INTERGROUP RELATIONS FOR FACULTY AND STAFF

Develop discussion guidelines with the students in class, or present your guidelines for the students to accept or modify. You can refer back to them if the conversation becomes tense. E.g. Let everyone speak, don't interrupt, listen to understand and not to criticize, ask questions for clarification, challenge ideas and not people, do not ask individuals to represent groups.

Provide useful vocabulary and information to understand the complexity of the issue, including the root causes, positions, reasons for the conflict, and implications. You can share resources to review before or during class, or draw upon students’ knowledge distinguishing personal opinions from less evaluative statements.

Create clear questions in advance to elicit conversation. Avoid double-barreled questions (two or more questions in one) and closed-ended questions that elicit yes/no answers. In addition, prepare questions to use if the class is silent or hesitant (e.g. what makes this hard to discuss?), make follow up questions to clarify students’ responses, and be ready to redirect the discussion if it goes off on a tangent.

It is hard to give everyone the chance to speak. You can use small groups to hear from students who may not participate otherwise. For example, ask students to write their answers individually, then share in pairs, and later share what their partner said with the whole class.

Keep the discussion focused and purposeful without over-controlling it. Make questions, ask students to clarify or elaborate on their ideas, paraphrase them, correct misinformation, and reference course material. If you are going to share your opinion, consider how will affect the class first: Will sharing your perspective model how to take a stance, or will it most likely shut down students that disagree with you? Will you help respond to comments that marginalize or will it devalue some students in class?

Be aware that discussing social issues can involve your identity. For instance, students may assume that you have certain expectations based on how they perceive your identity. Further, some comments might trigger reactive responses from you during the discussion and you need to be aware in advance of this possibility to remain even-tempered. If statements that trigger you or a student emerge, you must address them, even if it is at a later time. It is recommended that you name the issue and work with the students contextualizing the triggering statement. Also, keep in mind that some students might try to purposely trigger you. In this case, go back to the ground rules, unpack the heated comments, redirect the conversation, or point out the differences between baiting, debating, and discussing.

Save enough time at the end to summarize the main points of the discussion, preferably with the students’ help. In addition, ask for oral or written feedback with questions like: what are the most important points you learned today? What questions remain unanswered? What did you learn from another student?