The Guide to Teaching
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Creating the Classroom Atmosphere
Author: Joel J Schwartz <jjschwar@email.unc.edu>
Date: Fri, 26 Sep 1997 16:19:09 -0400
In a class dealing with issues of race, poverty, and politics, a class which usually consists of students who are politically liberal, the few conservatives can feel "outnumbered" and therefore, find it difficult to speak out. In other classes, the politically liberal students might not feel that they can freely speak. I have heard from some male students who take women's studies classes that they feel the same way. The problem is worse when the issues being discussed are not so much issues of theory, but are issues which evoke strong beliefs and emotions. I have dealt with this challenge in several ways.
A technique which I use frequently in my class is the assignment of position or reaction papers on controversial issues. Students are required to write and bring to class non-graded papers, maximum of two page. I explain to the students both in the syllabus and in introductory remarks that these papers are non-graded because I want the students to write what they honestly believe, not what they think I believe or want them to believe. I either give them an article to read and to write a response or I show them a documentary and ask them to express their reactions based on what they have read or seen.
In order for the discussion to be controlled it is necessary to know the students by name so as to call upon them at will which allows me to bring into the discussion the "silent majority." Since students have had time to think about the issue and since I have read their papers, I am then free to ask any student to share their thoughts without their being embarrassed or surprised at my question. To help me control the dialogues that ensue, I make it clear that students are not to spontaneously speak out or respond to other students. They must raise their hands to be recognized.
I adopted these "rules of discussion" after a documentary which I had shown resulted in a near riot in my class. In a course that I teach, "Race, Poverty and Politics in the US", I show a documentary produced by CBS in 1987, entitled the Vanishing Family; Crisis in Black America". This documentary portrays young urban black males as irresponsible predators of teenage women. These young males father children and feel no emotional or financial responsibility towards them. There are always a number of African-American students in this class, but they are outnumbered by white students. The questions which I pose for their reaction are as follows:
What are your feelings about the ways the individuals behaved?
What is your reaction to their explanations of their behavior?
What would you propose we try to do to either to slow or reverse this
behavioral pattern?
The second time I showed this documentary a white female student said that the best solution would be to castrate such individuals. At that point an African-American student rose and began to move toward her. Other students rose also. I asked the other black students in the course to restrain the one student. After what was probably a very brief period of time, but which seemed like an eternity to me at the time, the student returned to his seat. At that point I called a recess for ten minutes of cooling down.
Have any of you encountered similar situations and how have you handled them?
What do you do to prevent such incidents?
(Discussion forums may prevent this, but in my opinion, they are not a satisfactory substitute for the live interaction between students and teacher.)
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