Be aware of stakes and acknowledge potential impacts. Elections can produce strong feelings for many people, though the stakes involved and potential impacts for people vary. These differences matter. For instance, for some students and instructors alike, an election heightens attention to their social identities and positions them even more prominently as targets of negative representations, threats, and violence. To be asked to engage an election in some manner in class can exacerbate students’ feelings of vulnerability and put them into potentially harmful interactions. It helps to encourage students to be more attentive to their own feelings and to have empathy for the different stakes involved for others, however difficult this may be. One way to gauge what is at stake for students is to invite them to share with you any concerns they have about their participation in discussion or activities focused on the election. This could be done through a simple email from the student, a “comment box” form using Qualtrics, or in a short survey about their feelings and relationship to the election, including if there are any reasons why they might not want to participate in a class discussion or activity focused on it. Also consider alternative options for how students can achieve the same learning goals.
Identify the learning objective for the conversation clearly. Instructors can also ask students if there is anything they’d like to add to the learning outcome prior to talking. It may be supportive to post that collaborative learning objective or goal somewhere visible, so the class can keep this shared goal in mind. This also supports instructors in ensuring that they can articulate a goal for the conversation. A struggle to do this is frequently an indicator that either it does not align with what our students need, or that the structure we’ve built is not yet strong enough to support our students as they engage.
Avoid embedding assumptions about student voting eligibility into discussions or activities. Many UO students are not eligible to vote in US elections, for a variety of reasons, and as instructors, we will not know conclusively whether all students in our class are eligible (nor should we ask). Discussions of or activities connected to voting are important, and we appreciate that instructors engage content in this way; depending on the learning objective or goal of the discussion/activity, you may want to 1) ensure there is a way to engage and contribute even for students who are not eligible and b) briefly acknowledge that we are not all able to vote in US elections. For example: "While we are discussing voting within the context of [insert course content/objective here] today, I know that not all UO students are eligible to vote in the US. Your voice and perspective is still a crucial part of this conversation."
Communicate how student expression will/will not impact your assessment of them. Students may perceive risk in how they engage with peers around the election; they also will understandably perceive risk in terms of how their engagement will be seen and assessed by their instructors. It’s important to let them know where the connections they draw and the perspectives they hold are and are not part of what we are assessing.
Identify clear parameters for expression of individual opinions or positions. Bringing the election into a class opens a door for students to express their opinions or political positions, which may not be the objective you intend or may lead to divisive and unproductive interaction. It is therefore important to determine if or to what extent individual opinions or political views contribute to the goals of the discussion, and then to articulate parameters for how and when to share them. It might be helpful to model “discussion moves” and specific phrases to use to help students learn productive dialogue strategies that keep them focused on critical inquiry, curious exploration, and collaboration. For instance, when encountering a view one disagrees with, one can inquire about the assumptions informing it by asking, “When I’ve heard this before, I’ve thought it means X. Do we think this assumption fits here?” A range of discussion moves can be found here.
You can also establish a clear protocol for what to do if things go awry, for instance what students should do if their small group discussion or discussion board thread gets sidetracked into a divisive exchange of political positions, or what a student should do if they feel targeted or threatened because of opinions being expressed by others. It is helpful to normalize the desire to share thoughts or feelings that are adjacent to the topic but that don’t fit the goal of the discussion. You can invite your students to write down these thoughts and feelings (in a bare bones reflection or journal entry they keep open during discussion, for example). Even when they don’t meet a discussion goal on a given day, they may be important for the student to process internally, and/or they may be something the class wishes to return to. Fear of division or rancor should not prevent a class from engaging in important learning centered on the election, but doing this work productively requires parameters that keep everyone focused on the task at hand.
Encourage democratic dialogue. Engaging with others in collaborative discussion and scrutiny of different perspectives is a hallmark of democratic participation. Even if development of democratic dialogue is not an explicit course goal, instructors can still foster important skills of democratic participation when asking students to engage charged topics like the election. Naming these skills and having students practice them and then reflect on their interactions can generate more productive dialogue. Stephen Brookfield and Stephen Preskill have identified several important benefits of learning through democratic discussion and specific discussion dispositions that underpin democratic engagement, which can be called up for students to practice and reflect upon.
Use “protocols” to provide more structure for discussions. When topics are challenging, a higher level of structure can be particularly valuable, and will support the practice of using discussion moves, adhering to conversation guidelines, and practicing democratic dialog. Common protocols instructors may have used include jigsaw or structured academic controversy; there are, however, dozens of excellent and widely used structures that can act as containers for the prompt and for your students’ valuable thoughts, feelings, and made connections to course content. Three good resources for protocols include this list from Harvard’s Teaching and Learning Lab, the School Reform Initiative’s extensive list and the menu of structures from Liberating Structures.
Include a variety of perspectives. When engaging the election and considering specific issues or candidates, include a variety of different perspectives for students to engage. It is important that students have opportunity to interact with different ideas, give each perspective a fair and charitable hearing, and thereby establish well-informed views, especially if your course goals include development of skills such as critical thinking or ethical dialogue, for example. Consideration of multiple perspectives also creates a more inclusive environment for student participation, allowing students to see themselves in some of the views under scrutiny and to give voice to their perspectives and reasoning. However, there may be certain ideas that are not up for consideration, for instance ideas that express hate or bias; in such cases, it is important to be explicit about parameters and why certain ideas or views are not open for inquiry (e.g. they are not in alignment with the University mission or are simply not up for debate in the scholarly field).
Have protocols for hot moments. Even the most careful planning and best intentions can result in heated moments of interaction. Such moments need not go afoul and can be productive learning opportunities if facilitated with skill. It helps to be prepared and have options at hand, such as those found in Section 6 of the Teaching in Turbulent Times Toolkit.