In this episode, Amalie and Camie discuss incorporating and managing controversy in class discussions.

https://www.gse.harvard.edu/ideas/usable-knowledge/22/02/you-want-teach-what 

https://kappanonline.org/richardson-using-controversy-as-a-teaching-tool-an-interview-with-diana-hess/ 

https://www.americanbar.org/groups/public_education/programs/cornerstones-of-democracy/confronting-controversial-issues-in-the-classroom/ 

Transcript

You're not going to get away from controversy. It's not going to.

Go away. It's not. And it and it shouldn't. And you shouldn't be afraid of it

Welcome to the Pedagogy toolkit in this episode online Kami Explore how to incorporate controversy in the classroom.

So.

We're talking about controversy.

With the election going on this year, we might start to see some political comments or discussion boards, or maybe even things not tied to political comments, but that are emotionally driven because emotions are running high as a result of.

Dealing with these political.

Oh.

There's a lot of hot topics, yes.

Ma'am.

Yes, yes, I like hot topics. I mean, I don't like hot topics, but I like the terminology hot topics. Let me, let's say like that we've seen these in the past. We've gotten these comments in our discussion boards. If you teach in person, you've heard them out loud in your classroom.

We.

They can get a little intense.

And it can get especially intense. I think in the online space because you're not there to really hear the tone, hear the tone, to see the face, to monitor all those things. As an instructor, either it's, it's all out there.

Yeah. And, you know, we've talked about this very briefly. We mentioned it in our questions episode on the podcast.

We talked about how sensitive topics can be kind of triggering for some people and it flips their brain from that inquiry mode into a reaction mode.

And one of the one of the things we did talk about too is the way that by switching back into the questioning mode, we can help people's brains kind of.

Turn back a little bit by asking questions genuinely. Sincerely, not not loaded, not leading.

But genuinely asking questions.

Right. And and and keeping those questions open and if you want to know more about open questions, listen to our episode on questioning strategy.

It it gives you a lot of good information. So the first thing that we want to remember and think through is cultivating a supportive environment. Now this doesn't happen right before your discussion. This happens from day one and sometimes from before day one.

I was just going to say from before, from the very first interaction that you have with your students, you are cultivating a culture in your classroom, be it a virtual classroom or a face to.

Face classroom and this happens through both interactions and also course design.

Shockingly, that is not something people think about when they're thinking about cultivating a supportive environment. But your course design and the things that you put into your course as resources or support or the language that you are using for students matters and makes a difference for them, whether or not they feel like your course is a safe space and they can open up and talk.

It also it's it's really how you message to students what?

Who you are as an instructor as well. So if your syllabus, for example, is very cold, very clinical.

If your your commentary on the course is cold and clinical, and if you may just feel like you're being just clear and and not trying to be not to not leave any room for doubt. But if you don't establish an an open environment where students feel comfortable being able to ask questions.

Of you of each other.

It all starts at the top. It's you have to model that. That openness for your students to be able to model it.

To each other, absolutely, and using friendly or warm language is one of those ways that you can do that. But also, you know, sometimes with policies it's hard to be use warm language and.

It really is.

Also, the clear cut at the same time, so creating a video that goes over your syllabus so that you can use some of that warm language and talk through those kind of cold language spots where you're talking about policies and clear cut things that students need to do or know.

This came up the other day with talking about syllabi and how to how to warm them up a little bit and.

It on the one hand we see that one of the another instructor referred to it as the contract and it.

Is so it it it?

It is the contract between you and your students.

And so it's going to.

End up.

Sounding sort of legalese.

M.

With it. But part of that is to protect everybody, right, so that everybody knows what the rules are, what the guidelines are and everybody knows.

So one of the things that I've suggested is to keep that legalese document in your courses, and then do something like a video to talk through it in more personable language, or to do a visual syllabus that has.

More more, it has a takes a softer approach, more readable approach so that you've got both and ultimately the buck stops with the legalese.

But you've allowed yourself to build that culture.

Right, right. And and that's exactly.

You know when you're first starting out in your course, these are the things that you build up so that you can have discussions about more difficult topics later or something that may seem a little more controversial. The second thing that you do is prepare thoroughly yourself, right?

That means thinking through the strategies and how you want students to interact with this topic and one another during this topic to begin with.

We have something called structured academic controversy. This is where students learn about different perspectives presented by sources rather than one another before they come to a compromise or consensus as a group. As to which strategy is most.

