Breaching the U.S. Capitol. A second presidential impeachment. An upcoming inauguration.
Within just the first few weeks of 2021, significant historical moments have played out in close sequence, on the heels of a year that has been like no other in recent memory.
Schools, and educators, are put in the middle of contextualizing that.
“I don’t think we have a choice whether to introduce these moments or not,” said Michael Feldman, social studies specialist in the Professional Development Center for Educators at the University of Delaware. “In years past, I know when I went to high school we got assigned current events and we had to go out and find information. Now the information finds the kids. It’s in their pocket, in their phones. I think it’s part of — especially social studies teachers — their responsibility. And they all take it on to help kids process events that find them.”
That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s easy, however.
“Talking about what other people did or didn’t do [historically] is one thing,” said Shelley Rouser, chairwoman of the Department of Education for Delaware State University. “Talking about what’s happening right now, amongst us, is a very different conversation, much more personal.”
Timing matters, said Fran O’Malley, a policy scientist in the Institute for Public Administration at UD.
In September, these conversations are harder to have, as teachers are just beginning the work of getting to know their students. As the months go on, they have been establishing trust with their students and the parents, he said. By November and December, having hard conversations can be easier to handle.
These last few weeks in particular, however, have been more intense, especially given the layers of the past year.
“If I were to put it on a scale of one to 10, I think talking about the elections, I put at a scale of maybe six or seven in terms of intensity. Whereas this, I think it’s all the way up to nine,” he said. “This is really politically charged.”
Opening the dialogue
The right conditions need to be in place to have conversations dealing with the recent current events, said Delayne Johnson, associate professor at DSU.
“It’s important for schools to have an existing critical lens or critical pedagogy where social justice, issues of equity, have already been discussed,” she said. “So then conversations like this aren’t seen as isolated, but they’re seeing it as already part of existing conversations that schools are continually having.”
Dr. Rouser agreed.
“I think one of the biggest mistakes we could make in a situation like this is to have this approached as a one-and-done, and to have instruction framed in an event-type of mindset,” she said. “That’s one thing that could actually be more damaging.”
When ongoing conversations have been taking place in the classroom and the foundation is there, norms of dialogue can be established. Students should understand that there must be respect in these conversations.
“At the same time, the teacher has to be ready to interrupt,” Dr. Rouser said. “You’re giving students that voice, but the teacher also needs to be ready to interrupt and redirect if the norms are violated. It can’t be a free-for-all conversation either, and the teacher has to be comfortable with, and ready to, let someone know if what they’re saying is harmful, not funny, untrue in a really direct and respectful way.”
As college students prepare to become teachers, they learn their content area and their discipline, Dr. Johnson said. They’re equipped to do that when they head into the classroom.
“And they have less experience with addressing these sorts of issues,” she said. “That is part of the hesitancy, because it raises an emotional response.”
Dr. Johnson pointed to the fact that the majority of the teaching force is white women.
“When we have to talk about issues of race, and students that have diverse backgrounds, how do we navigate through that without seeing some of the harmful conversations we see around race in media, or in our own lives or as we see in social media?” she said. “I think the hesitancy [is] about addressing very challenging issues and doing it well and doing it in a way that really serves students well.”
Parsing through discussing the past month — and more — is happening at the universities, too. Dr. Rouser said that faculty at DSU is starting to huddle together to talk about giving their students space to speak about what they witnessed, but then also thinking forward to when the students become teachers.
“When you have a classroom of your own, how will you have the courage to, skills to, have such conversations with your students not just in response to something, but as a matter of practice?” she said.
If teachers are going to lead their classroom through the most recent current events, she said that it should be with social justice in mind.
“Only the most thoughtful and equity-minded educators should be having these conversations,” she said. “If you have them as one-off, like I said before, without an equity or social justice mindset, or with mistruths — or sometimes folks go in with a, ‘I’m going to be in the middle and teach both sides’ — it can be doing more harm than good, and it’s better off really not being addressed at all than being addressed in those conditions.”
And it certainly shouldn’t be rushed into.
“On Jan. 7, I had more than a few districts that I work with reach out to me and say, ‘OK, what should I tell my teachers? Do you have resources that you use?’” Dr. Feldman said. “I said, ‘The most important resource is the teacher.’ They should … take the time to listen to their students.”
Mr. O’Malley agreed.
“The way you respond to current events has to take into consideration: are all of your students from very conservative backgrounds, are all your students from very liberal backgrounds or do you have purple classrooms where you know it’s a really strong mix?” he asked. “I think that the activities you do with students have to hinge in part upon understanding those kinds of things.”
Dr. Johnson cautioned against open forums. The conversations should have a goal in mind.
“The goal in mind really is determined by: what is the position of school?” she said. “What is the philosophy of the school? What is the clear message that we want to consistently share through the conversation? Of course there’s a diversity of opinions, but ultimately, there should be a goal in mind.”
Faculty should be talking to each other, to establish where they stand as a school, she said.
“Because as teachers do have these conversations, there won’t always be agreement amongst the students, or even with their parents,” she said. “But there has to be a communication thread that’s coming from the district, the principal, through the classrooms that is saying that, ‘This is what we know needs to be discussed in our school. And these are the things that we believe in are things, these are things we won’t tolerate as a school,’ and then that backing happens also for the teacher before they have those courageous conversations.”
Mr. O’Malley added that it’s important that schools support their educators in having conversations despite the politically charged atmosphere.
“We have to be turning to school districts and school boards in particular,” he said, noting that they need to provide teachers with assurance their “backs will be covered” when they try to help children understand what is happening in the world.
“Because unless they do that, we’re just going to have a scenario where this should be taught, but people are too afraid to do it,” he said. “That’s kind of where I see most teachers are right now: really nervous about what to do.”
The virtual environment makes matters more difficult.
Dr. Feldman said he’s been in several meetings this week where a driving concern for teachers is who is listening in.
“They can spend all the time they want creating these classroom conditions with their students but they have grandparents who are sitting there watching their child or whatever and they’ve been far removed from a classroom for a long time and think that, ‘Well, that’s not what the teacher should be talking about,’” he said. “And they project their expectations into the class.”
The virtual environment can also offer opportunity, however, Dr. Rouser said.
If a teacher down the hall is ready to have these conversations but another isn’t, they can co-facilitate. Teachers can bring outsiders in with more ease than before because resources can chime in from home.
“You can tap into the expertise, a much wider network, than we otherwise would be able to coordinate face-to-face at the drop of the dime,” she said.
However teachers decide to handle the conversation, the education sphere can’t keep putting teachers in the position of responding to crises at the drop, Mr. O’Malley said.
“We have to do a better job in education of developing long-term preparation for this kind of work,” he said, noting that when historically significant moments happen, people jump on it and then it subsides “until the next crisis emerges.”
“We really need to try and seize this opportunity, this moment in time to be more strategic about helping kids understand when civility is and some norms for classroom discussions that should be taking place,” he said.
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