Controversy in the Classroom: Push Your Students
What seems like years ago, back when I was in college, I was in a rather interesting group called Obsidian Enlightenment. It was the first and only Satanic group officially sponsored by a university in the US (for more on classical Satanism you can check out my old professor’s article or the the Spiritual Satanist’s Blog here, here, and here). I used to attend this group after Bible study on Tuesday nights. I’m not sure what that says about me 
What does this have to do with teaching you might ask? Well, the reason I bring the group up is that I loved their motto. It was “The answer is to question”, which is something I still firmly believe to this day. Not simple acceptance or rejection, but critical inquiry of all information we come across should be undertaken by anyone who considers themselves educated or a possessor of knowledge.
Another of the group’s tenants was that some people are better than others, not inherently, but through the act of striving to be something more. Not everyone should work at NASA and not everyone should play in the NBA. Included in this idea was that we constantly need to work to improve ourselves and those around us, to create something better than what came before.
Why do I bring this up? Well, I often find that there is a lot of political correctness floating around these days that states that no person or culture is better than any other, that there are simply differences. As English teachers, we should only teach English, avoid controversy, and go on our merry way. I couldn’t disagree more.
Is the genocide happening in Darfur acceptable. If I was teaching English there, should I avoid that issue because it’s not my business? What about countries like Turkey, Iran, or China where free speech is often censored? Is this not injustice rather than simple cultural difference? Where do we draw the line? Is genocide in Darfur something we should challenge in our classrooms, but free speech something that is less pressing? What about the status and treatment of minority groups or women? These are difficult questions and every teacher needs to decide for him or herself where to draw the line.
There are some cultural differences that are clearly unacceptable and if we come from countries where some of these injustices are better understood, I believe it’s our job to strive to make a difference, to not be complacent and just accept the status quo. A common line you hear in Turkey is that “there are bad things in every country.” Of course this is true, but this doesn’t mean that some places aren’t worse than others. Gender equality may have a long way to go in America, but I guarantee Turkey has a much longer road ahead.
Don’t get me wrong, the last thing I’d advocate is finger-pointing. We need to be aware of and accept faults in ourselves and our culture of origin before we can even begin to challenge similar faults in other peoples and places, but this doesn’t mean we can’t continue the struggle. This definitely does not mean we should sit on the sidelines and do nothing.
While I’m a relativist deep down where angels fear to tread, on a personal level there are many things that I accept and don’t accept about some people, laws, governments, cultures, etc. There are many topics that we can bring up in class that not only aid our students’ understanding of English, but that also create more critically aware human beings. Topics that challenge our students’ current world views and perhaps make a positive change in their lives and those around them in ways that are so much more important than English.
One thing that Darren Elliot has said on this blog and his own is that he teaches so much more than English. I don’t know if he would agree with what I’m saying here exactly, but I firmly support this belief. I consider myself a teacher in the truest sense of the word as someone who helps my students learn about themselves, their world, their place in it, and, last of all, English. More than just inspiring our students, we need to challenge them to look at our assumptions, our beliefs, the conditions that exist in our countries, and our world. In a good classroom, not only will the teacher challenge the students, but the students will challenge the teacher as well.
There are many issues where each culture, each person, can learn from the other. Each person, country, and culture has their faults, some more than others, and each can learn from the other. This, I think, is one of the greatest values of teaching English abroad; this ability to foster intercultural communication, hopefully for the better.
One of these issues that is also a personal battle of mine is domestic violence. I worked in domestic violence for three years in the US. While we have made huge progress since the 50′s, it remains a big problem. Domestic violence is also a very large problem in Turkey. Just living here these two short years I have a large number of stories from colleagues, friends, and neighbors of the domestic violence and abusive relationships that happen on a daily basis here. In Turkey, it is never discussed. Like America in the 50′s or some places still in the South, it’s considered a “family issue” that others should not get involved in. Police won’t even bother to intervene, much less prosecute.
Domestic violence is one issue I make a point of addressing in all my intermediate level and above classes. It’s a very sensitive issue and, as discussed previously in the last two posts, students’, especially the men’s, hackles will rise when you bring this topic up. I always have at least one student who claims that this problem “doesn’t exist in Turkey” or, if it does, it is an incredibly small problem. Yet, in every class, I have at least one woman that approaches me afterward to tell me about her past or present experiences with domestic violence.
When dealing with topics like this in class, one thing to do is to make sure your students are aware of it beforehand. Domestic violence is an incredibly emotional and disturbing subject for those that have lived through it and you need to give warning in case a student wants to opt out and not come to class that day.