Effective or warranted or or you know I mean which not strategy but perspective is you know kind of not necessarily the right one, but the one they're leaning toward.

One of the ways that I have used some of those kinds of things in the.

Classroom is to ask students to.

To sort of talk through and map out or defend the the view that they most disagree with, yes, so that they have to stop and think about.

About that other side of the the.

And and that's a really great way to get them to make sure that they have read all of the material scores before before they even get to the discussion. A second count strategy is called town hall meetings, groups of student present, different perspectives and answer questions before reflecting on their own.

Position and then in online education we can also use something that I have named polling debates. It's not actually.

The the official strategy name, so I I made this.

Enough for you send out a poll. You share the results of the poll and then.

You discussed the issue and you kind of discussed those results like we're student surprised by what their classmates had to say about this issue. You can do this for several issues in, in even in one discussion before you do that and any of these.

Can be combined to create your own custom strategy.

You want to.

Be thoughtful when you're selecting your issues. Select authentic issues. Bring questions to promote engagement and inquiry. Remember, we're staying away from reactivity and progress from cooler topics to those hotter.

Topics that we talked about.

So yeah, you don't want to.

Go straight in with the most controversial.

Hot take that you can come up with.

Right. You want to think about something like our hot dog sandwiches.

That's my favorite.

I do the cats or dogs, yeah.

Catherine, do you like cats or dogs?

Are cats better than dogs now? What about horses? You know, where do you land on that? I have seen some students get very heated with each other. Yeah, but it's a perfect place to to. Really, to. To teach them how to respond to each other in those instances.

I don't.

No.

Oh, that's so.

Don't cash and Dons.

Or, you know, lately in our hallway where we work, we've been talking about. When does the afternoon end and the evening begin.

So something that does not really make a difference in the real world. So that's kind of a cooler topic that you start with and then you work your way up to something like.

Should the voting age be changed to 21?

And you don't ever pick a topic where it's we already have facts and evidence that support a conclusion. These are meant to be discussions. They're meant to be open. They're meant to invoke inquiry and engagement through that inquiry.

I will have to send you this article. It's one that.

I actually did not give to my students this year, but I usually do. That is called no, you are not entitled to your own opinion.

But the the concept is yes, there are opinions. Strawberry is the superior ice cream flavor or you know, I mean, what time does evening start and what time does a hot dog is a sandwich?

And for the record.

It's chocolate. Chocolate is the superior flavor.

It seems like there's those things that are truly opinions.

And then there are other things.

That.

But.

When we get into an argument, we tend.

To to fall.

Back on that, well, that's just my opinion or we'll just agree to disagree when there are facts and evidence that demonstrate 1 is correct and one is not. And that's so his taught people landed on the moon.

Do people cause climate change? These are things that they.

They will have the one that he uses is the link between vaccines and autism.

Yes, that has been disproven.

Yes.

But he goes into how that becomes a discussion that is very much well, it's just my opinion that that's what.

Well, no, there is science. Yes. And these are the things that are happening. So his point is you are not entitled to your own opinion. You are entitled to what you can defend.

Yes. And I really like that as a as where we begin with these when when we're having these sort of more heated discussions. This is where I like to begin with students.

Well, and we're going to talk about that in a minute too. But ultimately, your students in these discussions should be required to present evidence, found evidence from reputable sources to defend their position on on these areas. That's how you promote.

Right.

Academic inquiry rather than just well, that's just.

My opinion right?

Because that's not a very strong defense. That's just might. It's also lazy. Yes, it's a lazy defense because it it means that the students aren't ready to work at whether their own thoughts.

Are what they actually think about that topic? It's it's a knee jerk reaction.

They're grappling.

That they're they are not grappling or learning self-awareness during this and that's the point you should be learning self-awareness through these conversations. But before we get to that.

The next thing that you should be doing after you know you're thoughtful when you're selecting your issues is thinking through your stance and role as an instructor. In this controversial conversation, where the pros and cons of you disclosing your own view and what is your pedagogical role.

So what is your role in the discussion to facilitate student learning?

That is where those questions can come in really nicely. You know, I'm a fan of that.

Yeah, that's, you know, are you the facilitator of a discussion? Should you ever disclose your own view?

And the answers to those questions can vary depending on your situation. I would say in general, because instructors are seen as the authority by students in the class on any given topic because they are also the graders of said students.

There's leverage. Even implied, yeah.

