ethical issues in teaching sensitive issues - pam lowe

Ethical Issues in Teaching

Sensitive Issues

Dr Pam Lowe

[email protected]

Ethical Issues in Teaching Sensitive Issues

Background

Sensitive Issues in the class room

Being Sociological

Emotion work and dealing with

distress

Towards an ethics of teaching

sensitive issues

Background

In at the deep end…. Teaching began as a PhD student

Final year course on sexualities

(rape, child sexual abuse, porn…)

No discussion, mentoring, or general support as a

new teacher

Contrasted sharply with my research work on

domestic violence with an emphasis on

safeguarding both informant and researcher….

Background

‘To educate as the practice of freedom is a way of

teaching that anyone can learn. That learning

process comes easiest to those of us who teach who

also believe that there is an aspect of our vocation

that is sacred; who believe that our work is not

merely to share information but to share in the

intellectual and spiritual growth of our students. To

teach in a manner that respects and cares for the

souls of our students is essential if we are to provide

the necessary conditions where learning can most

deeply and intimately begin’ (hooks 1994: 13)

Background

Funded in 2013 by the HEA to: Undertake qualitative research across

disciplines and university sites

10 Staff interviews:

4 pre-1992 & 4 post-1992

22 students were involved in the

research (u/d and p/g)

Thematic analysis undertaken

Sensitive subjects in the classroom?

Both staff and students agreed that it

was an important part of degree

education

This could be related to the discipline

But was also part of a broader

educational agenda


Sociology as a sensitive discpline: I can’t understand why one would take sociology if they

weren't interested in thinking about societies problems and I

don't think you can even understand something as a

problem. I mean you might already construct all of these

things as political or problems or whatever but many of them

don’t and I think its part of our job within sociology to

sociologise you know, to make the connections between

personal problems and social problems….if they don't like

that, they really should be doing something else. And it is

uncomfortable and challenging but it's tough.


Student views:

So, I think that (…) it's definitely made us more confident

like for me definitely it's definitely made me more confident

it's made me realise that there is no limit to what I can

question and not to take anything for granted.

We touched on things that, for me, I thought I had a set

opinion about it, and I could write about it, then you start

looking at it from a different perspective and your realise that

actually it is not how it is even you think you know about it.

A degree is for life…….

Sensitive subjects in the classroom

There was also broad agreement that

defining ‘sensitive’ was difficult: Issues of identity (eg gender, ethnicity,

sexuality, religion)

Issues of experience (eg rape, abortion)

Political issues (eg terrorism, party

politics)

How sensitive a subject was would depend

on the individual.


Biography makes a difference to how

students come to understand sensitive

issues

Can be challenging

Can be silencing

Power relationships are often central

understanding issues


Staff were conscious about the potential

impact on students

Staff endeavoured to make safe spaces

for students to discuss the issues

But this was not always

easy to do in practice


Understanding the impact

I think, the teaching sensitive issues to be sensitive to how your

students are feeling about those issues. Because they're not

just paper stuff. They're not just academic, they're personal.(…)

It's about people's experiences. Everyone in that class will have

a view and a feeling about it. You know, and therefore, what a

missed opportunity if you don't get them involved. (…) how can I

get them to open out? It's something that I think the best advice

is to work it through with your group. (…) And to actually build

up, to actually build on the relationship with your students. And

with each other.


But control isn’t always easy to maintain:

We put them into pairs and they were discussing a role play,

where they had to play partners (…) Discussing the division of

domestic duties and what basis they would make the decision

about who would look after the child and who would go to work.

And erm, I hadn't realised that the two people who I had put

together had just started a relationship. And at one point, there

was obviously some heated debate (…) And the woman just

marched out of the room in flood of tears. And I was like, I

genuinely didn't know what to do, and it transpired that they'd

actually had any discussion about this, and erm, clearly she

hadn't expected her boyfriend to be so chauvinist in his views

about children and various things. So that was a bit difficult to

handle. So things like that can come up like that.


Students also reported being shocked

at some classroom discussions: I genuinely thought that everyone in our group had a very

broad and open mind but then when she started coming out

with comments like 'It's ok like, you can't be raped in

marriage, it's not possible' and everything like that, you

know, 'your husband's wish is your command' kind of thing

and you know, you just, even from a human perspective just

like how can somebody think like that? Especially when

they're a student as well, and for me, that really threw me

off. It's like oh my god are we all educated? Are we all

educated illiterate? Like, which one are we?


