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Faculty Members Share Guidance on Fostering Constructive Engagement With Challenging Topics

“Our goal in the classroom is to help students learn how to think, not what to think,” says Bruce Jentleson, William Preston Few Distinguished Professor of Public Policy. But students can be overly focused on the right answer and may engage in discussions with the aim of winning a debate rather than investigating with an open mind.

“Students feel strongly about wanting to be right and do well,” says Deondra Rose, Kevin D. Gorter Associate Professor of Public Policy. “In my course on political analysis for policymaking, any class session could become contentious. Sometimes students are afraid of how they’ll be judged.”

Rose and Jentleson shared strategies and best practices, and engaged participant questions, for fostering learning environments where meaningful and constructive dialogues on challenging topics can take place. Candis Watts Smith, interim vice provost for undergraduate education and professor of political science, moderated the session.

“This topic is always very popular,” said Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement Abbas Benmamoun to an online audience of nearly 50 faculty members. “We are all partners in this effort, and we’ll have more conversations like this.”

Excerpts From the Discussion

Develop a sense of community.

There has to be some level of trust. I had students go to coffee with each other. They drew names, and I said just have a conversation. During course evaluations, one student said, ‘Keep that. I got to know people, and that helped us when we talked about tough stuff later in the semester.’ –Deondra Rose

I often have students introduce someone else in class. Student chemistry is so important. –Bruce Jentleson

Be mindful that students start at different points of departure.

Our students come from all walks of life. My sense is that a lot of us discuss ideas and theories that can be abstract to some and for others can be real issues in their lives — for example, immigration policy. –Candis Watts Smith

Create a shared understanding of civil discourse.

One semester, I caught my students rolling their eyes [about a class exercise]. They said, ‘We think this is OK, but we don’t actually believe in civil discourse. To get people’s attention, you have to break things.’ I realized we were not on the same page. We needed to grapple with the question of what civil discourse is … and how you do it and when you do it. Now we have that conversation at the beginning of the semester. –Deondra Rose

Help students learn how to process. You can make an argument about something, and the quality of that argument is based on how well you present the evidence and how well you consider the opposing side. […] It goes back to skills on how to think, not what to think. –Bruce Jentleson

Highlight a range of voices.

I teach a course on the politics of U.S. foreign policy. One of the weeks is on the Vietnam War, and since much of this was about the ’60s culture and music in addition to reading about the substantive policy issues, I give students a link to the top ten songs playlist for Vietnam war veterans and antiwar activists alike. –Bruce Jentleson

I try to include on the syllabus people who have come together and found common ground, such as the book ‘The Best of Enemies.’ I think students really crave those examples. –Deondra Rose

Draw on other disciplines.

I taught a class with an English professor at Carolina. At the end, students said, ‘We believe the statistics, but the stories are what get us.’ That illuminated why the arts and humanities are so important. Bringing in perspectives through stories and art seems to resonate in a different way. –Candis Watts Smith

Provide a framework to help students grapple with dissent.

I have broken class sessions into half of me lecturing and half of students engaging with case studies. I start with students taking the floor and offering presentations in small groups, helping students learn how to dissent. They’re doing that with the material first, pushing back on ideas. Then they learn they can push back on colleagues in a way that is OK. –Deondra Rose

Resources

Main image: Candis Watts Smith, Bruce Jentleson and Deondra Rose