The example lesson I will be posting uses the previous tactic of juxtaposition to help introduce the topic and not appear as if you are attacking your students’ country in some way. I talk openly about my experience working with domestic violence in America and show a clip detailing the problem in Britain as well. Only then do I move on to the article in Turkey. While there’s usually at least one male student that aggressively disagrees with the topic in the beginning, all dissent vanishes by the end of the lesson. Part of this goes back to keeping an open mind and keeping things cool in the classroom.
I also prepare myself with lots of documents and back-up information to support the fact that it is a problem in Turkey. The students are always more willing to believe professionally researched documents over their teacher. In addition, I provide the students with access to further information and a domestic violence hot-line should they need it.
As teachers, I think it is our job to push our students, make them uncomfortable, and deal with some difficult issues that have vast and lasting significance outside the classroom. We shouldn’t do this all the time, but I think it’s important to throw something like this in every couple lessons. Alternate with something light-hearted and enjoyable to keep the mood up. See if you can get the students to pick social issues they want to engage rather than have the teacher choose them. This will also greatly ease acceptance of such topics in the classroom.
I am a big fan of a sort of Socratic method in teaching. Not in the sense that the teacher knows an answer and leads students around to their way of thinking with questions, but in the sense that we are constantly questioning the students and teaching them how to ask their own questions. In the sense that we our challenging our students worldviews and forcing them to critically engage with their beliefs and be able to defend them. At the same time, the students should also be doing the same to us. At the end of a class or course hopefully all of us see the world a bit differently and refuse to accept things uncritically.
Every country or culture has black spots in their past and present, but their are also some points of light. Subjects like human rights, gender equality, environmentalism, and cultural pluralism have all emerged into the public sphere in a number of Western countries, but remain relatively unheard of in more than a few of the other countries I’ve visited or lived in. I try to make a difference in all my classes. Even if it’s only a small one, it’s a start.
What do you think? We’re always told to make our students as comfortable as possible. We’re also told to avoid controversy and judgment because it’s not our place, because everybody is equal and others are just “different”. I think there is a gigantic difference between being open-minded and multicultural and being complacent and enabling.
Do you push your students in class? Should we? Is it ok to make judgments about cultures other than your own? Does being multicultural mean that we should accept everything and anything about other cultures? Do you teach more than just English? How do you tackle such topics in class? I look forward to an interesting discussion.
The Lesson: Domestic Violence
Related Posts:
Controversy in the Classroom: Juxtapostion
Controversy in the Classroom: Displacement
Ken Wilson’s Upcoming Culture Debate with Comments
Further reading on domestic violence in Turkey in English:
Turkey’s Shocking Domestic Violence Statistics
Amnesty International: Women Confronting Domestic Violence in Turkey
Amnesty International: Shelters Not Cemeteries
Stop Violence Against Women: Turkey
Violence Against Women in Turkey Report
Domestic Violence Study in Sivas
Turkish Politics in Action: Landmark Decision
In Turkish:
Tags: Controversy, Discussion
Lesson Ideas | turklis1 | 
November 14, 2009 6:39 pm
10 Comments
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By Darren Elliott, November 17, 2009 @ 11:55 am
Hi Nick. What I might have said is that I HOPE I teach my students more than English. If they learn anything at all I’m happy ; P
I do agree with most of you say here; I don’t really believe in teaching. I am aiming to help the students learn what I want them to learn, which is much more subtle. I very rarely tell them anything, but I point out where they should ask questions. But I can’t forget that the learners in my classes are at a linguistic disadvantage if it comes to a fight with me, and also that they are still young adults learning about the world. It serves us well to remember that no one likes to be harangued, however logically or justifiably.
By admin, November 17, 2009 @ 1:25 pm
Thanks for weighing in. As always, your opinion is very balanced and welcome
Young adults is a different ball game and takes a different approach. My teenage Vietnamese students loved debate and relevant social issue discussions. I’ve haven’t worked with teenagers in Turkey yet, so I can’t make a comparison.
I was hoping a few more people would do so as I’m pretty interested in other teachers’ opinions on this.
By Mona, November 19, 2009 @ 9:53 am
Hello,
I teach English to students in Social Work and Sociology and for them tackling issues like domestic violence is essential. However, in Romania (as in the rest of the Balkans as you have noticed..) this is still a very soft spot since the incidence of family violence is high. I do talk to them about it, we watch clips and try to organize awareness campaigns. I know in theory they agree it’s a huge problem that can and should be eradicated, nonetheless I’m always nervous before this lesson and I still sometimes get that “mind-you-own-business” look from some students.. I don’t want them to feel judged and I certainly hate butting in.. Therefore, I still haven’t found the right recipe for approaching this topic in class.
Keep up the good work,
best,
Mona
By admin, November 19, 2009 @ 2:33 pm
Hi Mona
That mind-your-own-business look or feelings of defensiveness and resentment are exactly what I want to mitigate. That’s why I started this series to give some ideas on how to approach difficult topics. I feel the same as you, that I want to bring these into the classroom, but I’m uncomfortable doing so due to possible student reactions. Still, it’s worth it even if my students and I will be a bit uncomfortable for a class and there are ways to ease them into the topic.