There is, so sometimes it's better to not disclose your own opinion, because that can stifle the conversation and better to just include those open-ended questions that about more inquiry for students.

Bring.

I heard an interview with Jeff Bezos. Whatever your opinion of him may be, he was talking about sort of leadership skills and about being in meetings where he said I give my opinion last.

Because I'm ultimately I'm the boss and what I say is going to carry weight with people and it may change what they think and they're not going to give up their ideas because they think I've come into it with my mind already made-up. And so I I like to do it. The junior most person up to.

And that was kind of my approach when I had classroom discussions in my class as a, as an instructor, when I did face to face and instructions in an online situation. It's a lot easier to Give your opinion last you can.

Yeah.

Even do a.

Little video about it and say, you know, hey.

Yeah.

I saw a lot of great discussion in our discussion board. You know, we posited this and this. I tend to go with this, but because of this and this evidence, you know, and you're still modeling that you are providing evidence on your opinion on all of.

Those things for students.

That you're listening to all sides.

Of the argument that you're.

Through taking all of that in, yes, yes. The next thing is communicate proactively and this is what we kind of got into a little bit earlier. We want to communicate to students, let them know the issues that are going to be studied in the syllabus from day one when they're getting their syllabus.

Yeah.

They should know we're going to be conquering these kind of controversial topics, create videos introducing the topics, include in your lesson, or send out resources to help students better understand those topics.

The more information students have about these topics, the better, especially ahead of.

Time, say the less.

They feel like they're being ambushed by something that they aren't prepared to discuss, and they need to be able to understand both sides or all sides because there may be more than two of of an argument.

Right and.

For a perspective, before engaging in that discussion, and that's why I'm Online's idea of having them pick.

Out.

You know, the one they disagree with the.

Yes, and and you know, doing a little bit of research on that can be helpful also. This may mean that you do a low stakes quiz or some have some kind of other evidence gathering assessment or assignment that shows that students have read that required material.

Were done that required research prior to participating in the discussion.

If you have a class that includes a lot of really, really, really sensitive topics and I definitely have some courses that I work with where the instructor includes sort of a.

I don't want to call it a trigger warning because that's not exactly what it is, but it is sort of a disclaimer in the in the syllabus it says we are going to be covering concepts that involve this, this and this texts will cover this. If you feel like this may be a concern for you, please come talk to me. I want to. I want.

I do not.

Want this to be a course that is.

Not that it's not uncomfortable for you. I don't want this to be a course that you struggle in. I want this to be a course that.

Is useful for.

You and so that gives you as the instructor also the opportunity to find out what.

The the purpose is what the reason is that they're that uncomfortable with.

Traveling.

Something right? And and that's part of it, it's.

It's helping them.

And.

Find a place that they can address.

Versus self advocacy.

Also having norms section in your syllabus or somewhere else for your discussions for all discussions and include civility as part of those skill sets that you want to see in the discussions. Civil discourse is and is essential.

Yeah.

Skilled these days and that's something that we should be promoting for students in our classroom.

And really teaching them and that's something that literally you can put in a rubric.

Yes, you, you.

Yeah.

Surely can put it in a rubric. In fact, there are entire.

Rubrics devoted to just civil discourse.

I was going to say that and that is that you can really model for them. Explain to them what it looks like when someone is actively listening.

And you know, asking clarifying questions and doing all the things that are involved in having a productive discourse.

Yes. And you as the instructor, we did talk about this also in the questioning strategies episode. Want to guide the discussion and I cannot state this enough.

Every discussion in your classroom should be guided by you, the instructor. That doesn't mean that you're coming in and putting in your opinion. It means that you are including those open questions.

To make students think a little bit further and to challenge their assumptions and perceptions, and to keep that conversation going while also.

Deescalating.

That's what I was just.

Conversations that need to be deescalated.

That's where if you see something really going off the rails, you can jump in with a question that might steer them a little, pull them back a little bit, ask them to rethink the ramifications of what.

What was that?

Where they're where that's going.

Yeah. And I mean look into deescalation techniques. That's an absolute.

Important skill for all instructors, whether you are in person or online, to have in in a classroom.

Include resources and pedagogies from diverse voices that will challenge assumptions, assumptions, and perspectives. Get students involved. Let them see people who look like them and what you are teaching. Give them a little disharmony.

Throw off their equilibrium a little bit in a safe space. That is how we grow. That is how we learn.

That is the important part of it being.

I like the way you phrase that actually, but throwing off their equilibrium.

In a safe space.

Right.

