Teaching Tools: Teaching Contentious Topics

Presenter: Anthony Kelley, Doctoral Candidate, Philosophy

Anthony Kelley began his workshop with a deceptively simple question: what makes an issue contentious?

When thinking about contentious classroom topics, issues like abortion and gun control come readily to mind. While some departments explicitly address such issues, many do not. As a result, it can be easy to assume that if your curriculum does not include a topic like abortion then your classroom will be contention-free. This is why Kelley’s question is such an important one.

After posing his initial question, Kelley led a productive conversation exploring the real-life ways that unmitigated contention can disrupt a university classroom—regardless of discipline. The group in attendance included GPTIs from a broad range of departments. As the group shared their own experiences as teachers, it quickly became clear that contention can occur in any field. Though the issues themselves may vary, Kelley discussed the common way they impact students and student learning. 

The most contentious classroom issues are usually those that relate to how students identify. When a topic touches upon a student’s values—who they think they are—they may feel like their entire system of beliefs is being challenged. Therefore, these students often feel that they are being challenged. If this feeling goes unaddressed, a student may lash out or completely shut down. Their learning potential for that day—or worse, for the entire course—becomes severely limited.

To help manage the effects of classroom contention, Kelley provided some concrete pedagogical strategies:

• Draft a sensitive syllabus. If your course confronts potentially polarizing topics it is important to prepare students early. You can begin to do this by explicitly outlining your expectations on the syllabus. Stress that your classroom is a safe environment for the intellectual pursuit of some challenging topics. 
• Create a classroom etiquette. On the first day of class, it is a good idea to establish a set of community principles for healthy and productive conversations. Define these guidelines as a class and emphasize the students’ role in upholding their own principles. A helpful community guideline that Kelley recommended: Attack the view, not the person.
• Prepare students. Again, it is important to prepare students ahead of time for any contentious topics that are built into the syllabus. Spending five minutes at the end of class contextualizing the next day’s reading (if contentious) may help students approach the material in an intellectual way. 
• Focus on the text. A good way to diffuse emotional responses to a topic is to have the class return to the text. By discussing the text, you help separate personal views from the academic material. 
• Model behavior. As the instructor, it is critical that you model the behavior that you want your students to follow. Adhere to the class principles and ask your students to hold you accountable. Asking students to fill out a midterm evaluation is a good way to check in. 

Kelley concluded his workshop with a discussion of what to do in an emergency situation. Say, for example, a student inadvertently expresses a derogatory cultural stereotype. In this situation it is critical to act immediately. Inaction risks hurting other students in addition to authorizing an inappropriate line of thought. Remind the student of the community principles and explain how the comment violates those principles.

As Kelley’s workshop highlighted, your GPTI colleagues are a great resource. If you find yourself struggling with how to manage contentious issues in the classroom, it can be extremely beneficial to talk with other graduate student teachers. How have they handled similar issues? What might they have done differently? You can also make an appointment to speak with us at the GTP office. And, of course, we encourage you to attend more workshops!

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