviting them to share resources or news items with you that relate to the course objectives.
- Exercise compassion and care: Finally, recognize for yourself and your students that difficult conversations and transitions require individual and collective forms of compassion and care. Emphasize and practice active listening by 1) giving students and yourself time to pause for self-care, 2) asking them how they are feeling and what they are doing to stay well, and 3) referring them to campus resources for wellbeing and professional support.
DID YOU DO IT?
Let us know how it went. We would love to hear your feedback about how you implemented today’s Tuesday Teaching Tip in your classroom. Click here to fill out our 3-question survey.
UPCOMING EVENTS
- Join us for the Difficulty Dialogues: Elections CAFE (Conversations Advancing Faculty Excellence) next week, November 4, 11:45 - 12:45. Hear from colleagues across campus on what strategies they use to hold conversational space and facilitate dialogue in your classroom, especially related to presidential elections. Sign up here.
- Join us on Thursday next week (11/7) for a listening circle around the elections in Varsi 222 to hold space for faculty to describe their in-class experiences with one another.
WANT TO READ A LITTLE MORE?
This week’s Tuesday Teaching Tip was prepared by Mythri Jegathesan (Anthropology) on behalf of the Faculty Collaborative.
Missed a teaching tip? Read them all here. Don’t forget to check out our Faculty Associates office hours here.
And check out our full calendar of CAFEs and other Faculty Development and Faculty Collaborative events.
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