It's falling with a cushion.

That's how we grow and are then able to handle things when we're maybe not in a safe space, right? We we will have to experience in that safe space first so that you know that there's a little cushion when you land if you need to land.

Yeah.

And and then.

We kind of alluded to this a little earlier.

Address emotions.

Allow students put that in your syllabus where it says, hey, if we're going to cover these topics.

If that is difficult for you, please come talk to me about it.

Maybe have that after the discussion. Hey, I know these discussions can get heated or before the discussion if there's something you're concerned about in this specific discussion, if there's something you're concern.

And about, you know that someone said during this.

Yeah. Please come talk to me about that and help them find a safe space to process their emotions. Because when we grow academically, we cannot disconnect our emotional brain from from our academic brain.

And no one gets to tell you what your emotions are is one of the things that whether they are rational, irrational, whether the other person thinks they're justified.

You don't get to tell me how I feel. You can however help guide me into considering it another way or processing. Putting it in a different shelf in my brain. Yes, you. Those are the things that you can do to address.

Emotions and there are a few ways that you can do this, especially if you teach larger classes and that would be through.

A reflective assignment through journals. Or you can now use Microsoft forms and.

And then you can look through the forums and see if there are any students you can reach out to them or you can say hi. Please come to my office hours. So there are definite definite ways that you can.

Create that space within even an asynchronous online course, but ultimately.

This saves space. This challenge of equilibrium through controversy is helping students develop self-awareness in a judgment free zone.

Yeah. Now one of the other ways that I handle some of these in the class are through what we've called silent dialogues, which are where students anonymously post their thoughts on a topic. I've done it with padlet. I've done it with other sort of whiteboard options when it's an online course and it's face to face, we do it almost like a chat.

Talk, but they.

They can post what they they think nobody's allowed to talk. The silent part is very, very important. They answer the questions or they respond to whatever it is.

The another student will then come and answer those questions, respond to them, put their two cents in, and then people come back around and continue. So you have these silent discussions that are anonymous but are very focused in a.

Yeah, I've.

In a particular way for as well.

And and and pallet of course is is a great way to do it because because it can be anonymous and.

It's it's a great one for it, yeah.

You and I have talked about before. How?

Students are afraid to put themselves out there and speak out in front of their peers. Ask a question in class if you're alive. Class, they're afraid to do these things and they think that people who.

Do.

Are really brave, but.

Yeah.

But in creating it so that it isn't an anonymous platform, I mean students can be more honest and have more feelings of safety or, you know, they reduce your fear of being persecuted because of what you.

And as you build a safe space, you may not need those kinds of crutches anymore. Of the anonymity kind of piece, but to start with, especially when you've got students who don't know each other, they they aren't sitting across the table from each other. They don't have, they don't have a shared experience yet to fall back on.

In their relationships, so being able to give them that anonymity and the other thing about things like padlet are you can set it so that everything is moderated so that you go in twice a day and approve the comments that are made. Or so if you do have, if you do find that there's a couple.

Of people who have a hard.

Time remaining civil in that you can help moderate them and guide them individually if.

That's yes and.

Beyond Anonymous posting, you can also consider small group discussion so you can create groups and each group has its own discussion board in Ultra as as one assignment. You can do that and.

Yes.

Start that early too so they can build a rapport with each other.

Yeah. And you can keep that kind of same group throughout the course semester. So they really get to know each other and.

It's not just a.

Here's this random name, not even really attached to a human being. In your mind. You know, on the Internet. So it it helps to kind of grow some of that culture that we were talking about in the beginning.

Building community in the classroom.

Yeah.

And.

Ultimately, that is what exploring controversy together does. It builds community, which then in turns help you grow as a learner because it means that you're able to rely on your community and your Community resources.

To to reach that learning goal.

There's you're not going to get away from controversy. It's not going to.

Go away. It's not. And it and it shouldn't and you shouldn't.

Be afraid of.

It now and.

Especially especially in your social science classes, and so being prepared, having a plan, and guiding students, students process.

You can do it. We believe in you. We believe in you.

You can do it.

In online classes, students are easily siloed. It's easy for students to continue narrow perspectives. If we don't challenge their thinking, and education is a broadening of the mind.

Academia is about exploring viewpoints other than one's own. Even if you don't agree with those viewpoints, controversy is inevitable. But having strategies in place to deal with the controversy is key.

Thanks for joining us on the Pedagogy toolkit. Don't forget to subscribe.