Controversial Topics and the Diversity of our Students’ Lived Experiences: The Use of Syllabus Trigger Warnings

• In Event: Academic Discourse on Violence, Student Experiences, and the Secondary Trauma of Faculty, Staff, and Administrators

Abstract

The students in our classrooms bring a diverse set of experiences, personal histories, and emotional and physical struggles. Not only are we unaware of these diverse experiences, but we cannot always understand or predict how they will impact our students and their learning experience. Students carry these experiences into the classroom, and they are not easily “turned off.” Trigger warnings on course syllabi allow students, both those with and without trauma experiences, to understand that prejudice and abuse happen and have consequences for our those who have experienced trauma engage in the world. Trigger warnings give all students a choice and helps prepare them for the content of the course. 

Author

• Catherine "Katie" Kaukinen, University of Central Florida