By MARTY LEVINE
“There’s been a lot of concern about what people can or cannot say in the classroom,” says Tasha Souza, a Sacramento State communications professor headed here to give an Oct. 3 workshop, “Eruptions & Transformations: Navigating Hot Moments & Difficult Dialogues In Our Courses.”
“People have been fired recently due to things said in the classroom. I think faculty are especially worried and some may be inclined to water down their class content ... but we need to prepare an educated public to talk about these things. And there are ways to do it.”
At Texas A&M earlier this month, a professor was fired after controversy erupted over a video showing a confrontation with a student over gender identity content in a children’s literature course.
Souza has been researching these methods and presenting workshops on the topic for the past 15 years. “There are a number of different things that can be done to create a more supportive communications climate” for students and faculty, she says.
The subjects of politics, race, gender and even class can create tensions and silence — or real learning moments, Souza notes. When one student says something — often without knowing it — that others find offensive, or when a topic causes arguments or prompts too many students to retreat from comment, faculty need to continue the lesson “in a way that feels respectful and allows for transformative learning.”
She will be teaching “how to de-escalate and address what triggers that hot moment so it can be a learning moment for everyone — so everyone can have a voice, so everyone can feel it is as brave and safe a space as possible.”
She’ll be presenting strategies for creating fertile ground for teaching despite — or because of — such “eruptions,” even before there is an in-class issue. Participants will practice dealing with such instances through role play and learn what to do as a follow up, so faculty can be better prepared next time, ready to make their class feel like a community, she says.
She also will provide a lot of resources for faculty to use later — “resources that go even deeper and provide even more strategies for them to utilize,” Souza adds.
“Instructors don’t realize how much they need to prepare for these conversions,” she notes. “Sometimes faculty just want to jump in and students aren’t ready. Creating a supportive communications climate is important … so they can de-escalate and not do any harm.”
Ignoring such moments is not useful, or can be harmful, she warns. “It silences other students. So addressing it is really important.”
When she previously taught at Boise State, she recalls the reaction of fellow academics to Idaho’s new law against discussing certain ideas in the classroom. “Faculty were watering down the content” of courses, she recalls. “I don’t think there is any hope for us if we don’t have those dialogues."
Register here for “Eruptions & Transformations: Navigating Hot Moments & Difficult Dialogues In Our Courses” from 9 a.m. to noon Oct. 3 in the Alumni Hall Ballroom.
Marty Levine is a staff writer for the University Times. Reach him at martyl@pitt.edu or 412-758-4859.
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