The Skillful Teacher

We’re Not Welcome Here
Many students feel like aliens in a new cultural landscape. The speech
patterns and behaviors of academics, or of other students, are seen as
strange, intimidating, deliberately hostile. In this situation, to con-
tribute to discussion means you have sold out to the host culture,
joined the enemy. If you feel this way, then staying silent in class is
an act of honorable resistance, a guarding of one’s cultural identity.
This is particularly the case with students who have grown up in a
culture where silence is valued over speech or in one where giving
one’s personal opinion is seen as an arrogant act of self-indulgence.
What is lauded by Euro-Americans as “speaking in your own voice”
is seen by other students as an inappropriate challenge to the vener-
ated authority of the teacher or as a betrayal of the collective wisdom
of the group. If this is the case, then speaking out is a denial of one’s
loyalties and identity.
One response to this is to make clear in your own expectations
of discussion participation that you will monitor, and act against,
any speech that is hostile to those who are not part of the dominant
culture. If you are a member of the dominant culture (as many col-
lege teachers are), acknowledge your position of privilege. But don’t
do this in a guilt-induced display of self-abasement. You shouldn’t
feel ashamed of your class or ethnicity.
Also, if you open your course with an alumni panel of previous
students, make sure you choose as participants some who will act
as cultural brokers. These are students from the minority groups
represented who are trusted by members of those groups. Such 
students communicate minority students’ concerns to the teacher,
they interpret the teacher’s behaviors and requests to other 
students in comprehensible ways, they keep the teacher informed
about how her actions are being perceived, and they vouchsafe
the teacher’s honesty and sincerity to students who are skeptical
or hostile.
Getting Students to Participate in Discussion
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