{"id":18338,"date":"2016-03-28T09:58:09","date_gmt":"2016-03-28T13:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/carleton.ca\/edc\/?p=18338"},"modified":"2022-01-06T15:35:33","modified_gmt":"2022-01-06T20:35:33","slug":"pushing-the-envelope-controversial-issues-in-class","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/2016\/pushing-the-envelope-controversial-issues-in-class\/","title":{"rendered":"Pushing the envelope: Controversial issues in class"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Three<\/a>By Emma Brown, TLS staff writer <\/em><\/p>\n

It was the last day of class. The students had questions.<\/p>\n

They wanted to know what their animal rights professor, Craig McFarlane, personally thought about the issues he had been presenting to them for the last 12 weeks. Before he answered their questions, he made them guess what they thought he would say.<\/p>\n

They were mostly wrong.<\/p>\n

Getting wrong answers from students is not usually a good thing but McFarlane took it as proof of success.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems that I\u2019m good at hiding my own personal views and I think it\u2019s kind of important to do that with these sorts of classes because [students] might feel that they\u2019re being forced into adopting a particular position if they knew what my position was,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Many courses at Carleton deal with controversial subjects where students are asked to grapple with polarizing views. Managing discussion around these issues and encouraging critical thinking is a challenge for professors.<\/p>\n

McFarlane says letting students participate in open discussion is the best way for them to engage with the material. He tries to talk as little as possible, only to facilitate turn-taking or clarify technical points. The students are also asked to respond to the readings in weekly papers.<\/p>\n

The topic of animal rights can bring up intense feelings and personal struggles for students, says McFarlane.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of them take it quite personally to begin with because it touches upon parts of their identity: what they eat, what they wear, what they do\u2026 It bumps up against how they see themselves,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Religion classes often \u201cbump up\u201d against students in a similar way. Zeba Crook, professor of religious studies at Carleton, says students sometimes struggle at first because, \u201cthey tend to think of their religious truths as self-evident and obvious\u2026religious studies asks them to think about religion in a different way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Zeba<\/a>Rather than run away from the uncomfortable and controversial side of religion, Crook leans into it.<\/p>\n

While teaching a class on Islam, he included pictures of Muhammad on his slides. Depicting Muhammad is forbidden in Islam. As a result, three students began yelling at Crook during class. He quieted the students and pointed out that the images were produced by Muslims in the 13th century. He wanted to teach the class that depictions of Muhammad were not always forbidden in Islam.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can be more strident in my demand that students think about [religion] in a way that they\u2019re not comfortable with, because that\u2019s what university is for. It is for pushing that envelope, pushing students to re-evaluate things that they thought were obvious and clear,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

However, he\u2019s careful not to let students poke fun or disrespect one another. He doesn\u2019t have an online discussion board for this reason. After all, he says, \u201cThe Internet brings out the worst in people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Vida<\/a>Vida Panitch, who teaches bioethics, says she\u2019s been pleasantly surprised with how respectful students are in classroom discussions. Her class deals with controversial topics such as abortion and doctor-assisted suicide.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been really impressed since I\u2019ve been teaching at Carleton with how the students are trying to take each other\u2019s views seriously,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

The key to facilitating respectful discussion around these divisive issues is centering it on a particular author\u2019s argument in an article. This way, she says, students can examine the specific premises and discuss whether the conclusion is valid. If classroom discussion becomes \u201cuncivilized\u201d Panitch reminds her students to bring it back to the article.<\/p>\n

As for her role in the classroom, she says, \u201cI try to disagree with everybody\u2026I\u2019m not going to defend it for them. That\u2019s what they have to learn how to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Panitch, McFarlane and Crook agree that professors must challenge students to think critically, especially about their own views and assumptions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they leave the class with the same positions as they entered the class with that\u2019s fine,\u201d says Panitch, \u201cbut the hope is that now they have good arguments for them and that they can defend them to others who challenge them rather than just yelling at other people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Emma Brown, TLS staff writer It was the last day of class. The students had questions. They wanted to know what their animal rights professor, Craig McFarlane, personally thought about the issues he had been presenting to them for the last 12 weeks. Before he answered their questions, he made them guess what they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[614],"yoast_head":"\nPushing the envelope: Controversial issues in class - Teaching and Learning Services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By Emma Brown, TLS staff writer It was the last day of class. 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