Navigating Difficult Discourses: University Teaching in a Political Pandemic

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session Three
  In Roundtable Session: Self-Studies of Enacting Equity-Centered, Culturally Relevant Teacher Education (Table 13)

Abstract

In this paper, we use the concept of difficult discourses to examine our own teaching practice. Difficult discourses are classroom interactions that are 1) related to broader social issues that are relevant and open for public debate and 2) perceived by at least one of the participants as creating discomfort. We know that such difficulty often leads teachers to avoid discussions of relevant social, political, or economic phenomena. While this avoidance is likely a learned social response, it also precludes opportunities to learn practices vital for democratic engagement in communities. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to identify and examine difficult discourses that emerged in our own university classrooms and imagine reconstructed pedagogical responses to these moments.

Authors

• Andrew L. Hostetler, Vanderbilt University
  Presenting Author

• Michael A. Neel, Vanderbilt University
  Presenting Author