The role of experience in the classroom was

often a tension

Many staff believed that it was important to

be open about their own positionality and

drew on their own experiences in illustrating

teaching

Some students preferred this, but others felt it

was inappropriate

Lacked confidence in challenging staff


Student views on positionality…

It came up in (module name) about abortion, and I

don’t agree with that, but I didn’t feel as if I could

share that at all…

To be honest, with a lot of lecturers they are more

interested in you critically analysing rather than

your agreeing with what they think

It is like Marxism, it is easier just to submit…..

Being Sociological

One of the difficult aspects of teaching some

sensitive issues is to keep the students within

the discipline

For example, abortion needs to be

addressed sociologically rather than a

moral question

So discussing social understandings and

issues of power and control, equality and

discrimination

Being Sociological

One of the ways that staff to this is through

focusing on the topic academically, stressing

the importance of literature: I do think because of the nature of what we do as

sociologists, I do think that there is a strong link to the

individual and individual experiences. (…) I still have to be

supportive even if it is something I completely disagree with,

I’ve still got to support the student’s learning experience (…)

I tend to go back to the research because I think that is an

authoritative space to operate from

And it protects people, I think. If you bring it back to the

literature it protects, it helps keep people safe.

Emotion work and dealing with distress

Teaching and learning sociology involves emotional

labour

But sensitive issues need a specific recognition and

ethics of care It’s so powerful (…) it should come with a health warning, a

political health warning. (…) I remember [as a student] the

rage, the outrage of making the connections about my mum

being poor being a girl (…) when I finally made those

connections, and I did though sociology I was so angry (…)

sociology itself, if it doesn’t touch you then you haven’t read

it properly. (…) we need to recognise the emotion, the

emotional component

Emotion work and dealing with distress

All of the respondents spoke about the role of

emotions in teaching and learning.

The emotions experienced were extremely

varied

Staff were conscious of both their own

emotions, but also how to manage the

emotions of others – not an easy process

Emotion work and the ethics of care

Teaching involves emotional labour

Well obviously I think I get quite emotional, I'm not crying but

I think I get quite enthusiastic and animated and adamant

about certain issues. And emotions can be raised amongst

the students as well. I mean often they have very heated

debates that can turn into quite uncomfortable arguments at

times. Because you are sometimes addressing people's sub

conscious views about things or prejudice that they've never

really expressed before. Suddenly it comes alive and there’s

a shock in the room or, or, I have to be careful to mediate

the emotion.


Staff view on balancing emotions and

learning Erm, so that's one thing I've learnt is that, try, if you're gonna

bring in, introduce difficult and sensitive topics, you probably

need to allow the students to kind of feel their feet first erm

before they do that. If they're already feeling vulnerable, then

probably something like this probably wouldn't yield good

results. (…) I'm constantly you know scanning the kind of

landscape and looking erm to see whether people you know

are engaged or are horrified.


Staff recognised the ethics of care they had for their

students and tried to ensure that there were support

mechanisms in place

Often this involved: Signposting difficult topics in advance

Mentioning that absence was acceptable

Monitoring emotional responses

Being available outside of class to discuss issues

Flexibility in assessment


However, there were fewer

resources for staff to deal with

their own emotional responses

Those which did exist tended to

be informal

Institutional lack of care for

staff welfare.


On trying to teach terrorism…..

And that is where the wheels fell of the bus so to speak. And

that really surprised me as I wasn’t prepared for that. And like

no-where in any of the teaching manuals or the advice that we

got just it say how to deal with these things. And what surprised

me was that the students got really passionate about this, but

passionate in a way I didn’t expect at. Emotional, right (…). And

the discussion was really weaving off the intended course and

then escalated (…) And then I thought I don’t know how to deal

with this (…) And the one piece of advice (…) was that maybe

you should get a post-it note and part the issue on the Board for

later (…) And I just thought, I’ not really equipped to deal with

this.

Towards Ethical teaching Practice

In practice, often require students to reflect

on difficult issues and challenge viewpoints

How can we educate as a practice of

freedom?

Is it possible to both care for ‘souls’ and

expect academic discipline?

Towards Ethical Teaching Practice

Dealing with sensitive issues is a routine

classroom practice that is important for educational

development

Staff are mindful of both challenge students to think

critically, but that this potentially leads to a loss of

classroom control

Learning is an inherently emotional exercise yet

teaching is not often recognised as emotional labour

An ethics of care is extended to students, but staff do

not necessarily receive support in doing this

Towards Ethical teaching Practice

What does good practice look like:

Students – signposting, support?

Staff – recognition, training?

Institutions – disciplinary based approach?

ethical issues in teaching sensitive issues - pam lowe

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