Chapter 4. Encouraging Students to Be Their Authentic Selves
Level 3: Addressing Marginalizations and Trauma in the Classroom
Deliberate practices for educators who have years of experience implementing inclusive practices or have engaged in moderate to high degree of training regarding how to implement inclusive teaching These advanced-level practices include: 1) Consistently highlighting topics related to marginalizations, which may be considered socially or politically debatable, within class content 2a) Preventing potentially harmful statements in response to topics you may teach and 2b) Having a response plan for when hurtful comments or actions occur in the classroom
- Highlighting Debatable Topics: Embedding current debatable topics in the classroom is considered advanced as it requires the educator to have engaged in training and research if they are going to include in-depth content or examples related to marginalized issues. This is particularly the case if the educator is discussing identities that they themselves do not have. Bringing up issues related to marginalization without sufficient knowledge may lead to misinformation and perpetuation of stereotypes
- Preparing for Harm and Conflict: If you are going to teach topics that may stir up socio-political debates within the classroom, you should engage in practices that prevent and respond to harmful statements or questions. Such a practice can protect students who have marginalized identities and ensure classroom safety. The resources below provide tips on how to prevent and respond to conflict
How do we create a class that doesn’t just create hostile and “trauma” environments for students of color by just talking about disparities without balance on the system being responsible and strengths of diverse communities as well. Here, it might be good to discuss having 1 on 1 with students, making sure that the set expectations around how to respond and lean into new information about identities