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Into Practice
Timely teaching advice and research findings
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Identity, vulnerability, and courage in classroom discussion
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The benefits: Students consistently reflect on the fruitful discussions and community connections they’ve retained and how the course personally affirms who they are, as humans engaged in learning. HGSE featured the course’s popularity and power this past year during the pandemic, which among other activities, concluded with a 700-person symposium with educators and people from all over the world.
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The challenges: Villarreal notes that she will often have to adjust her lesson plan in real-time to make space for students to go deeper into topics that interest them, or to allow conversation to organically flow from the students. “The work of teachers is we are making 1,000 mental calculations at any given moment,” Villarreal explains. “During class time, when I find that discussions are going on longer than I anticipated, and I'm trying to in the moment negotiate and prioritize.”
Takeaways and best practices
- Embrace multiple participation styles. “So much of the ethnic studies class is really centered around and dependent upon the students' willingness and capacities to really bring their full selves and kind of their autobiographies to the table,” Villarreal notes. That’s why Villarreal not only works to create a constantly affirming, brave space for students, but also to honor how everyone participates and needs to participate based on their place in their learning as well as how they’re emotionally feeling in that moment.
- Physically restructure the classroom. Standing over the students in the classroom, Villarreal points out, only serves to underscore the existing power dynamics between students and teachers. To disrupt this, she reorganizes the desks in a circle and sits in the circle with students to emphasize that she is not only “here for you, but also here with you.”
- Give students space and be responsive to their engagement. Villarreal likewise gives students space to process a question, as well as space to jump into the conversation. When she sees students are engaged but the class is silent, she will wait out a response, rather than calling students to speak herself, to give room for students to engage on their own terms, in their own ways.
Bottom line: Villarreal’s pedagogical approach to discussions simultaneously affirms students’ identities while also helping them engage in challenging conversations around liberation and oppression. As a result, students not only are more active in the class, but consistently note how the course offers a transformative experience in how they relate to their work as educators and to themselves as members of a collective community.
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Read Dee & Penner’s recent article in the American Educational Research Journal on the causal positive effects of culturally relevant pedagogy & ethnic studies classes in high school. See Tintiangco-Cubales et al article in The Urban Review which provides recommendations for practice and research in the interest of preparing and supporting effective Ethnic Studies teaching in K-12 classrooms. There is considerable research evidence that well designed and well-taught ethnic studies curricula have positive academic and social outcomes for students. Additionally, check out de Novais & Spencer’s study on the effects of ethnic-studies course-taking in higher education.
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Hear more from Villarreal and other colleagues about community building in this recording of VPAL’s January 2021 Showcase on Teaching in Unprecedented Times.
Read the Bok Center’s guidance on inclusive moves faculty can take to make their classroom a more empowering space. In addition, read more about faculty-led projects to make more equitable learning environments.
Check out Sharon Ravitch’s recent blog post with the Harvard Business Publishing group on strategies for equitable teaching.
Listen to Kim Parker’s appearance on the Harvard EdCast, discussing how to disrupt and diversify syllabi.
Read through a list of resources, cultivated by the Harvard Graduate School of Education, on how to make more truly inclusive college classrooms.
Canvas provides discussions and allows recording audio or video in the Rich Content Editor. Each feature may provide additional ways for students to participate outside of in-person class discussion.
Check out Harvard Library's project, "Confronting Anti-Black Racism." You may also be interested in materials relevant to ethnic studies research that are listed on the "Library Research Guide for the Warren Center (Ethnic Studies)."
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Carrie Conaway
Senior Lecturer
James Kim
Professor of Education
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Deborah Jewell-Sherman
Gregory R. Anrig Professor of Practice in Educational Leadership
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Timothy Patrick McCarthy
Lecturer on History and Literature, Public Policy, and Education
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Robert Reid-Pharr
Professor of Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality and of African American Studies
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