Making the Classroom Safe for Difference
One of the "fore mothers" of our field, Ruth Benedict, said "The purpose of anthropology is to make the world safe for difference." We'll be talking a lot about human differences and human commonalities in this class, and some of these conversations may be uncomfortable. Your assumptions about human nature and the world may be challenged. Topics of race and gender may be difficult to face. Before we can delve into these topics, it is important to make our classroom safe for difference. In this activity, you will create the "rules of engagement" for discussion in this class.
Group: You will be divided into groups of four. This will be your "Number Group". You will continue to use this group for some activities throughout the semester. Remember your number group for future classes!
Goals:
Produce a set of rules for discussion that can be used for the remainder of the semester.
Introduce students to the process of small-group work in this class.
Create a safe environment for the exploration of complex, difficult, and controversial topics.
Procedure
Form groups of four as guided by the instructor. Introduce yourselves! Make sure everyone knows how to pronounce each person's name.
Within your group, compare birth dates. Divide into roles based on your age, as follows:
Oldest member of group: recorder The recorder will take notes on the group's discussion. If anything needs to be turned in, the recorder will do so.
Second-oldest member: time-keeper The time-keeper makes sure the group stays focused on the activity and completes the steps on time.
Second-youngest member: presenter The presenter will speak for the group during the whole class discussion.
Youngest member: leader The leader makes sure every voice is heard, and helps encourage the group to stay on-task
Take five minutes to consider the following questions individually:
What must happen during class discussions for me to feel that my voice is heard?
What must happen during class discussions for me to feel that my opinion is respected?
What are the characteristics of a "good contributor"? That is, what makes a student a good person to contribute to a class discussion. This could be anything from "a student with unique life experiences" to "someone who doesn't interrupt others."
As a group, take ten minutes read your responses to the questions to each other. Write at least three rules for discussion that will help to create the conditions you need to feel your voice is heard and your opinion respected. You must all agree to the three rules you choose. The secretary should write these down, and put each person's full name at the top of the page.
Whole-class discussion: The presenter will share the three (or more) rules you wrote with the class at large.
As a class, we will vote on which rules for discussion will best fit our needs. Each person will have three to five votes (the instructor will decide), and the proposed rules that receive the most votes will be adopted for the rest of the semester in this class. (Rules can be revisited later in the semester, if they turn out to be problematic.)
The presenters will share the characteristics of a "good contributor" with the class. As a class, we will discuss these characteristics, and how I should grade participation.
Take-home Messages
This classroom will be a place where everyone can voice their opinion, even if that opinion is not popular.
This classroom will be a place where everyone will be respectful of the feelings of each other, and where offensive opinions will be gently and respectfully challenged, since we all speak from a place of ignorance on at least some topics.
We all have contributions to make to this class, based on our unique experiences and talents
Reflection
Take five minutes to reflect on the activity. Do you feel this classroom will be a safe place for you to share your opinions? What did you learn about your fellow students and/or yourself?