You make a remark that instigates a strong emotional reaction in a student or group of students. A student offers a comment that marginalizes a range of people and perspectives. Someone is wearing a piece of clothing or taking up space in a way that surfaces ideological disagreement. Now what?

While there’s often no single “right” response, as the instructor, how you address difficult moments in the classroom has implications for learning. Your response can communicate indifference or even hostility; alternatively, it can show that you’re aware of your classroom’s dynamics, you aim to promote learning even through struggle, and you care about your students’ well-being. Here are some tips for helping you to respond productively.

A ‘hot moment’ is an emotion-laden moment of conflict or tension that threatens to derail teaching and learning. In this study, an educational development workshop used interactive theater depicting a hot moment to prepare university instructors for diverse classrooms. Participants in three workshops wrote short reflections, both before and after the theater-based experience, about whether instructors should consider differences among students. After the workshop, many participants took new dimensions of difference into consideration. Surprisingly, after the interactive theater experience, almost all participants reflected exclusively on instrumental issues in teaching (e.g. classroom management strategies), but not structural issues of difference, power, and privilege that underlie hot moments. The empirical findings and the author's reflections on a personal hot moment are theorized in terms of concepts from and critiques of critical and feminist pedagogy.

It is important to deal with incivilities promptly and consistently. If the problem is ongoing or particularly egregious, or if you are concerned about the student’s response, schedule a follow-up conference with the student during office hours to address the behavior. Using the following structure for a conference can help make it more effective.

For many students, speaking up in class was never easy, and it seems even harder after learning in isolation or via screens for many terms. Add to that the pressures of a hyper-polarised political climate, where students and faculty fear censure and tread lightly to avoid offending others, and the result is an environment in which facilitating classroom discussion can feel like pulling teeth.

While classroom discussions have never been easy, they seem especially important for students’ academic learning and social development following the pandemic lockdowns. Since the 1970s, research has accumulated showing that engaging people in classroom discussions about important issues grows their critical thinking and communication skills, civic knowledge and interest, comfort with conflict, and commitment to democratic values such as tolerance, diversity and equality. Such discussions don’t undermine or take away from content teaching but enhance it, studies show, by placing it in broader contexts and demanding that students make meaning out of what they have learned.

COMMON BELIEF 1

I don’t think of my students in terms of their race or ethnicity. I am color blind when it comes to my teaching.

Background

When teachers say they are color blind, they are usually saying that they do not discriminate and that they treat all their students equally. Of course, being fair and treating each student with respect are essential to effective teaching. However, race and ethnicity often play important roles on children’s identities, and contribute to their culture, their behavior, and their beliefs. When race and ethnicity are ignored, teachers miss opportunities to help students connect with what is being taught. Recognizing that a student’s race and ethnicity influences their learning allows teachers to be responsive to individual differences. In some cases, ignoring a student’s race and ethnicity may undermine a teacher’s ability to understand student behavior and student confidence in doing well in a school culture where expectations and communication are unfamiliar. An individual’s race and ethnicity are central to her or his sense of self but they are not the whole of personal identity. Moreover, how important an individual’s race and ethnicity is to their identity will vary and teachers need to take that into account as they seek to learn more about their students.

The foundation of the “trauma informed classroom” is an understanding by teachers of the daily circumstances of their pupils’ lives, and awareness of what trauma-based reactions and behaviours look like. The rituals and teaching methods of the classroom may be modified in response to the pupils’ needs, in consultation with them, and in a system of ongoing feedback. This work necessitates a collaborative team to support the teacher, and access relevant services. The aim of this paper is to explore the elements of a trauma informed classroom. The benefits and challenges for pupils and teachers will also be discussed.