Should We Hide Our Viewpoints?  Developing Criticality in the Classroom

Posted in on Sep 15, 2010 - 02:07 PM

The past couple of semesters, I have had some students in classes whose political stances are diametrically opposed to mine, and this makes me a nervous wreck. I will admit it - my stomach gets all churned up when having a disagreement with someone and I feel like I get shrill and exasperated when trying to express my point of view. Having such conversations in my everyday life often brings out the worst competitor in me - I look to score points and don't deeply listen to opposing views, I just wait for my next chance to jump in with a “zinger.” But these are not good practices for a person in my profession! As the teacher of seminar classes on the politics, economics, sociology, history, philosophy, and psychology of education for graduate and undergraduate students, I need to keep this antagonistic stance under control. But it is so hard! I have some very definite opinions about our education system (gee, what a surprise, right?!?) and I struggle daily with how to hold those opinions, yet also accept and respect my students whose opinions differ. I struggle because I truly believe that my responsibilities as an educator include encouraging meaningful learning by helping students develop the critical thinking skills needed in a democratic society. I want my students to be able to pick apart an argument, looking for inconsistencies, fallacies, and assumptions. I want them to become skilled at respectfully, but strongly, articulating a viewpoint; and I want them to be listeners who carefully consider the experiences and opinions of others.

I do not want my students to parrot my opinions (hooks, Teaching to Transgress), and yet I don't think I can ever be one of those teachers who leaves students guessing as to her opinions and beliefs. Is it possible for a teacher in a conventional setting, with all the authoritarian baggage that involves (such as students' institutional histories of working to please the teacher), to be fairly clear and sure of her opinions on contentious issues, yet at the same time create an open and inviting space where multiple and conflicting viewpoints can be equally valued? And should all perspectives on an issue be equally valued, or does that take us too far into moral relativism/nihilism?

As to the first question, I do think that I can create an environment in which I, a person who has spent time deeply examining certain issues and has come to some relatively sure conclusions, can still lead a group of novices (for lack of a better word) to respectfully explore the intricacies and dualities of those issues. But I have to do it with a lot of consciousness and diligence because, as stated earlier, being completely even-handed does not come naturally to me! So, this year, one of my goals for improving my teaching is to really focus on carefully reviewing my learning resources and pedagogical approaches. I am working on presenting texts from varied viewpoints, showing film clips depicting opposing stances, etc. I have also been developing activities that elicit students' critical opinions and questions. For example, I have created a new assignment called “discussion leadership” in which I ask students to essentially be author critics who really make a point of picking apart the readings we have done for a given day. I have set up mock debates or pairing activities where I assign one viewpoint to a partner and the opposite to the other partner and ask them to hash it out. When leading discussions, I am trying to more often pose the question of “what do you think?” before making any proclamations of my own.

In all this, though, I do worry about my second question- is every viewpoint worthy of equal respect? What if I have an openly racist, sexist, or classist bigot in my class? Sure, such students have a Constitutional right to speak their minds, but don't I also have a responsibility as a teacher of future educators to show that such viewpoints violate the democratic principles and ideals upon which our country and Constitution are based? But how do I do that without shutting down the open environment I'm trying so hard to nurture?

Any thoughts out there on this? I welcome an exchange on this contentious issue! (How fitting!)

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