{"id":66234,"date":"2023-04-18T20:52:09","date_gmt":"2023-04-19T00:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/id-kayla.cms-devl.bu.edu\/wheelock\/?post_type=bu-article&p=66234"},"modified":"2023-06-18T22:26:32","modified_gmt":"2023-06-19T02:26:32","slug":"leading-difficult-conversations","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/id-kayla.cms-devl.bu.edu\/wheelock\/magazine\/articles\/2023\/leading-difficult-conversations\/","title":{"rendered":"Leading Difficult Conversations"},"content":{"rendered":"\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLeading Difficult Conversations\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Tips for teachers on facilitating conversations about diversity and social justice<\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n
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April 18, 2023<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
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Conversations about race, privilege, and oppression in school should be rooted in psychology, empathy, and the humanity of all participants, according to Grace Kim<\/a>, a clinical associate professor in the counseling psychology program.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow can we teach issues related to diversity and social justice in such a way that looks at people as whole beings?\u201d says Kim, who is a trained clinical psychologist. \u201cUnfortunately, a lot of educators find these emotional pieces really challenging.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kim\u2019s book, Teaching Diversity Relationally: Engaging Emotions and Embracing Possibilities<\/em> (Routledge), which she wrote with Roxanne Donovan and Karen Suyemoto, was published this year. She offers the following rules of thumb for educators wishing to effectively teach diversity and social justice courses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Build Community, Set Norms<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A learning space in which students and instructors feel part of a community is less likely to devolve into a division and unhealthy conflict, Kim says. Before wading into a conversation about diversity and race, students and educators should agree to principles and norms that will guide discussion. \u201cIt\u2019s not a one-size-fits-all kind of thing, and depending on where they are you would want to scaffold more in a particular area,\u201d Kim adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Know Yourself and Your Students<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In determining how to approach a potentially tough conversation, teachers should weigh the positionality of all participants in the discussion\u2014both their identities, like race or life experience, as well as the knowledge and resources everyone is bringing into the conversation. Kim says some teachers start with an exercise exploring their own racial identities in order to \u201cgrow in our understanding of race and our own identities as people who have race.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Embrace Conflict<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Conversations about controversial topics can result in conflict between participants, which can turn contentious. On the other hand, Kim says, healthy conflict is generally a sign that students are engaged in a discussion. It can also bring classmates together: \u201cWhen conflict is resolved in a positive way, the sense of belonging and group cohesion can increase.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Be Kind to Yourself <\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As teachers facilitate such conversations, they should give themselves space for growth, Kim says. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of guilt or a sort of self-chastising, especially if the class is not going well,\u201d she says. \u201cTeachers can be very tough on ourselves, so how can we grow in such a way that that will free up a little more of our creativity and growth rather than keep focusing on what we\u2019re not doing right?\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Conversations about race, privilege, and oppression in school should be rooted in psychology, empathy, and the humanity of all participants, according to Grace Kim, a clinical associate professor in the counseling psychology program. \u201cHow can we teach issues related to diversity and social justice in such a way that looks at people as whole beings?\u201d says […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9090,"featured_media":62373,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"tags":[],"bu-publication":[6613],"magazine-article-category":[],"magazine-topic":[],"news-article-category":[],"news-topic":[],"bu_edition":[6619],"media_type":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/id-kayla.cms-devl.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/66234"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/id-kayla.cms-devl.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/id-kayla.cms-devl.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-kayla.cms-devl.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9090"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-kayla.cms-devl.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66234"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/id-kayla.cms-devl.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/66234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68347,"href":"https:\/\/id-kayla.cms-devl.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/66234\/revisions\/68347"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-kayla.cms-devl.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/id-kayla.cms-devl.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-kayla.cms-devl.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66234"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-kayla.cms-devl.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=66234"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-kayla.cms-devl.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazine-article-category?post=66234"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-kayla.cms-devl.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazine-topic?post=66234"},{"taxonomy":"news-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-kayla.cms-devl.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-article-category?post=66234"},{"taxonomy":"news-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-kayla.cms-devl.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-topic?post=66234"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-kayla.cms-devl.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=66234"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-kayla.cms-devl.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=66234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}