If the students feel upset or threatened they won’t be receptive to discussing the problems and they won’t produce as much English.
This is really one of my questions though. Even if it does raise negative feelings in the class, is it ok to push them on the issue and focus on it? I’d say yes. As Darren mentioned, you can’t harangue the students or be accusatory, but if we don’t address the problem, it will never change and our responsibilities as teachers goes beyond that of just English I think. What about you?
By Andy Hockley, December 16, 2009 @ 10:44 am
Hi Nick. I agree with the main thrust of your post here, which is (if I’ve understood correctly) that we should challenge our students and introduce ideas or topics that may be difficult (as long as we do it in a non-hectoring, sensitive way). I don’t think it means we have to raise every subject – to give an example, I’m not sure I’d want to do a lesson questioning the existence of god to a class full of people who I knew to be very religious (or to whom identity was partly defined by religion), even though I happen to think that the world would be a better place if everyone was atheist.
However, one of your lead in paragraphs:
Well, I often find that there is a lot of political correctness floating around these days that states that no person or culture is better than any other, that there are simply differences. As English teachers, we should only teach English, avoid controversy, and go on our merry way.
seems to be a fairly large non-sequitur. What has the second sentence got to do with the first? And in the first sentence what does “better” mean? because in most definitions, I do tend to think that this is the case. And, well, you already know how I feel about this “political correctness” label
By admin, December 16, 2009 @ 11:42 am
Hey Andy, yes, you’ve understood the thrust of the post correctly. I think you’re right about not having to raise every subject. My point is more leaning towards important social issues like domestic violence.
However, we get into really dangerous waters here, which is why it’s something worth discussing. I mean, I would argue that domestic violence or environmental responsibility is something worth really covering in class. However, I have met my share of traveling Christian missionaries masquerading as English teachers. For them, they would see pushing the students and fighting for a worthy cause to be the fight to “save” the students. Where do we draw the line here? That’s where it gets really interesting and a bit murky.
Hmm, I’m not going to agree on the non-sequitur. In my opinion, it’s the PC idea that leads to the idea that we aren’t allowed to step on any toes. Here in Turkey most schools forbid discussing religion or politics at all, which takes away a huge chunk of interesting material. I once got reprimanded for using the term “heaven” in a class because I tried to elicit the word “utopia” and asked for “heaven on earth or a perfect society” with absolutely no other reference to religion. This is where things go too far. Of course, there are business concerns here about upsetting the clientele, but I think it’s the PC element as well. Like over on Darren’s post, I feel a lot of people might say that the topic of homosexuality shouldn’t even be broached in class because the students simply have a different opinion and that’s the way it is. I have a feeling gay men and women in Japan would disagree.
As for “better.” Yes, good question. This is a personal or cultural interpretation that will very from reader to reader. Let’s look at domestic violence. In America there were over 1,600 shelters in the US in 2005 and but only about 20 in Turkey in 2003 (most recent stats I could find in a quick look). I would say America is handling this situation better. Of course America is much bigger and the presence of shelters doesn’t necessarily say anything about prevaling attitudes, but it’s a start. The status of women in general has made huge strides in Turkey since Atatürk, but it still has a long way to go and I think this is an area where Turkey could learn from America. That’s not to say America can’t learn a lot from Turkey as well. It’s just an example showing what I mean. For example, Turkey could teach America about guest hospitality I think.
Does that help clear up my position? I’m glad you stopped by to give your take on this.
By Andy Hockley, December 16, 2009 @ 12:10 pm
Thanks Nick.
I suspect it’s the word “culture” where we differ rather than the word “better”. To use your example, it is clear that both the US and Turkey have a societal problem with domestic violence, and I suspect that the US is further along with dealing with (or, probably better stated, responding to) that problem. However, I don’t see either the original problem or the response to it as “cultural”
Still, we could go one for pages trying to tease out what cultural means, so we might just have to agree to differ
In my opinion, it’s the PC idea that leads to the idea that we aren’t allowed to step on any toes
Whereas in my opinion, what people refer to as PC, is much less prescriptive (and therefore is not about what is allowed and not allowed) and is more about suggesting that people should consider the impact of their actions/behaviour/words. Which to me is just being thoughtful
By admin, December 16, 2009 @ 12:20 pm
All these definitions are quite tricky. It’s clear we have very different ideas of what PC means and what culture could mean. I like your restatement of the sentence here. I think you’re correct. It could be more of a societal issue than a cultural one, but, then again, how far apart are society and culture? Not very I should think. Perhaps we should tell Scott to throw it up over on his A-Z blog to see what we get