Roundtable: Managing Alternative Facts in the Classroom

Session Submission Type: Roundtable Session

Abstract

Teaching in higher education during a highly politicized era in which educators are pressured to remain neutral, if not completely silent, during classroom discussions, necessitates an examination of how to approach the use and misuse of information. With phrases like “alternative facts” and “false reality” common nowadays, it is important to consider not only the (mis)information presented and shared through media outlets and then introduced into classrooms, but also to examine the ways information may be misused within scholarly discourse. Accordingly, this roundtable considers how to frame these issues within the classroom, the effects of the issues (for both students and educators), and presents strategies to help educators address the misuse of information and also equip students to be smarter consumers of information.

Sub Unit

• Area XIII: Roundtable Sessions

Chair

• Devon Thacker Thomas, California State University, Fullerton

Discussants

• Jennifer Marson, Fayetteville State University

• Sarah Nicksa, Widener University

• Prit Kaur, Auburn University at Montgomery

• Jennifer Hartsfield, Bridgewater State University

• Julie Globokar, Kent State University